Now for Senator Obama
Veterans Issues
2006 Senator Obama supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 80 percent in 2006.
2006 In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator Obama a grade of B+.
2005 Senator Obama supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 92 percent in 2005.
Veterans Issues
Date Bill Title Vote
10/01/2007 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 NV
02/02/2006 Tax Rate Extension Amendment Y
11/17/2005 Additional Funding For Veterans Amendment Y
10/05/2005 Health Care for Veterans Amendment Y
Now in the light of this information, I can see which candidate I prefer, the one with the long history of supporting veterans, Hillary Rodham Clinton, but if she is not the Democratic Nominee, I can still support Barack Obama before I could vote for John McCain.
The democratic candidates are far and above Senator McCain in voting for the wallet issues that affect veterans and their families. It appears Senator McCain loves veterans, just not disabled ones, they cost money. He appears to be on the wrong side of spending on these issues, WHY?
I have always heard that the Republicans are the party that supports the troops, why don't these votes reflect that? Why has it been the democratic Senators like Patty Murray of Washington trying to force the VA to take 2 billion dollars in extra fund in 2006 and Secretary Nicholson made his now infamous remark "The VA doesn't need any extra money" only to have to go hat in hand not once but twice in June 2006 to the Senate VA Committee and ask for a extra one billion dollars on each trip, the same amount of money Senator Murray tried to give the agency in April 2006.
While the "Wars on Terror" have been ongoing and the Bush Administration has tried to run the VA on the cheap, despite record budgets every year, most of it was due to inflation and it was eaten up by inflation, services did not improve, claims processing got even fartherbacked up, with waits for adjudication rising to over 400 days, far from the goal of 180 days.
The Republicans refused to consider DR Linda Bilmes, of Harvard Kennedy School of government proposal to handle VA claims similar to the way the IRS handles tax claims, process them and pay them, if any of the transactions wave bright flags, audit them. It would be cheaper and more efficient to audit the strange claims, than it is to pretend every claim is fraudulent and spend years to decide if the claim has merit, and in the meantime the veterans and their families, end up homeless, lose their cars, their dignity, their credit ratings and ending in divorce, long before the VA ends the process and awards the claim. How is destroying veterans families advantageous to America?
This is not information many of the candidates or their campaigns are going to lay out there, I imagine they don't want to be seen impugning a war hero, sorry when it comes to my wallet, I will tell it like it is. I am a veteran, 15 years infantry, I served from Vietnam to Desert Storm, my step father was in the 8th Army Air Corp in WW2, he bombed Germany in 1943 and 1944. My biological father served in the 7th Calvary in 1914-1916. My grand father served with the Calif 4th Volunteers in the Civil War in Arizona from 1861-1865. I have relatives on my grandfathers side of the family that go back to the Revolutionary War, there has always been a Bailey in the ranks as an enlisted man since this nation began, the military needs Non-Commissioned Officers as much as they needed Commissioned Officers, some say NCO's are the backbone of the military.
I want a President with a backbone that stands up for veterans, especially disabled veterans, we deserve the best America can offer, not the left overs, our benefits are not welfare, they are earned with our blood, body parts, minds, our families deserve that the "PROMISE" be kept.
John McCains' voting record shows he is not so much for the "PROMISE" it's his voting record, he created it, I am just putting it here where you can see it.
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