Veterans
Democrats believe that our troops should be taken care of when we send them into battle and that they should be given the respect they have earned when we bring them home. But Republicans are turning their back on our veterans, refusing to fully fund pensions for disabled veterans who have retired from the military and slashing funds for the VA health care system. Democrats are fighting for America's veterans. The Democratic plan to provide veterans with a secure retirement includes:
Full funding of pensions for disabled veterans. Currently, veterans who retire with 20 years of honorable service and have a service-related disability are not permitted to collect both retirement and disability pay concurrently. Under pressure from Democrats and Veterans groups, Republicans offered a plan that would take ten years to phase in benefits for less than half the veterans seeking them, and which the American Legion called "unsatisfactory." The Democratic plan would authorize full payment of both retirement pay and disability compensation to half a million disabled military retirees and would take affect immediately.
Ensuring that veterans can immediately access the health care they were promised. Right now, more than 60,000 veterans are waiting six months or more for an appointment at VA hospitals. Democrats have proposed to increase funding for the VA by $1 billion and to require the VA to pay veterans $500 a month when their disability claims have been left pending for more than 6 months.
Blocking the Republican plan to increase prescription drug co-payments and impose new premiums for veterans. Democrats successfully fought to block a Republican proposal to increase premiums and prescription drug co-payments for veterans seeking to access health care. These new cost sharing requirements would have forced hundreds of thousands of veterans out of the health care system entirely.
Protect veterans' privacy. The current Administration has proven that it does not take the privacy of this country's veteran's serious enough. The loss of thousands of files containing sensitive personal information - including financial information, addresses, identities and more - was badly bungled and put veterans and their families at risk to identity theft or worse. Our veterans deserve respect, not this insensitive mishandling.
VETERANS NEWS
House Democrats Stand Up for Veterans: Lawmakers Respond to Stolen Personal Identification Scandal "America’s veterans have risked their lives and made sacrifices to protect this nation, we must protect their private and sensitive personal information.” More...
Veterans Should Not Have to Pay for Identity Theft Congressman John T. Salazar introduced the "Veterans Identity Protection Act of 2006" (H.R. 5455), legislation aimed at helping veterans whose personal data was stolen from the home of a VA employee. More...
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