McCain Policy: Veterans

2008 Presidential Candidate Platform Discussion

America owes its liberty, its prosperity, and its future to our veterans who have dedicated their lives to protecting our great country. John McCain has fought to honor our national commitment to our veterans who have given their careers and livelihoods to ensuring our freedom. He believes we must provide for service members and their families while they serve, we must help those who return from combat to adjust to civilian life, and we must honor and never forget the service of those who do not return.

www.johnmccain.com...


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reply to post by AboveTopSecret.com


This is a far cry from and more appropriate than some "Dude" who stands there, as the national anthem is played, with his hands folded over his crotch. Kind of a telling tribute to what he may or may not believe in.

As a Veteran of this current engagement with Iraq, I belive that we need a person who has served first to lead this country.
Both Mccan and Obama are controlled like puppet's. That said, we have no more choice over them than we did over bush-gore, that knowledge leads me to the beleif of a Socilist Government reform

There is a serious problem with the way this country treats its people after they have proudly and bravely served our country. The wounded aren't treated with the care they deserve and the benefits veterans receive are not close to adequate.

According to the National Coalition for Homeless Vets, nearly 400,000 vets experience homelessness sometime during the year and 200,000 are completely homeless. This is INEXCUSABLE! One out of every 3 homeless persons you see have served their country!

McCain's voting record has shown very little interest in doing right by this country's veterans.

Military.com

But organizations that have followed the senator's voting record have noted that McCain's actions are rarely in line with the interests of veterans' organizations. In 2006, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a failing grade of "D" based on his voting record.

The same year, McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans just 20 percent of the time. The main reason for the low scores is a consistent pattern by Senator McCain of voting against appropriating money for veterans' health care and disability payments.

According to Disabled American Veterans, McCain voted almost a dozen separate times against spending additional money on veterans' health care in 2005 and 2006, even as hundreds of thousands of soldiers and Marines were returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and filing disability claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

VoteSmart.org shows McCain's voting record on recent issues. He voted AGAINST :

S Amdt 2634 to S 2020: To provide an additional $500,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2006 through 2010, to be used for readjustment counseling, related mental health services, and treatment and rehabilitative services for veterans with mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, or substance use disorder.

I'm sorry, McCain can claim all sorts of concerns and promises for veterans, but when we look at his voting record (the only real way to see how he feels), his campaigning words mean nothing. Yes, he served. But he seems to have forgotten something.

Let face the real facts. John McCain will never see the inside of Veterans Administration hospital unless it is a photo op. Do you think his voting record would be the same if he depended of the VA for health care.
Remember how his father Admiral McCain stood up for the men of the USS Liberty.

"He believes we must provide for service members and their families while they serve"

Thats great but what about the veterans who serve and then get out?

"we must help those who return from combat to adjust to civilian life"

This seems like an empty gesture, it probably is just pushing the PTSD treatment programs so current mentally unstable Soldiers will stay in

reply to post by AboveTopSecret.com


I have several friends serving in the Military and they were surprised to see John McCain mentioning them every chance he got, as if he was a buddy to them and the Presidential default choice for them. They don’t want this war anymore than I do, and they certainly don’t respect him for not bothering to vote for or against the GI Bill. However I think McCain has pretty much gone half in half with these issues. Sometimes he has done veterans proud and sometimes he hasn’t, which I don’t think is too far off from any politician’s track record with the US Military. I could be wrong though, my statement only stems from my narrow understanding of this issue.