This one gets a preface. This is a lie only if Kerry has been paying attention to what's going on in congress. If he isn't, then this isn't a lie,
but we would have to reevaluate the nomination of someone who doesn't even keep up with his job...
“And what the Republicans are doing is one of their craven, misleading, distorting ads, spending millions of dollars trying to suggest I'm not
strong on defense. I'm not going to let these Republicans, not for one instant, ever accuse me, who's voted for 16 out of 19 biggest defense bills
in our history, who has supported our troops, while they're cutting even the VA budget.” (NBC’s “Meet The Press,” 4/18/04)
Cutting, you say? For those of you who don't know, the VA budget is the budget which funds the Department Of Veterans Affairs. That was interesting.
Had to do a wee bit of research, and look what I found:
The President’s FY 2005 Budget Proposes To Increase Funding For The Department Of Veterans Affairs (VA) To $68 Billion From The 2001 Level Of $48
Billion. The past four straight VA budget increases have provided more than a 40% increase in VA health care alone since 2001. (www.omb.gov)
A little more research, aaaaand:
“Yet even so, funding for veterans is going up twice as fast under Bush as it did under Clinton. And the number of veterans getting health benefits is
going up 25% under Bush's budgets. That's hardly a cut.” (“Funding for Veterans up 27%, But Democrats Call It A Cut,” Factcheck.org, 2/18/04)
Hmmm...so which is it? Did he lie, or does he just not care about doing his job as a senator?
