Democrats Say Bush Not Backing U.S. Guard, Reserve
Sat October 25, 2003 11:16 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats on Saturday criticized President Bush for opposing expanded health care insurance for U.S. National Guard and Reserve troops as they are pressed into extended service in Iraq.
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, giving the Democrats' weekly radio address, said the Bush administration wants $87 billion to rebuild Iraq and keep U.S. troops there but opposes a Senate-passed measure to guarantee health care coverage to all members of the Guard and Reserve.
"They say it's not related to the war effort. But they're wrong," Leahy said. "And it's time for the country to come together to support our reservists, their families and their employers."
The House of Representatives did not include the expanded insurance coverage for Guard and Reserve members in the version of the bill it passed earlier this month.
House and Senate negotiators will meet on Tuesday to reconcile differences before sending Bush a final measure.
Earlier this week the Pentagon said more Guard and Reserve troops would be notified within weeks to serve in Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declined to say whether 133,000 troops now there might be reduced next year.
Guardsmen and reservists make up 40 percent of U.S. forces in Iraq, Leahy said, and "many are serving far longer than they were told they would."
Leahy said "because the White House squandered the reservoir of the world's goodwill that we had immediately after September 11," 2001, Americans are having "to shoulder more than our share of the risks to our troops and the costs of the war and its aftermath."
He also complained that more than 600 members of the Guard and Reserve are now in "medical limbo" at Fort Stewart, Georgia, "living in substandard barracks, without adequate medical care."
Leahy said these reservists, who are not well enough to return to their units but not sick enough to be hospitalized, "should be sent to other facilities closer to their families to receive medical attention" and await their reviews. |
