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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (3518)	2/8/2004 6:09:50 PM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 90947

Keep the Promise, Keeping the Bond with America’s Service Members Join Veterans for Kerry to show your support and receive the latest updates. A Country’s Commitment to Provide for Those Who Protect Us In 2000, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney promised the men and women of our military, their families, and this country’s veterans that “help is on the way.” Three years later it is clear: The Bush Administration has walked away from military families, reservists and veterans – supporting pay cuts, cutting back on health care. When John Kerry returned home from Vietnam, he joined his fellow veterans in vowing never to abandon future veterans of America’s wars. Kerry’s commitment to veterans has never wavered and stands strong to this day. John Kerry is guided by a basic rule: “Mission First, Troops Always.” Where President Bush and his administration focus on the hardware of war, John Kerry focuses on the courageous men and women who fight and win our wars. It’s natural: he’s been one of them. IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE FOR MILITARY FAMILIES IMPROVING HEALTH CARE AND SUPPORT Bush Won’t Provide Military Reservists with Health Care. President Bush is not committed to ensuring that our service men and woman are prepared for battle and cared for when they return. He even threatened to veto the $87 billion of funding for Iraq because it included an expansion of the military health care (TRICARE) program for military reservists. John Kerry Will Ensure Military Reservists Have Health Care. Kerry supports legislation to provide access to TRICARE for military reservists. This will improve the readiness of reservists called to active duty and provide for the care of their loved ones without the current disruptions that often occur when a reservist is called to active duty. For families that do not live near a TRICARE provider, have children or special medical needs, it may be impractical to use TRICARE provider. In these cases, Kerry supports allowing reservist families to keep their civilian insurance through paid for COBRA payments. Support the Families of Service Members. John Kerry believes we should be doing more to support the families of service members. He will bolster the Family Assistance Centers and Programs on every military base so that they can provide information and services to families of deployed, wounded, and killed service members. HELPING FAMILIES KEEP HOUSING AND PAY THE BILLS Mortgage Insurance For Members Of The National Guard And Reserve. John Kerry will also ensure that reservists called to active duty won’t lose their homes. He will provide mortgage insurance to members of the National Guard and reserve called to active duty so that if service members have to take a cut in pay they don’t have to worry about losing their homes while in service to the nation. Support for Small Businesses and Reservists. More than one-third of military reservists and National Guard members suffer a pay cut when they’re called to defend our nation. Many of these reservists are professionals with families who depend upon that paycheck. Unlike many big businesses that can afford to provide supplemental income, most small businesses cannot afford to provide this benefit. John Kerry will provide help to small businesses through a tax credit to make difference in salary for a reservist called up to active duty. SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS DURING ACTIVE DUTY NO PAY CUTS FOR TROOPS The Bush Administration Wanted to Cut Pay of Troops in Iraq. Last summer, the Bush Administration sought to roll-back increases in imminent danger pay and family separation allowances. The Administration wanted to cut imminent danger pay from $225 to $150 a month and the family separation allowance, which goes to help military families pay rent, child care or other expenses while soldiers are away, from $250 from $100 a month. John Kerry Won’t Cut the Pay of Troops in Harm’s Way. John Kerry opposed the Bush cuts. He will not abandon our troops or cut their pay, particularly at a time when so many members of our military are facing danger. GIVING TROOPS THE PROTECTION THEY NEED The Bush Administration Cares More About Military Technology Than Equipment for the Troops. With its focus on the technology of war, the Bush Administration has failed to provide the equipment our troops need. There have been reports of crews scavenging for AK-47s because there are not enough M-4s to go around and Troops deployed to Iraq with Vietnam era body armor. John Kerry Will Never Break His Commitment to The Troops. John Kerry will fight for the equipment that the troops need. John Kerry believes there is no excuse not to provide our troops with the body armor, up-armored HUMVEEs, and weapons they require. DON’T OVERSTRETCH THE MILTARY Bush Has Overstretched the U.S. Military. The American military was designed to fight with coalition partners. Lacking those partners due to a failed policy of unilateralism, our Army is stressed to the breaking-point. It is the sad legacy of this policy that has cost too many American lives and diminished our country’s security. The Bush administration has compensated by using the National Guard and Reserve and more than 154,000 are on active duty. Reservists are overburdened and many may leave the military in large numbers because they can no longer make military service compatible with their lives. Given the current and expected demands on the military, there is a very real need for an increase in the size of the U.S. Army. John Kerry Will Reduce the Strain on the Military. John Kerry has called for a temporary increase of about 40,000 active-duty Army troops. This increase would be temporary but likely last the remainder of the decade. About 20,000 of the troops would be in such specialties as military police and civil affairs which are currently predominantly found in the reserves. The other 20,000 would be combat troops. Kerry’s proposal will be budget neutral because he will streamline some large weapons programs, putting more emphasis on electronics and advanced sensors and munitions and by reducing the total amount of money spent on missile defense. KEEPING THE PROMISE TO THOSE WHO SERVED PROTECT FAMILIES WHO LOSE A LOVED ONE Bush Opposed Increasing the Death Benefit. Last summer, the Bush administration opposed increasing the death gratuity paid to the families of those who die in battle from $6,000 to $12,000. John Kerry Will Protect Family Members Who Lose a Loved One. John Kerry opposed the Bush cuts to veterans programs and fought back with others against them. He supports: Increasing the death benefit and making the payment tax-free. Restructuring the compensation provided to surviving families by mandating $250,000 non-taxable life insurance plans for all service members and eliminating obligation to pay individual premiums for all soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines serving in harms’ way. Fighting to provide surviving spouses of service members killed-in-action with one year of military pay equal to what would have been earned. Permitting surviving spouses and children of service members killed-in-action to remain in military housing for one year after the death of their spouse. A FAIR RETIREMENT Bush Favors the Disabled Military Retiree Tax. Federal law requires military retirees to surrender a portion of their military retirement pay, dollar for dollar, for VA disability compensation. President Bush threatened to veto legislation if it included language granting full concurrent receipt. When members of Bush’s own party balked, Republicans in Congress and the White House proposed gutting the VA disability system to pay for it. The idea was so bad that the president’s own VA Secretary Anthony Principi opposed it. John Kerry Will Fight to End This Policy. No other category of Federal employee faces the same penalty on disability and retirement pay. Kerry supports full concurrent receipt, to allow military retirees who have a service-connected disability to receive both military retired pay and disability compensation. ASSURING QUALITY HEALTH CARE Bush Administration Chronically Under-Funds VA Health Care. President Bush has actually threatened to veto legislation because it included funding for veterans’ healthcare. There are nearly 90,000 veterans waiting for healthcare appointments. Instead of adding sufficient resources to a system desperately in need of them President Bush has frozen whole classes out of the VA system. By the Bush Administration’s own estimate, their policies will exclude approximately 500,000 veterans from the VA healthcare system by 2005. President Bush proposed also increasing fees and co-payments in an effort to shift the burden for care onto the backs of veterans and drive an additional million veterans from the system. John Kerry Will Provide for Mandatory Funding of Veterans Health Care. John Kerry will end the game of playing politics with funding for veterans health care. He will insist on mandatory funding for veterans health care.