VETERANS

While he does not hesitate to send our sons and daughters off to war, the Bush administration has been aggressively cutting veterans' benefits.  Clinton and even Reagan increased veterans' benefits, having the decency to recognize our obligation to the brave young women and men who so willingly go off to foreign lands and put their lives on the line for our country.

And when Pete Hoekstra had a chance to help make a positive difference on veteran medical care, he was AWOL. By his actions Pete has shown he's more concerned with conforming to the wishes of the Bush administration than he is with the rights and welfare of our veterans.

Currently here in Michigan veterans are not getting the proper services they need. They are required to make long trips and endure delays in receiving care. Veterans need and deserve full access. They should be able to use their VA benefits cards to get prescription drugs covered, and be able to pick up their prescriptions at Walgreens and other places like that. But the fact is that they're not always being covered.

Moreover, a lot of the difficulties that veterans are facing are bureaucratic in nature. The red tape they have to go through is far too complicated and burdensome.

And because we have so few facilities left, it's more difficult for seniors and others to get to them.

###

Operation Truth: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the perspective of the soldiers who have experienced them first-hand.