Health-care remarks draw biggest applause

Michael Chow/The Arizona Republic

Eager veterans and members of the military press close to shake hands with President Barack Obama on Monday at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Phoenix. Obama promised to protect veterans' health benefits.

Health-care remarks draw biggest applause
by Dan Nowicki, Daniel González and Ken Alltucker - Aug. 18, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Even in front of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, President Barack Obama couldn't escape the overarching issue of the day: health-care reform.

Though Obama's speech Monday to the VFW's national convention in downtown Phoenix included updates on the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and a broadside against wasteful spending by the "defense establishment," the president drew the most positive reaction with promises not only to protect but also boost veterans' health-care benefits.

"Since there's been so much misinformation out there about health-insurance reform, let me say this: One thing that reform won't change is veterans' health care," Obama told the crowd of a few thousand mostly older veterans and family members.

"We will fulfill our responsibility to our wounded warriors," Obama said.

"But as the VFW well knows, for so many veterans, the war rages on: the flashbacks that won't go away, the loved ones who now seem like strangers, the heavy darkness of depression that has led to too many of our troops taking their own lives."
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Healthcare remarks draw biggest applause