Vets Seek Specifics On How Candidates Would Help

It is one thing for a person running for election to say they care or claim they "know how to fix something" but it all comes down to what they actually did.

Vets Seek Specifics On How Candidates Would Help
NPR
by Quil Lawrence
Oct 16, 2012
Morning Edition

Military veterans across the country have a whole range of concerns this election season, from the high rate of suicide to special challenges for female vets. But like everyone else, they're especially concerned with health care and jobs.

Military veterans across the country have a whole range of concerns this election season, from the high rate of suicide to special challenges for female vets. But like everyone else, they're especially concerned with health care and jobs.

The nation's obligations to some 2 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan pose a challenge for the next commander in chief. Unemployment for post-Sept. 11 vets is about 2 percentage points worse than the national average, and veterans want solutions.

In Orange Park, Fla., south of Jacksonville, a town built around Navy and Air Force bases, the VFW hall is smoky and loud with conversation among veterans from many different wars.

"I was with the Air Force Reserves," says Elisa Rosemond, "and my question is how you're going to help the troops coming home, active and reserve, find a job that they can support their families with?"
read more here

I am originally from Massachusetts but moved to Florida when Romney was governor. What he did was end the hiring preference for veterans, cut state VA budget and outsourced public worker jobs to India. For military families, one thing is clear. Most veterans end up going into law enforcement, fire departments, emergency responders, medical and teaching. These jobs fall in the group of public employees Romney has shown disdain for.

If you read this blog you know I also have issues with President Obama but at least he has tried to fix what has gone wrong for our veterans. In the first two years, he did have a congress run by Democrats and things got done. As we've seen in the last year and a half when the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate Bills were blocked by Republicans because a super-majority is needed to prevent filibusters, President Obama should have taken to the airwaves more to let the American people know exactly what was going on and who was responsible for it. While he did include most of these shenanigans in his weekly address, few heard what he had to say.

MSNBC
Aired on September 20, 2012

Sen. Cardin on defeat of jobs bill: Our veterans deserve more
MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks to Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-MD., about the defeat of the Veteran’s Jobs Bill in the Senate.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The truth is what it is but politicians won't come out and tell the truth.

President Obama had the opportunity to address one other issue but has avoided mentioning it. The fact that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not part of President Bush's budget and were provided by supplemental requests and Afghanistan was hardly ever mentioned. President Obama put the costs into his budget so the costs wars were no longer hidden even if they were not actually paid for.

Iraq War Supplemental: Speech by President Bush (2007)



2:17
Bush talks about a date to withdraw the troops as if he had no intentions of the Iraqi people stepping up to take over their own security. It turned out that having a date to leave put the future of Iraq into Iraqi hands. This was not about the US taking over Iraq, so the argument did not hold up.

This claim is now being repeated concerning Afghanistan by Romney as if giving the Afghan people a date when they have to take over their own security is a bad thing when we are not taking over Afghanistan.