Platform Eight: Veterans

Greetings.

For veterans, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton wishes to honor three fundamental commitments: every member of the armed forces shall receive a fair shot at the American dream when their service is finished, every veteran in America will have healthcare, and every veteran will receive the benefits they have earned and the assistance they need—right from the start. To allow members of the armed forces to receive their shot at the American dream, Clinton promotes enacting a GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century to offer service members, veterans and their families with expanded education, housing and entrepreneurial benefits. She wants this bill to fund undergraduate education for service members, as well as education for specialized trade or technical training, and certification and licensing programs. She also wants to expand the Veterans’ Affairs Home Loan Guaranty program to allow veterans to use low-interest, no-fee loans to purchase, build or improve a home. Clinton also promotes giving veterans access to the VA’s excellent and cost-effective healthcare system to all veterans who seek to enroll and wishes to provide coverage through the American Health Choices Plan to all veterans who choose not to use the VA system. Adding to this, Clinton is committed to getting a fair, accurate, and timely decision for veterans filing a disability claim. She wants to increase the number of qualified VA evaluators to reduce the backlog of claims and provide fast-track training for new claims specialists and expand the Benefits at Discharge Program to smooth the transition from service to discharge for all those who serve.

Much like Clinton, Democratic candidate Barack Obama is committed to creating a 21st century Department of Veterans’ Affairs. He wishes to strength VA care and make it a leader of national healthcare reform so that veterans can get the best care possible. He wants to fully fund the VA so it has all the resources it needs to serve the veterans who need it, when they need it. By creating a world-class VA Planning Division, Obama hopes to avoid future budget shortfalls. Obama also promotes the improvement of mental health care at every stage of military service, by recruiting more health professionals, improving screenings, offering more support to families and making PTSD benefits claims fairer. Along with healthcare, Obama supports establishing a national “zero tolerance” policy for veterans falling into homelessness by expanding proven programs and launching innovative services to prevent this.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain also supports providing for service member and their families while they service and helping them adjust to civilian life. Due to how the role of reservists has changed over the last decade, McCain supports legislation to expand retirement benefits for them such as provisions to expand eligibility for healthcare benefits for them and their families or grant survivor benefit payments to the spouses of reservists who die during or as the result of training. McCain also supports expanding VA’s funding so that it receives all that is necessary to serve veterans. He proposes giving higher pay to VA doctors in order to recruit and retain high quality physicians and dentists. McCain also wishes to ensure that veterans with service-connected disabilities can receive the retirement benefits that they have earned, as well as the disability compensation benefits they are entitled to. He wants to have veterans have their disability claims processed in a timely manner, working with the VA to rectify its huge backlog of claims and providing additional resources for that purpose. To allow veterans to receive both disability and retirement, McCain supports repealing the ban on receiving both of them at the same time. McCain also is a strong supporter of educational and job counseling programs to help veterans get civilian employment. He also strongly supports the Troops-To-Teachers Act, a program to train veterans to become teachers. He also supports extending unemployment and vocational training benefits for veterans.