Does John McCain Support the Veterans? Or does Obama have a Better Record?

"``As president, I will do all that is in my power to ensure that those who serve today, and those who have served in the past, have access to the highest quality health, mental health and rehabilitative care in the world,'' McCain said in a speech at a meeting of the Disabled American Veterans.

He called for full funding of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as improved oversight of its operations.

``I will not accept a situation in which veterans are denied access to care on account of travel distances, backlogs of appointments, and years of pending disability evaluation and claims,'' the Arizona senator said in the speech in Las Vegas, Nevada.

McCain, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former fighter pilot, was held for five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He has been appealing to veterans in his bid for president.

``Veterans must be treated fairly and expeditiously as they seek compensation for disability or illness,'' McCain, 71, said.

To address the shortage of veterans' facilities, McCain has proposed a card that would allow veterans to obtain health care from private providers. ``This card is not intended to either replace the VA or privatize veterans' health care, as some have wrongly charged,'' McCain said in his speech."

So is John McCain, who has a long Senate record, actually a supporter of Veterans when he himself can understand the sacrifices they have made?

Maybe not.

As noted by Brian Beutler on "The Nation":

"Times have changed since McCain needed veterans services so urgently. And for many of those thirty-five years, McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, the candidate who talks the best talk on veterans issues, has demonstrated a tendency to work against veterans' interests, voting time after time against funding and in favor of privatizing services--in other words, of rolling back the VA's improvements by supporting some of the same policies that wrecked Walter Reed.

During a March 2005 Senate budget debate, McCain voted to kill an amendment that would have "increase[d] veterans medical care by $2.8 billion in 2006." That amendment lacked an assured funding stream, but lest one mistake this incident for a maverick's stance against budget-busting, there's more. Just a year later McCain voted against an amendment that would have "increase[d] Veterans medical services funding by $1.5 billion in FY 2007 to be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes." Two days after it failed, he voted to kill "an assured stream of funding for veterans' health care that [would] take into account the annual changes in the veterans' population and inflation to be paid for by restoring the pre-2001 top rate for income over $1 million, closing corporate tax loopholes and delaying tax cuts for the wealthy." That amendment died quietly, forty-six to fifty-four.

In September 2006 McCain voted to table an amendment to a Defense appropriations bill that would have prevented the department from contracting out support services at Walter Reed. The amendment was indeed tabled--by a vote of fifty to forty-eight, the sort of margin a true veterans' senator might have been able to flip if he really cared about veterans' healthcare.

"John McCain voted against veterans in 2004, '05, '06 and '07," says Jeffrey David Cox, who spent twenty-two years as a VA nurse before moving to the American Federation of Government Employees, where he serves as secretary-treasurer (AFGE represents employees of several federal agencies, including the VA). Cox is right. Under Bush, McCain has voted for measures that target so-called Priority-7 and Priority-8 veterans (those whose injuries are not service-related and whose incomes are above a low minimum threshold) for annual fees, higher co-pays and even suspended enrollment. Priority-7 veterans without dependents earn more than $24,644 annually. Priority-8 veterans without dependents earn an annual minimum of $27,790."

More recently, Senator McCain has opposed the new "G.I. Bill of Rights".  As reported:

"The new GI Bill being debated in Congress would expand education benefits for veterans who served at least three years in the military after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The bill's main sponsor, Sen. Jim Webb, is a Virginia Democrat and, like McCain, a Vietnam War veteran. The Senate passed Webb's bill 75-22 last week. McCain was not in Washington for the vote.

Democrats have targeted McCain for his opposition to the Webb legislation. Watch McCain talk about the U.S. debt to veterans

Saying he takes "a back seat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans," McCain said Webb's bill would be a disincentive for service members to become noncommissioned officers, which he called "the backbone of all the services."

Giving benefits to G.I.'s would be a disincentive?  We need to make sure that they have less benefits so that the choice of re-enlisting isn't so undesirable?  Is that really supporting the G.I.'s?

What about this rating from the "Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America" who rate our Congress on their voting record.  John McCain gets a "D" while Barack Obama gets a B+.

Who do YOU think will really support our Veterans and give them the support they need when they return from 'harms way'?