Departments

From the Chairman
‘Mr. Bush, you’re not taking care of my brothers’

Greetings from Region 8 and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all the veteran’s committees across Region 8 to the
new Region 8 Veterans Council.

In the coming months across our great nation, we must make a decision in this 2004 presidential
election. Many issues and grave concerns are on the front lines for all Americans.

With the alarming decline of manufacturing jobs, the ever-rising cost of health care and the threat of expanded unfair trade agreements, the stakes have never been higher for America’s working families.

This is also true for veterans who have served and defended the nation. Two-thirds of the American public now believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, and a similar percentage
expresses the same thoughts about President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq.

But as bad as Bush's numbers are at home, they are a far cry from the truly depressing approval ratings the president receives abroad. To the extent that the United States needs international cooperation to rebuild Iraq, confront terrorism, and meet global challenges, the worldwide lack of confidence in America's current leadership is deeply alarming. We have lost the respect of many nations that once revered America shortly after 9/11. Americans are ready and wanting a change and the free world is, too. What is most appalling in this campaign is Bush’s pandering to the veteran
community for their votes.

Bush is quick to wave the flag and praise our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers who defend freedom. He mourns our dead with great dignity. And he should, he sent them overseas while
behind closed doors in the White House he and his supporters continue to break our nation’s sacred bond with America’s veterans.

Bush has carved into veteran’s entitlements and benefits. His latest budget will cut more than $910 million from the Veterans Administration (VA), which is already buckling under financial strain.
Benefit programs, including disability compensation, vocational rehabilitation, education survivor's benefits, and pension, will be slashed before the next round of replacements arrives.

According to the VA, 28 million veterans are currently using these benefits and another 70 million Americans are potentially eligible for such programs, a quarter of the county's population. No doubt our nation’s security is on shaky ground, and as Bush’s war toll rises so will the number of
veterans and dependents who will turn to the VA for assistance.

The Veterans Administration reports that nearly a third of the Gulf War veterans have submitted claims to the VA for disability. This is about 209,000 veterans. The war on terror may bring as many or
more. The American Legion states these budget cuts will mean the loss of 19,000 nurses, equating to the loss of 6.6 million outpatient visits or more than three-quarters of a million hospital bed days.

This devastation of the VA program reaches into the pockets of our nation’s service-connected veterans, including combat-disabled veterans, robbing them and their survivors of a portion of their
compensation. Ninety percent of VA’s mandatory spending is from cash payments to service-connected, disabled veterans, low-income wartime veterans, and their survivors.

Veterans everywhere are joining together emerging as the nation’s next big social movement. The draft is imminent because not many will voluntarily serve if the Republicans get back into the White
House. VAbudget cuts are helping pick up the slack for Bush’s controversial tax cuts which have benefited only the wealthiest Americans, many of whom never served in the military.

It was an embarrassment when last year George Bush closed and reduced services at over a dozen major VA Hospitals and 500,000 veterans were asked to leave the rolls and another 200,000 more will leave because of rising costs.

Since you call yourself a “war-time president,” I ask Mr. President, “How can you ask for my son, when you’re not taking care of my brother?”

Mark Peterson
Chairman, Region 8 Veterans’Council