John McCain does not support our troops
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Elisabeth Platt
Published: August 10, 2008
When John Mc Cain says he supports our troops and they support him, it is a lie. The Iraq-Afghanistan Veterans of America give him a grade of D; it gives Barack Obama a B+. The Disabled American
Vets give Mc Cain a 20 percent; it gives Obama 80 percent.
McCain’s support of our troops is evident only when he makes his political speeches.
I checked his voting record in the Congressional Quarterly and was shocked to find that someone who was once a soldier voted only four times in war-related matters. He did not bother vote on them at
all this year.
His voting record is as follows:
April 2003 — he voted against $1 billion for the National Guard and reserve equipment.
October 2003 — he voted against a bill for safety equipment in Iraq. That would up-armor vehicles and state-of-the-art body armor.
March 2006 — he voted against a bill that would have closed corporate tax loopholes which would have provided $1.5 billion for veterans medical benefits
April 2006 — he voted against $430 million for veterans outpatient medical care.
May 2006 — he did not vote for a bill that would have redeployed troops from Iraq, giving them additional tours of duty..
Sept 2007 — McCain voted against Sen. Webb’s bipartisan amendment that would have provided additional rest periods for the troops between deployments.
May 2008 — he spoke out against Sen. Webb’s GI Bill that would increase education benefits for returning troops. McCain did not vote. This bill passed by a 72-22 bipartisan vote. Mr. Mc Cain, exactly
how are you supporting our wonderful troops?
ELISABETH PLATT
Culpeper
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( raywilliams ) on August 14, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Okay Godsaveus, John McCain is a hero that support torture of those that may wish to do harm to America. In doing so, he supports torture of any American captured if, by decree, those having captured the American deem said American is trying to do them harm.
Bush and Cheney on the other hand are simply cowards. One failing to serve and the other refusing to serve. Great role models for our youth.
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Posted by ( willow703 ) on August 12, 2008 at 11:15 am
So, once you become a “campaign official” you lose the right to be treated as any other retired military person?
Oh, I didn’t get a “free ride”. I started at $78 a month and didn’t make in my first year what a private now makes in his first month. My base never exceeded $1200 a month. The GI Bill backed my mortgage, I made the payments. I also paid most of the tuition of my unfortunately brief, college experience.
The Democrats to give everyone everything and pay for it with higher taxes on the rich. Your wallet is where the rich will go to get the money to pay the higher taxes. Don’t complain, just turn around and say, “Thank you.“
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Posted by ( Godsaveus ) on August 12, 2008 at 8:31 am
John McCain does not support our troops?.
McCain Is a hero and a soldier and has a soldier he support our troops. Something that I can’t say about Obama. He never care about our soldiers and he vote against to provide food, uniform, equipment to our soldiers in Iraq, with the excuse that we are fighting in an illegal war and the soldiers need to come back to home. Therefore, he was planning to end the war not providing the needs to our soldiers and let them be killed for our enemies. Obama also got the support of members of the congress that diminish our troops with comments like; “who don’t study and do their homework were likely to “get stuck in Iraq.“, “And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children”( Kerry). John Murtha, an influential Pennsylvania lawmaker and outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, said Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood”.
This is how Obama and other Democrats support and boost the morale of our troops in combat
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Posted by ( RonCharest ) on August 12, 2008 at 8:21 am
To put the “free ride” in proper perspective; Contrast the pay and benefits between Blackwater-hired “Contractors” and our military troops, both doing the same work in Iraq.
Willow703, I admitt I’m surprised at your attitude calling pay and benefits for veterans a “free ride.“ Our WWII veterans received much better benefits as a result of their service then our present day veterans. The percentage of veterans to non-veterans was also lower after WWII - meaning much more of our budget was going to those veterans.
I’ll repeat what I wrote in a previous post on a different thread. If Republicans can find the money to lie this country into a war of choice that creates tens of thousands of new combat veterans; they can G-D well find the money to reward those veterans afterwards.
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Posted by ( Sammy B ) on August 11, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Willow, I do not have the name and position of the Pentagon official who decided that Gration’s status as a campaign official overrode his retired officer status, but here is the source of my information http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/snubbing_wounded_troops.html. And what are you thinking calling the GI bill a “free ride?“ You do realize that the purpose of that bill is to help service members who volunteered to risk their lives for us pay for college. If anything is going to put our nation in the poorhouse, it is the hundreds of billions going toward putting our troops in harm’s way in Iraq, not the tiny fraction of that figure budgeted to help them earn degrees afterward.
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Posted by ( willow703 ) on August 11, 2008 at 3:44 pm
A retired Major General was denied permission to enter a US military base? I’m a retired Staff Sergeant, I walked and rode onto Air Force & Navy bases in Japan in April. I showed my retired ID Card, I was not asked a single question. Who denied this MG entry & why? Name & position, please!
As for the GI benefits bills Sen. McCain voted against, perhaps he thought they were giving away the store; Democrats have a tendency to do that. I’m generous; my wife sometimes complains that I’m too generous, but I’m not willing to put myself or my country in the poorhouse out of generosity. Few of us deserve a free ride.
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Posted by ( Sammy B ) on August 11, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Willow, would you provide an example of why one would reasonably not vote for the expansion of GI Bill education benefits. It seems like a win-win to me and to many senators in the GOP as well apparently. Also, Sen. Obama has visited wounded troops in Baghdad and at Walter Reed. He had planned for weeks to visit Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany but canceled at the last minute. Obama’s explanation for this was that Retired USAF Maj. Gen. Jonathan Gration, a foreign policy adviser to his campaign, had been denied access to Landstuhl and thus the senator was concerned that the visit would be perceived as a political stunt rather than a good-faith effort. Finally, given Sen. McCain’s former entanglement with Catholic-basher John Hagee, I would say that the two candidates cancel each other out on the controversial clergy issue.
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Posted by ( ejben ) on August 11, 2008 at 11:37 am
Platt needs to make sure she reads all of the legislation!! There must have been alot of Riders and UNEEDED things in these legislation.
It just goes to show the Liberals will vote for anything no matter what.
Lets put out the full TRUTH>
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Posted by ( jVA ) on August 11, 2008 at 11:08 am
“Sen. Obama not only chose not to serve his country, but chose to associate for 20 years with a noisome, odious chunk of excrement named Jeremiah Wright; “
Are you still hanging on to this Rev. Wright stuff? Give it a rest already. So freaking lame.
And yes, John McCain has an admirable combat record. So? How does that experience better enable him to fix our economy? Is he planning to bomb high gas prices back under $2? Please enlighten us all.
We’re electing the President of the United States. Not the Commandant of the Marine Corps.
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Posted by ( RonCharest ) on August 11, 2008 at 11:01 am
Godsaveus,
The reason Republicans have the worse score, and the Democrats the best scores, is because that is how they vote.
During my 2 year navy career, I saw that under Republican administrations military pay and benefits withered. The GI Bill was slashed under Reagan, pay rose slowly deteriorated under both Reagan and Bush I. It was Carter who pushed through massive pay and benefits raises (which Reagan took credit for as they actually occurred during his first year). It was Clinton who helped restore GI Bill benefits and once again got pay raises boosed back up to decent levels.
Under Bush II and a Republican-controlled Congress, VA funding was reduced each year while the number of new combat veterans increased.
Republicans are great at finding money to start wars, and pay Big Business Contractors for pie-in-the-sky weapons systems and overpriced support services. They’re not so good at paying for actually supporting the troops.
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