As Franken vouches for veterans:
Franken made a campaign swing through Owatonna, attracting more than 100 people at Central Park, most of them supporters. The visit came a day after Coleman spoke to about 50 people at Custom Coffee.
During the campaign stop, Franken said he would promote legislation providing every veteran free health care for life. With some troops serving multiple tours of duty, Franken said they deserve every benefit.
Also, I dropped in at Polly’s Coffee Cove in Saint Paul this morning where Franken stopped by and the place was packed. I’ll have some photos up later.
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“During the campaign stop, Franken said he would promote legislation providing every veteran free health care for life.”
Paid for how? I’m not shooting holes, just looking for both sides of the equation. Too often our politicians make the promise without explain the “how”. It is only responsible to articulate how we will provide this benefit.
Interested in hearing more. I agree that we need to continue to find ways to recognize our service men and women.
Veterans should have free health care for life. It’s probably not a whole lot of fiscal difference from what they’re supposed to be provided now, but just closing loopholes which screw our veterans.
Doesn’t matter how it gets paid for….taxes I presume. We should do what’s right for those who served.
I think the context of Aaron’s post should be explained. The Drudge Report has picked up on a St. Cloud Times story that Al Franken had a campaign event in St. Cloud that only one person attended. This story is a public embarrassment for Team Franken and the staff at the Minnesota DFL.
Aaron, Team Franken’s embedded blogger at MN Publius, is trying to make up for public embarrassment of having only one person attend a campaign event for Franken. I’m sure Senator Schumer and the staff at the DSCC is upset and embarrassed at the political operation at Team Franken.
“Doesn’t matter how it gets paid for”
That attitude is why the USA may be insolvent by 2040.
I don’t disagree that I’d like to provide this benefit to Veterans. But it is irresponsible of a candidate to not think through and articulate how to pay for it. This is our government, run by our elected officials and funded by our tax dollars. Let’s be transparent about how proposed programs will be funded.
Micheal B. Brodkorb,
There are some who may think your posts are so obviously spun and are so partisan that they find it difficult to believe a grown man could actually have written your comments.
Ther are just moonbats who disagree with you, hate America and want to lose in Iraq, so I wouldn’t worry about them very much.
Certainly, your well spun and carefully worded comment is an honest truthful discussion about issues that matter, because you, Minnesota Republican Michael B Brodkorb say it is. Your track record of solid journalism speaks for itself.
Great Job Minnesota Republican Leader Michael B. Brodkorb
Dan-
It’s clear that republicans don’t give a flying fuck about our veterans. Their health care SHOULD be guaranteed.
As far as MY attitude explaining potential insolvency…
EVERY democratic administration has improved the budget situation AND the national debt situation in my lifetime, and EVERY republican administration has made it worse. I’m no spring chicken, either.
On Friday, DFL-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken demonstrated how true that saying can be, when a roundtable on veterans issues at Brigitte’s Cafe his campaign scheduled drew only one participant.
Josh John, a St. Cloud resident who said he served in the Navy from 2000-04, had Franken to himself for an hour as he described difficulties he faced returning from his tour of duty and the help he received from his Veterans Services Office and the St. Cloud VA Medical Center.
So Franken spent an hour with a Vet that needed a little help. How’d he do at the VA?
“When I first asked for help at the VA, I got kind of a bad attitude from one person, so I ended up leaving and not registering,” he said.
“A year later, the stress was getting to me. I started secluding myself from my family, not wanting to do anything,” he said.
“My mom and my aunt eventually got me to talk with my county VSO. He got me registered with the VA and since then, I haven’t had a problem. I’ve gotten a lot of help, and every question I’ve gotten answered,” John said.
Franken, battling to unseat U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., in this fall’s election, discussed his proposal to expand veterans benefits, what he called a lack of leadership from Coleman, and recent gains on veterans issues he said had only been made because of a Democratic-controlled Congress.
“Everyone’s running around saying Congress never gets anything done,” he said. “But despite 90 filibuster threats by Senate Republicans, it took Democrats to get the new GI Bill passed and to finally fully fund VA health care.”
Go Franken.
lojasmo,
Your mother should have washed your mouth out with soap. If you’re not a spring chicken, you should know that it wasn’t Republicans who spat upon our troops when they came home from Vietnam. It wasn’t Republicans who called our commander in Iraq General Betray-us. It wasn’t Republicans who said we lost in Iraq before the surge had time to work. It’s not Republicans who are saying that the surge failed today when it’s succeeded. Don’t lecture the rest of us on who cares about the troops.
Chris -
And it’s not Republicans who are leading the charge to make sure our returning veterans are made whole when they return from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries and missing limbs. If you care about the troops, put your money where your mouth is. War is costly. It’s Republicans who have been trying to make war on the cheap, and who are refusing to cough up the funds to adequately compensate our returning service members.
blueJ,
That’s not true. Our injured veterans receive some of the best health care in the world. If you want to improve health care for veterans, the answer is to provide them with all of the services they need without red tape and government bureaucracy.
Chris, I agree 100%,
Any and all reports of our veterans not getting the proper health care are just being spread by websites and people who disagree with us, so they are all lies.
When we Republicans shoot the messenger of news we might find will not help us win elections, their message dies. WInning elections is all that matters. This is a permanent election campaign, and anyone who gets in our way are liars.
I think it’s great that you have the vapors again today. Lordy Lordy!!….Do you feel faint?
Great Job Smartest Man In The Room Chris
I asked an honest question, one that is fully our business to know: How does Franken plan to fund the expanded Veterans benefits?
Here is the deal: The Priority Groupings within the VA are a sliding scale of both the service connected illness / injury sustained and the Veterans income.
You got hurt in the military, you’ve got free healthcare for life. You are a lower income Veteran, you’ve got free healthcare for life.
Those who have high incomes AND no service related health issues may have to pay (or more likley have their employers’ insurance pay) for VA care. That actually seems reasonable to me.
So, should we expand the free VA healthcare to the wealthier, non-military-health-issue Veterans, and if so, how should we pay for it?
Hey Richard -
Nice story of the Veteran up in St. Cloud. I hope he gets the help he needs.
The problem is that he is entitled to free Veterans Health Care. Already. Today. The efficiency issues within the VA are a separate topic from the one on this thread, and one that Republicans in Congress have been actively leading, regarding the PTSD issues and the re-integration issues.
We all agree that the VA needs to provide great service to our Vets. But that story is irrelevant on this topic of Franken promising free health care for life.
YFWRG
There are some who may think your posts are so obviously spun and are so partisan that they find it difficult to believe a grown man could actually have written your comments.
Those same thoughts cross my mind every time I read anything by MBB or anything on post on MDE. I say to myself, is this really an adult?
I brought it up because little mikey wanted to distract and smear Franken, which is all little mikey is capable of. Your question is a valid one and I would suggest that there is plenty of resources there. Were the United States stop spending money on launching illegal wars, were we to stop spending nearly 50% of our national treasure on guns and bombs. Were we to allocate that national treasure toward infrastructure then we could not only balance our budget but provide universal health coverage to, not only, the vets, who need it so badly, but to all of us. Indeed, the coming years desperately needs a voice for the planet wide de-militerization of the economy. When, as a species, we stop trying to annihilate each other, we can start seriously addressing problems of global poverty, hunger, and overpopulation.
Richard,
Illegal wars, I love that comment. We don’t spend 50% of our national treasure on defense, although frankly I wish we did. You constantly trash your country as if we do nothing to help the rest of the world. We provide the largest funding in the world to combat global poverty. We provide the largest funding in the world to combat HIV/AIDS and a whole host of other diseases. We provide the largest funding in the world to combat hunger. Your “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony” utopia has one flaw. You blame the U.S. for militarizing the world when it’s brutal dictatorships, tyrants and kooks who are militarizing the world, starving their people and slaughtering millions. I’d love to see you tell Kim Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, Robert Mugabe, Osama bin Laden and dozens of others to give up their guns, feed their people and stop terrorizing the world. You’d not only be laughed at, you’d probably be killed. Of course, you probably think we’re more dangerous than all those people combined.
The United States maintained its role as the leading supplier of weapons to the developing world in 2006, followed by Russia and Britain, according to a Congressional study.
Much of those sales going to brutal dictatorships.
Many countries, including the US, have relaxed controls on sales of arms to allies known to have appalling human rights records.
I’ll just put you down in the pro war and death column and leave it at that.
Richard - I want to engage in this discussion, but just need to be clear. Are you advocating not being in Iraq, or advocating America not having any national defense program? Because your statistics, while inflated, are closer to actually shutting down our military, national gaurd, and state department altogether than they are to the temporary fraction of our budget going to Iraq.
Just want to be sure before I respond.
Chris, I agree 100%,
Your argument by selective observation always works so very well, and obviously none of these moonbats (people who disagree with us) will see that. Instead, because you are the smartest man in the room, the moonbats will know that they have been taken down.
I’m sure none of the moonbats will wonder how a grown adult can think that acting like a fool will win hearts and minds. In addition, none of them will simply label you as a oversensitive, unhinged Minnesota Republican blogger with a case of the vapors worse than a southern belle, you have done too good a job fooling them.
You have consistently misrepresented the positions of the Liberals, and told Liberals what their opinions are to an over the top extreme. I think it’s just great! Keep twisting their words around, and showing them how smart you are because that is your only skill.
Everyone knows that is the only way we Minnesota Republicans can win. If we don’t exaggerate to such an extreme, then we will lose.
Great Job Smartest Man In The Room Chris
First of all, I never said a word about defense. I also never said anything about entirely stop spending for the military, national guard, and state department. I am advocating the de-militerization of the world’s economy. I know there’s a not-so-subtle difference there and GOP’ers aren’t particularly good at “subtle” but I’ll try.
were we to stop spending nearly 50% of our national treasure on guns and bombs
Guns and bombs isn’t defense. Forget that. There are arms involved with defense but the bulk of defense spending is on people and facilities. Much of that can be reduced but that’s another post. Money to the DOD is somewhere around 37% of the yearly budget last time I checked. The wars we’re fighting can be added to that as well as all the effort we spend selling arms to the developing world. In short, we are spending around 50% of our yearly budget on guns and bombs and developing more efficient ways of killing people. If we change those priorities and spend a reasonable percentage of our budget on defense, enough to meet our needs, then the budget can get balanced. The world situation is another matter and through the use of diplomacy, a carrot and stick approach if you will, and work with the developing nations, we could start reducing spending on the military by them. Thugs and despots won’t like it but if their neighbors start prospering as a result of a de-militerized economy, they will have to follow suit or get left behind.
@ Chris
“That’s not true. Our injured veterans receive some of the best health care in the world.”
No. Google “walter reed.” Seriously…how can you have internet access and not be aware of these things?
Also, please provide a citation for an episode of a democrat spitting on a Vietnam Vet. Also, please tell me how McCain voted on the Webb amendment.
Are you KIDDING?: “OUR INJURED VETERANS RECEIVE THE BEST HEALTH CARE?”
What fantasy land does the person who said this - live in?
A child said this perhaps? Surely no vet that has to negotiate the VA system.
There are dedicated people in the VA, but the system has been ailing.
That person cannot have ever been up close & personal with the VA in recent years.
Cannot have a hint of intelligence to have missed the scandals out there in order to deny services -
and the fact that this BUSH administration had been trying to kill off the VA system since before Wellstone died.
Chris, please educate yourself before ranting.
Chris - you had the NERVE to shoot off your mouth in the “Dr Bob” thread - while you spout off here?
Do you live in a bubble to have this disconnect?
Rip the Dr Bob thread about doing things for the troops = providing the helmet liners the military was slow to do, when at all.
And then tell us about the health care, etc for the troops?
Walter Reed is a DoD hospital.
Subtle distinction, I know, but the VA healthcare system has been featured in many publications - US News Best Hospitals issues among them, as providing some of the best care for any population in our nation.
What would it take for you to believe the VA is doing a good job? New, shiny buildings?
Dan and Chris-
Have either of you actually TALKED to veterans about the quality of the care they receive?
Al Franken has. How about Norm?
DtM Please cite these publications you tout.
lojasmo -
You immediately assume we’re not Veterans.
Yes, I have spoken to Veterans in the past year about the care they receive, I have spoken with VA employees as well. I actually have been inside more than one VA hospital in the past couple years. I’m not just making up facts.
Can’t speak for Chris.
I assume that if you were a veteran, you would have written as if you were speaking from experience.
The question was mostly rhetorical, though. I am loathe to take the word of anybody on the internets. Especially those who spend their time conserva-trolling progressive web sites.
You haven’t presented any facts….only opinions on this issue.
The point of Franken’s statement is that veterans should RECEIVE the benefits they are promised by the US government. The quality of the care is not currently the issue.
lojasmo,
The problem with Walter Reed has not been the outstanding medical treatment our veterans receive while there. The problem is that the VA is way too bureaucratic and many seriously wounded veterans do now know where to turn to actually receive the health care they deserve. In other words, it’s not that the care isn’t available it’s that the process is too burdensome for veterans’ to receive what they are entitled to. I have a good friend, for example, who is a 100% disabled veteran. He has cancer and needed new dentures because his jaw has changed and his teeth didn’t fit. It took the VA three months worth of paperwork, evaluations, screenings, etc. for him to get his new teeth ordered and it took another two months of red tape before the teeth were ready to be fitted, etc.
As for your accusation about conservatrolling, I find it hilarious. You people talk about how open minded, thinking, rational people you are and cannot tolerate hearing opposing views. Also, I could be wrong, but aren’t you one of the dozen or so regual liberal posters here who go over and make comments at MDE?
Chris, I agree 100%,
We Republicans need to keep stalking Liberal websites, because we Minnesota Republicans are all on our way to an easy win this fall.
Great Job Smartest Man In The Room Chris
They do receive the benefits they were promised. Streamlining the system is the issue.
DantheMan, I agree 100%,
“They do receive the benefits they were promised.”
If you proved that,it would take down moonbats.
Do all of the Iraq veterans deserve them, or only the ones we Republicans decide deserve the benefits?
If we Republicans decide that, please take down moonbats by telling us what rules decide the benefits.
I know this is difficult, however, you did say “They do receive the benefits they were promised.”
Explain please.
Great Job!!
1) There are long delays in getting health care for veterans, but its not because of lack of streamlining. Its because of lack of money. The Republicans and the Bush administration have simply not authorized enough money to treat the veterans from the wars in Iraq in Afghanistan.
2) While I pretty much disagree with everything Chris says, and a lot of things DantheMan says, these guys aren’t trolling. They are making substantive and generally respectful arguments. You wouldn’t have 30 comments on this thread (or most other threads) if it was just Democrats agreeing with each other.