Veteran Report Card 2008: Who in Washington Really Support Our Troops and Vets? We'll tell you.
From their flag lapel pins to their yellow ribbon bumper stickers, every politician in America wants you to believe they "support the troops." But actions speak louder than words. When veterans' issues actually came to a vote in Washington, what did your representatives do?
Now, it's easy to find out, thanks to IAVA Action Fund's 2008 Congressional Report Card. At IAVA Action Fund, we tracked every bill and vote on veterans' issues. We've crunched the numbers, and today we're releasing letter grades for every single Senator and Representative on Capitol Hill (including McCain, Obama and Biden). In just a few clicks, you can find out how your representatives voted.
How did Congress do this year? Over all, they scored very well. From the passage of the landmark Post-9/11 GI Bill to fully funding the Department of Veterans Affairs, we have tremendous progress to celebrate this year. More than 150 legislators earned a perfect score, a grade of A+.
But some lawmakers failed to vote in support of our troops and veterans. This year, 9 politicians earned Ds or Fs. If you want to ask your Senator or Representative why they failed to show real support for our troops and vets, we've made that easy - just click here.
There are many serious issues at stake this election year. Unfortunately, Iraq and Afghanistan have gotten pushed to the back burner, even as the media have found plenty of time for Paris Hilton and other silliness. For a country at war, this kind of neglect is simply shameful.
Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are hard at work every day. It's time that our lawmakers put their money where their mouth is, and show the same devotion to their jobs here in Washington. As we head into tonight's presidential debate, please help keep the needs of our troops and veterans in the public eye. Visit VeteranReportCard.org, and share it with your friends.
I've been concerned that veterans' issues are not being addressed at all this election cycle. I have read, and Tammy Duckworth spoke on this, that McCain proposes privatizing the Veteran's Administration. To me, this is immoral. You were sent to Iraq based upon deceit and lies, and then are told when you return you will get a plastic card - and good luck addressing your health care needs in the private sector. This is one of the many disgusting aspects of the McCain candidacy, but has been really quite under the radar.
October 8, 2008 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Paul, excellent article.
On the other hand;
I wish someone would explain to me what "I support the troops" means.
As to flag lapel pins, I suggest the following criteria for wearing one.
A 1 Flag Pin for those who never served in the military.
A 2 Flag Pin for those who served but didn't see combat.
A 3 Flag Pin for Combat Vets.
October 8, 2008 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
For his country, McCain paid the highest price a living person can pay.
I have no doubt that McCain honestly believes he loves the troops and the that troops love him, but in the ranks you see no passion for McCain as you did for Bush, and you see no exceptional acts from Sen. McCain with respect to legislation for servicemembers.
McCain's vote against the Webb Amendment (dwell time and responsible deployment cycles) should tell you everything you need to know.
October 8, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Scanning through the report, and not doing any kind of scientific analysis, I was struck by how often liberals got A's and conservatives got C's or D's.
As far as the presidential candidates are concerned, both Obama and Biden got B's, due entirely to absences, while McCain got only a C, both due to absences and due to two votes against bills endorsed by the veterans.
It would be interesting to compile a Republican and Democrat composite to see how the two parties "support the troops": with words or with action.
October 8, 2008 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Paul,
Good work. Democracy is failing us because our representatives are more beholden to their financial backers than they are to the common interest, and web-based report cards like yours are needed in any attempt to begin to hold these clowns accountable to the people who elected them and not to the corporations who largely fund their campaigns.
Corporate funding is called "free speech" by the establishment fat-cats -- it's time that you and I had a say. Nothing speaks like the truth and nothing says "Bush" like a C on a report card.
October 8, 2008 8:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama and Biden aren't on your Senate A list? You should explain why. There opposition to the continued war in Iraq should be enough to earn them excelling grades.
Also, you really should put the person's party on your list. I'll be more ready to listen to you when you come out and state the obvious -- the Democrats support the troops. It's time for the troops to start supporting Democrats.
October 8, 2008 11:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
What part of the report card don't you understand? Or does understanding get in the way of your shilling for the Democratic Party.
news report: //Sen. John McCain enjoys overwhelming support from the military’s professional core, a Military Times survey of nearly 4,300 readers indicates.//
I guess the troops are just stupid and/or uninformed. Somehow they just don't realize that "the Democrats support the troops". Or perhaps they do know what's going on, and that the Dems are selling them down the pike the way they've done with the US working class.
I'd say that it's time for you to start supporting the troops and possibly your Democratic heroes might follow.
October 9, 2008 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
One: Serving in the American military never made a Republican out of me or any other member of my working-class family going back to World War I. Republicans do not speak for everyone who serves in the American military. Not by a long shot.
Two: Not long ago I read that nearly 50% of America's active-duty military personnel still believe that Saddam Hussein and/or Iraq had something to do with the events of 9/11/2001. I will stipulate, threfore, that this half of our bloated, bureaucratic military probably does still buy into the Republican Party's pathetic propaganda. As Deputy Dubya Bush himself has proclaimed: "You can fool some of the people all of the time -- and those are the ones you have to concentrate on."
Three: The Republican Party owns the twin disastrous military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The Republican Party wanted it that way. The Republican Party got what it wanted. Unfortunately for the Republican Party, the American people now by overwhelming majorities want no more of either Republicans or their hopeless, interminable "long wars." Soon, America will have fewer Republicans and fewer hopeless, needless, ruinous quagmires. Those Republicans still in the American military who really want to stay in Iraq for 100 years can, of course, become civilian mercenaries, convert to Islam, take a number of muslim wives (lots of Iraqi widows and orphaned girls to choose from) and become a truly "professional" foreign legion living off the land at their own expense and not mine. I refuse to "support" them any longer. They certainly don't do anything to support me and my family.
Four: As Winston Churchill once said of us: "You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing -- after they've tried everything else." For unexplained reasons, the American people cast aside "the "long national nightmare of peace and prosperity" last experienced under a Democratic Party president and tried taking a wild gamble on borrow-and-squander Republican rapaciousness. Four thousand dead "troops" and a trillion borrowed (from the Chinese) dollars down the drain later, Americans seem poised to do the right thing again -- namely, reject Republicans and all their works unto the generations. Having stupidly tried Republicans, America has nowhere to go but upwards and onwards.
Finally, as a lifelong working-class Democrat and veteran of the Nixon-Kissinger Fig Leaf Contingent (Vietnam 1970-1972) I urge all my fellow citizens to "support" your local national guard at home but not a foreign legion of mercenary Visigoths abroad. Intelligent Americans can tell the difference. Republicans? Probably not so much.
October 9, 2008 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
One, I agree that Republicans don't speak for the military. The military speaks for the military.
Two, your contention that the troops are stupid is no position at all. An army responds to the public will through the orders of its superiors. The public will, as determined by our Democratic Congress, is to continue US aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan, and, in Obama's case, to expand it to Pakistan (which is now being done, thank you Barry). Obama is weird on Iran, too, saying that another holocaust wouldn't be good.
Three, the Democrats own the ongoing occupations because they control the Congress which funds the occupations, and they supported the wars before that. Obama has continuously stated that he wants to expand and modernize the military -- to sit around the barracks? I don't think so. Who has gotten the US involved in the most wars in the last hundred years? The Democrats.
Four, the reason that Americans cast aside peace CAN be explained by the actions of Democrats like Joe "credit card" Biden and Hillary Clinton who supported war. At least Clinton had the courage to stick by her warrior position whereas Biden lied about his actions, while Obama, like Biden and Clinton, has voted for every war spending bill that has come along during his short senate career.
Finally, working-class Americans have long ago been sold down the pike by your sainted Bill Clinton, if you would but notice.
October 10, 2008 2:47 AM | Reply | Permalink