Hundreds of SEIU Healthcare PA members, along with veterans and their families, held a rally outside the Veterans Affairs Clinic in Camp Hill, PA to praise the agency for delivering top-notch care, while calling on Congress to increase funding for veterans health benefits.
Record numbers of veterans are returning home from Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere with stress disorders and complex injuries only to be experience delays or other challenges to getting the care they need. Under-funding and staffing shortages at the VA are helping to create the problem.
“The daughter that went to Iraq - she didn’t come back the same,” said Chris Hasselman, a member of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania whose daughter returned from Iraq with post-traumatic stress. “The VA hospitals are extremely understaffed. The care veterans should have they are not getting. Is this the way we treat them after risking their lives for us and our country?”
Speakers at the rally also talked about the voting records of the two presidential candidates and how they match up to their soundbites on veterans.
“Senator John McCain is an American hero, and extremely patriotic,” says Chance Thomas, a 28 year old United States Navy veteran, home from tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Guantanamo Bay. “But Senator McCain consistently votes against anything that would advance veterans’ health care.”
John McCain voted against full funding for veterans’ health care in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007; and he voted against making veterans health benefits a mandatory program. He voted against increased funding for veterans’ mental health services; and he voted against giving members of the Guard and Reserves greater access to health care. Read more about Senator McCain's voting record on veterans health benefits.
“In contrast to Senator McCain's remarkable absence during a historic vote for veterans benefits, Senator Barack Obama voted in favor of the recently passed Webb GI Bill,” said TJ Buonomo, an Iraq vet also speaking at today’s rally. “That’s a tangible demonstration of support for the men and women who have sacrificed so much in defense of their country.” |
 "Senator John McCain is an American hero, and extremely patriotic, but Senator McCain consistently votes against anything that would advance veterans’ health care.”
Chance Thomas, US Navy Veteran
See TV news coverage of the Rally:
WGAL-8/ WHP-21
Read more about Senator McCain's Voting Record on Veterans Health Benefits.
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