VETERANS & ARMED FORCES

Honor Their Commitment And Sacrifice To Our Country

We Honor Our Veterans And Active Duty Soldiers. We Must Take Care Of Our Soldiers When They Return.

Our nation’s veterans have been our nation’s strength and remain a national resource. Their service to their country — as community leaders, volunteers, mentors, educators, problem solvers, and public officials — continues long after they leave the military. In the same way, our obligation to the one percent who defend the other ninety-nine percent does not end when they take off the uniform. America has a sacred trust with our veterans, and we are committed to ensuring them and their families’ care and dignity. The work of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is essential to meet our commitments to them: Providing health, education, disability, survivor, and home loan benefits, and arranging memorial services upon death. We heed Abraham Lincoln’s command “to care for him who bore the battle.” To care, as well, for the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, who must be assured of meaningful financial assistance, remains our solemn duty.

Our wounded warriors, whether still in service or discharged, deserve the best medical care the country can provide. We must make military and veterans’ medicine the gold standard for mental health, traumatic brain injury, multiple traumas, loss of limbs, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those injuries require a new commitment of targeted resources and personnel for treatment and care to advance recovery. That includes allowing veterans to choose to access care in the community and not just in VA facilities because the best care in the world is not effective if it is not accessible. We will seek to consolidate the VA’s existing community care authorities to make a single program that will be easily understood by both veterans and VA healthcare providers.

As a nation, we honor the sacrifice of our fallen service members at the graves where we lay them to rest in national, state, and veterans’ cemeteries around the world. In doing so, we make it clear that their ultimate sacrifice and service to our country will never be forgotten. As a party, we seek to honor their sacrifice and comfort their families by ensuring all veterans’ cemeteries are adequately equipped and a standard of care established, using Arlington Cemetery as a guide, that is befitting their service.

The level of financial distress and homelessness among vets is a shame to the nation. For a veteran, a job is more than a source of income. It is a new mission, with a new status, and the transition can be difficult. We urge the private sector to make hiring vets a company policy and commend the organizations that have proven programs to accomplish this. We will retain the preference given to veterans when they seek federal employment. We urge closer coordination with the state offices for veterans’ affairs, particularly about expediting disability claims, since those closest to an individual can often best diagnose a problem and apply a remedy. We will halt the current Administration’s unconstitutional automatic denial of gun ownership to returning members of our Armed Forces who have had representatives appointed to manage their financial affairs. We urge state education officials to promote the hiring of qualified veterans as teachers in our public schools. Their proven abilities and life experiences will make them more successful instructors, and role models for students than granted by any teaching certification.

Join Us In The Fight To Ensure Veterans And Active Duty Personnel Get Proper Support

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