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DEAR PEGGY: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR                                                                                                                             peggy-north@monthlyherald.com

 

SET YOUR RECORDS STRAIGHT! PRESIDENT BUSH IS THE BEST PRESIDENT WE EVER HAD OR SHALL HAVE!

Dear Peggy: Here are the proofs. Read them. Show them to the whole world. Liberals are threat to our country. They are up to no good. I am respectfully asking  you to print this report. It is your duty as a responsible journalist to tell the truth. Kerry claims that he is all the way for the veterans, This is absolutely untrue. President Bush is! Here are the facts:

Annenberg Public Policy Center: Kerry’s Claims About Veterans Health Cuts Are Not True. The University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center stated in a FactCheck, "Funding for veterans is going up twice as fast under Bush as it did under Clinton. And the number of veterans getting health benefits is going up 25% under Bush’s budgets. That’s hardly a cut. … FactCheck.org twice contacted the Kerry campaign asking how he justified his claim that the VA budget is being cut, but we’ve received no response."

Increased VA Funding. The President’s FY 2005 budget proposes to increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs to $68 billion from the 2001 level of $48 billion. The President’s budget requests $29.5 billion for VA’s medical care for next year, more that 40 percent above the 2001 level. The past four straight VA budget increases have provided more than a 40 percent increase in VA health care alone since 2001-- enabling a million more patients to receive treatment.

Increased Health Care Service to Veterans. In the past four years, President Bush’s budgets have allowed the VA to enroll 2.5 million more veterans for health care services, increase outpatient visits from 44 million to 54 million, increase the number of prescriptions filled from 86 million to 108 million and open 194 new community-based clinics available for veterans. The number of veterans registered for health benefits increased 18 percent under President Bush and will increase by almost 26 percent by October 2004.

Concurrent Receipt of Benefits. President Bush has twice signed legislation effectively providing "concurrent receipt" of both military retired pay and VA disability compensation for combat-injured and highly-disabled veterans, reversing a century old law preventing concurrent receipt.

Cutting the Disability Claims Backlog. President Bush promised to reduce the disability claims backlog, and at his request, Congress has provided VA with the resources it needs to reduce claims. Claims backlogs have dropped from a high of 432,000 and are approaching the goal of 250,000 while the volume of claims decisions per month has increased from 40,000 to 68,000. The average length of time to process a veteran’s compensation claim has dropped from approximately 230 days to 160 days and the VA expects to meet its goal of 100 days this year.

Help for Homeless Veterans. As a result of the President’s 2003 budget, community grants were expanded to all 50 States and Washington, D.C. for the first time in history, ensuring that homeless veterans have access to housing, health care and shelter.

Additional Prescription Drug Coverage. Last year, President Bush took the unprecedented step of allowing veterans waiting for a medical appointment who already have a prescription from their private physician, to have those prescriptions filled by the VA. This is saving veterans hundreds of dollars in drug costs.

VA Expansion. The President is seeking to improve outpatient veteran’s health care services through the CARES improvements, which will result in the construction of two new medical centers in Orlando, Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada; over 100 major construction projects to revitalize and modernize VA medical centers in 37 states; creation of 156 new community-based outpatient clinics; potential creation of four new - and expansion of five existing - spinal cord injury centers; and opening up two new blind rehabilitation centers.

I hope this will convince the skeptics. Ricardo Sanchez, Arizona, USA.
 

More letters and e-mails shall be posted soon.