[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 11, 2003)] [House] [Pages H5253-H5254] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] SHORTCHANGING VETERANS The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I am a new Member of this body, I was just sworn in in January, and as a new Member there is a certain awe to this Chamber, a certain awe to the legislative process and the idea of priorities. You come into this body with the notion of certain priorities that are not Democratic, they are not Republican but they are priorities of the American people. Unfortunately, it did not take very long for me to recognize that we all do not share the same priorities. We can talk about tax cuts, and we can talk about deficits, and we can talk about our debt; but you just do not have tax cuts without some reaction somewhere down the line in the budget, and I wanted to speak tonight to share with the American people and share with my colleagues my own personal experience that I had over the last few weeks, really since Memorial Day, back in my district, which is northeastern Ohio, Youngstown and Akron, Ohio, and everywhere in between, the cities of Niles and Warren, where there is a strong concentration of veterans. The reason I rise tonight is to share for the record the feelings, the emotions of the people back in my district. Let me just say, quite frankly, that they are tired of the public relations gimmicks, they are tired of the press conferences, they are tired of the salutations to the veterans. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, their budgets are being cut for the veterans, we are not able to service all the veterans that are beginning to move into the VA system, and we are spending our tax money, and borrowing more money, to give back, when we are cutting short what the veterans deserve. About 3 months ago or so we passed a resolution out of this body saying that we have unequivocal support and appreciation for our troops. Unequivocal. But for the veterans, we are going to cut your budget. We just had a Committee on Veterans Affairs meeting. I have been fortunate to serve on the Committee on Veterans Affairs. Here are the President's recommendations to save money at the VA: first, annual fees for some Category 7 veterans; annual fees for all Category 8 veterans; the co-pay went from just a couple of dollars to $7 for prescription drugs, and now it is going to go, I believe the proposal is, from $7 to $15. Mr. Speaker, I think in this country we are beginning to recognize that the leadership down here is not addressing the problems of our veterans. We are not taking care of those people who we sent to hell, where they lost limbs, had their health damaged for the rest of their lives. And now one proposal is to say if your disability is service- related under 30 percent, that we are no longer going to cover you. [[Page H5254]] Where are the priorities in this Chamber, where are the priorities in this country, when we stop respecting our veterans? That is the question that we have, that is the question that the American people want answered, and that is what the veterans in the 17th Congressional District want answered. When did we stop respecting our soldiers? We pass resolutions, we thank, we do press conferences, we turn the PR machines on; but meanwhile, we have veterans that we have not taken care of. The ones I can speak of in northeast Ohio are extremely upset. We talk about tax cuts; but as Tom Friedman talked about today in The New York Times, the reality is, it is service cuts, and, unfortunately, in America we have shown that the priorities are not the veterans. I had an old law school professor that said follow the money and you will follow the priorities. The money is being cut from the veterans, and that shows us that the priorities here in this body and in this country are not for the veterans, but they are for those people who are going to be getting the big tax cuts. It is not a Democrat or Republican thing, and we are all for tax cuts, we all want to give money back, but not at the expense of the veterans who have fought to give us the freedoms that we enjoy today. ____________________