Political Quotes

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, my apologies to those on the floor who wish to speak. We have spoken a couple of times about this on the floor. I want to do it one more time. I appreciate the motion by the gentleman who had been my ranking member on the committee for 2 years before this current session of the Senate. The blue water Navy has been an issue that has been controversial. It has almost been passed a few times, and it has been defeated a number of times. Our veterans, today, who served in Vietnam and who have ended up contracting cancer--non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and things like that--do not have the luxury of presumption of cause on their service in Vietnam unless they served on the land. If they served on the land in the battlefield, they get the benefit, but if they served at sea, where most of this napalm and all of the other agents were delivered--on those ships--they don't have that benefit. The VA bifurcated a benefit of healthcare to our veterans--many of whom contracted cancer and many of whom have died--and said: If you are on the land, you get it. If you are on the sea, we will not let you have it. It is the wrong thing to do. No veteran who served on the land is more important or less important than the one who served at sea. We have a chance to do this, and we ought to do it. I am going to vote in favor of adopting the motion by the gentleman from Connecticut. Let me just say one other thing.…”