Saxby Chambliss: “Not only does it have a cushion to look after veterans, but we took the Clinton budget last year, which called for a…”

“Not only does it have a cushion to look after veterans, but we took the Clinton budget last year, which called for a zero increase in veterans' health care, and we plussed that budget up last year by $1 billion and dedicated that $1 billion just for veterans' health care. Because the gentleman is right, that is a segment of our population that fought and risked their lives, in a lot of instances lives were lost, because those folks believed so strongly that this country ought to continue to live under that great flag of freedom and democracy and we can never forget those folks. Unfortunately, they have had a number of their rights and benefits taken away from them. Probably veterans' health care benefits have been taken away more so than any other area of their benefits. We plussed it up by $1 billion last year and dedicated it to health care alone. This year we have plussed up the President's budget again and we have increased the budget by $2.7 billion over last year. So we have added a total of $3.7 billion for veterans' benefits just in the last 2 years. Are we exactly where we want to be and ought to be with respect to restoring those benefits? No, we are not. But we are moving in the right direction in spite of a stone wall that we keep running into in the name of Clinton-Gore.”