Tom Harkin: “This amendment, pure and simple, is to take some money from the Department of Defense and put it into the medical…”

“This amendment, pure and simple, is to take some money from the Department of Defense and put it into the medical account of the Department of Veterans Affairs. This amendment would transfer $329 million specifically from the Department of Defense budget to the medical accounts of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Let me be clear that what this amendment will do will not increase the amount of money, really, going to veterans' medical accounts. It will just keep it level in accordance with medical inflation. Budgets are about priorities. Tight restrictions on discretionary spending over the past several years, and spending caps created last year to balance the budget, have forced some tough choices to be made. But I ask my colleagues, what greater priority can there be than to take care of those who have defended the very right of our country to exist? Our veterans have fulfilled the duty they had to serve their country. Now it is up to this Congress to fulfill our duty, our obligation, our solemn promise to provide for our veterans.”