John Bel Edwards: “let me just say that cutting health care for veterans during a time of war by over $5 billion compared to present…”

“let me just say that cutting health care for veterans during a time of war by over $5 billion compared to present services and putting nearly a $1,000 a year military health care tax on military retirees' premiums is not a way to say thank you to our servicemen and women who have risked their lives to defend our country. And if that weren't insulting enough, to add insult to injury, this budget resolution would say to those people that are making $1 million this year in dividend income you don't have to give up one dime of your $220,000 tax cut. That makes a mockery of the principle of shared sacrifice during a time of war. Military retirees' health care premiums. Let's say ``no'' to stopping the tripling of those premiums. Let's allow the administration to go through with its proposal to triple those health care premiums, to veterans' health care services over 5 years, and it is in the budget. If you look at the numbers, over a $5 billion cut in present services to veterans. That is okay, but let's not ask those people making $1 million a year in dividend income to give up one dime of their $220,000 tax cut. That is more money than a private serving in Iraq will make over the next decade. The American people understand tough times. And in tough times, they ask for fairness and they ask for shared sacrifice.…”