Political Quotes

“I want to tell you, the only thing standing in the way of this bill passing is the Senate. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Senator Enzi. I know, as chair of the Budget Committee, he has a job to do, but we have a job to do. People sign up for our military, and promises are made. The promises that are made are the cost of war. The Vietnam war has been over for decades, and these folks are dying every day. This deal was Agent Orange exposure. If you served on the mainland of Vietnam, you are covered, but if you were on a boat on the ocean next to Vietnam, you were not. I am going to tell you something. If you have been around weed spray, which is what Agent Orange is--it is a defoliant--and if you have been around it, you don't have to be sprayed with it to be exposed to it. All you have to be is downwind. These folks on the ocean were downwind. Why do we know that? Because there has been study after study showing that these folks who served on the ocean next to Vietnam are suffering from a higher level of cancer, hypertension, and heart disease. We have a job to do here, folks. There are 30 VSOs, maybe more than that--Veterans Service Organizations--that expect us to act and do the right thing here today. I will tell you, the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Johnny Isakson, has done a marvelous job this Congress, doing what is right for our veterans and making sure the VA has what is needed to serve our veterans. This is not the VA.…”