Tim Ryan: “Just as we are talking about this and all the sacrifices that are being made over there and all the questions that are…”

“Just as we are talking about this and all the sacrifices that are being made over there and all the questions that are coming up and what is going on, there are a couple of statistics that I think we need to share with the American people about the investment in our veterans, because we have to focus on the ones that are coming back and new veterans that are being created every day. I know the gentleman has been out to Walter Reed and I have been out to Walter Reed several times. There is nothing more tragic for any of us who serve in this body than to go over there and see some of these soldiers and the sacrifices that they have made for the country, and to come and look at some of what is happening here in the Congress, where our President's budget for health care programs provides only 106 million more dollars than last year, $3.5 billion less than the veterans service organizations that come here and testify before the Committee on Veterans' Affairs and meet here say they need. The veterans groups, the American Legion, they are not going to come before Congress and ask for anything more than their soldiers that they served with need. And they say they need $3.5 billion more. And so when you are telling us that you are only going to increase it by $106 million in the President's budget, it is outrageous.”