Vying for the Vet Vote

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The 2004 presidential election promises to be so close that a number of constituencies could swing the vote. Among them: the nation's 26.4 million military veterans.

President Bush is campaigning for re-election as a war president who's used American power "to make the world a better place." Bush's supporters say he's delivered on his 2000 campaign promise to the nation's armed forces and their families that "help is on the way."

Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, his Democratic rival, has accused Bush of "breaking faith with veterans" and playing games with their benefits. He's proposed a bill of rights for military families and says the "first act of patriotism is taking care of veterans."

Bush and Kerry are wooing not only veterans but also 1.4 million active-duty troops and officers, 1.3 million reservists and millions of spouses and voting-age children of armed forces personnel. Here's where Bush and Kerry stand on important veterans' issues:

Mandatory funding of veterans health care

Bush's campaign emphasizes that federal spending on health care for veterans has increased 40 percent since he took office in 2001; his administration opposes the idea of mandatory funding, which would bypass the annual congressional appropriations process. Veterans organizations point out the increases haven't kept pace with soaring enrollment growth and skyrocketing health care costs. Kerry, pledging to "invest the resources necessary to make sure that no veteran has an unmet health care need," has aligned himself with nine veterans organizations that are pushing to make veterans health care a new federal entitlement, a pricey one, to be sure. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that the proposal would cost an extra $218 billion over a nine-year period beginning in 2005.

Claims-processing backlogs at the Department of Veterans Affairs

The Bush administration says it has cut the VA's long-running backlog of veterans' compensation claims from a peak of 432,000 in January 2002 to about 253,000, and reduced the average time for processing new disability claims from 233 to 156 days. Kerry accuses Bush of failing "to help the quarter of a million veterans who've waited half a year just to see a doctor for the first time" and pledges to sharply reduce the claims backlog.

User fees for VA health care and higher copayments for prescription drugs

Under Bush's fiscal 2005 budget, some higher-income veterans without service-connected disabilities would have to pay an annual fee of $250 to use the VA health care system, and their copayments for each 30-day supply of a prescription drug would be increased from $7 to $15. The administration estimates that the new fees and higher copayments would bring in more than $400 million a year in additional revenue. Kerry opposes the user fees and higher copayments, saying they would "shift the burden for care onto the backs of veterans and drive an additional million veterans from the system."

VA nursing home care

Under Bush's fiscal 2005 budget, only veterans with the most severe service-related disabilities would be eligible for VA nursing homes, reducing the number of VA nursing home beds by about 5,000. Kerry opposes the plan, arguing that the proposed reductions come "at a time when the demand for long-term care services is high."

The 'disabled veterans tax'

Many disabled veterans see their retirement benefits reduced, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, by the VA disability benefits they receive. The Bush administration considers the Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2003, which would abolish the "tax," to be a budget-buster. More than 84 percent of all Capitol Hill lawmakers are co-sponsors of the measure—including Kerry, who says he would "grant full concurrent receipt to disabled veterans."