A letter sent along to Senator-elect Webb's office, prompted by just a few too many sickening stories about wounded Iraq vets getting screwed by an underfunded VA and military families waiting in line at food banks.
Dear Mr. Webb,
First, congratulations on your election to the United States Senate. I was proud to tell my friends and family that I had contributed to your campaign, and was delighted to learn that you had won your election.
I am writing, however, to ask that you reconsider one specific item of your campaign platform, specifically the 5% tax break for honorably discharged veterans. My suggestion arises despite my awareness that I would receive a disproportionately high personal benefit from such a measure. Indeed, that fact lies at the core of my objection.
While your intention to provide a tangible manifestation of America's gratitude to its veterans is certainly laudable, an across-the-board tax break would deliver the greatest benefit to veterans at the top of the income scale, people who, as you observe in your campaign literature, "have never had it so good." Whatever their views about the economic or moral desirability of this situation, most reasonable observers would feel obliged to agree.
The effect of benefiting a small cohort of well-to-do veterans most of all, however, would run counter to the core values of the military culture. You know even better than I: Good officers never eat a bite until they know all the troops are provided for, and "if you look out for the men, the men will look out for you".
On a regular basis, I am confronted with press accounts detailing the overstretched and underequipped state of our military, as well as the hardships suffered by military families and wounded veterans. The veterans who "have never had it so good", I am certain, are grateful simply for the privilege of wearing the American uniform and will readily agree that those needs rightfully take precedence over a tax cut for ourselves.
Again, congratulations on your election. May you bring honor to your constituents and countrymen as you serve in the Senate.