Biden has a plan for Veterans: Day 48 of 100 Days of Loving Joe Biden

by GoodNewsRoundup

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(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020 Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020 at 4:04:02am PDT

Joe Biden believes that as a nation, we have many obligations, but we have one truly sacred obligation: to properly prepare and equip our troops when we send them into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families–both while they are deployed and after they return home. As the parents of a son who deployed to Iraq, Joe and Jill Biden understand the gravity of this promise.

Joe Biden has fought aggressively for our service members and veterans throughout his career in public service.

As a senator, Joe Biden was an early advocate for Vietnam veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and other toxins to be able to access the care and benefits they deserve.

He championed funding for prosthetics for veterans and mammogram coverage for female veterans, fought for proper burial allowances, and supported the concurrent receipt of retirement and disability pay for veterans. He co-sponsored the legislation to establish the Vietnam, Korean, and WWII memorials in Washington, D.C., as well as the post-9/11 GI Bill to provide educational benefits to a new generation of heroes.

Biden also led the way in the Senate on critical issues to protect the health of our military, most notably driving the fight to increase funding for up-armored Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs) by $23.6 billion, which saved thousands of lives and limbs of U.S. service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he introduced legislation to prohibit cuts to military medical care during times of war.

During the Obama-Biden Administration, the VA also led in creating the Blue Button app to help veterans access their health data and medical records more easily. Today, Blue Button is used by more than 2 million veterans.

As president, Joe Biden wants to unite the country and restore the VA as the premier agency for ensuring our veterans’ overall well-being by:

Providing Veterans World Class Health Care to Meet Their Specific Needs
Driving Progress to Eliminate Veterans Homelessness and Bring Down Suicide Rates
Creating Meaningful Employment and Educational Opportunities
Improving VA Management and Accountability.

Biden has always cared about veterans and worked hard for them. There are countless stories of him giving his time to listen and be there for our brave men and women who served our country and for their families. Like this story:

From Captain Kevin Penn, USMC (Ret.):

The second time I met Joe Biden was in April of 2010, on the South Lawn of the White House. I was part of a group of active-duty service members sending off our wounded brothers and sisters for the White House to Lighthouse Challenge — a 60-mile, three-day ride that starts on the South Lawn of the White House and ends in Annapolis, Maryland.

Joe was definitely running late for some meeting or another, because his staff was getting increasingly persistent — “Sir, we really need to go.” Not in a way that was disrespectful. It was just clear that they needed to be on their way.

Finally, Joe turned to his aides and said:

“I’m going to stay here shaking hands until there’s nobody left to shake hands with, and taking photos with these people until they get every photo they want.”

That’s exactly what he did. And I promise you that the service men and women who were on the South Lawn that day haven’t forgotten it, either.