West Virginia State Democratic Party

West Virginia Democratic Party Platform

Veterans

The West Virginia Democratic Party recognizes that our state has one of the highest per capita veterans' populations in the country. It remains critical that the Veterans Administration (VA) receive the funding necessary to provide the best health care possible for our Nation's veterans. In addition the VA must be prepared to care for service members returning from the Middle East, where troops are being injured on almost a daily basis.

Our country is home to roughly 26 million veterans of military service, including soldiers who battle to promote and protect our nation's commitment to democracy and liberty in conflicts such as WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the Gulf War, Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom have created a new generation of veterans, many of whom will return to the United States in need of medical care. The West Virginia Democratic Party seeks to honor our country's obligation to support these courageous men and women by fully funding their health care, ensuring access to critical benefits, and fighting back against President Bush's agenda of neglect and broken promises.

The West Virginia Democratic Party supports guaranteed health care funding for veterans in the future. Like Medicare, Veterans health care should be available on the basis of need, not dependent on the uncertainties of the annual appropriations process. Democrats are working hard to ensure a long-term solution to the VA funding crisis and we intend to provide adequate funding for veterans health care in the short-term. Democrats are leading the charge to support legislation to provide full concurrent receipts, ending the unjust prohibition against veterans receiving both disability and retirement payments. The Bush administration has argued that veteran's disability benefits are unjustified. 

The West Virginia Democratic Party wants to work to ensure that there will be easy access to prescription drugs for veterans. Currently most veterans who receive prescriptions for medication from private doctors are forced to complete physicals with VA physicians before they can fill their prescriptions. President Bush wants to more than double the charges for prescriptions. For those veterans who need several prescriptions, many of whom are older, this is a real hardship.

The West Virginia Democratic Party recognizes the need to reform the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP). Currently, more than one million current or former military personnel participate in the survivor benefit plan which allows personnel to pay a monthly premium in order to ensure that their spouses will receive an annuity in the event of their death. The SBP annuity is an important support system for military spouses who sacrifice so much in order to support the men and women who defend our nation. Under current law, SBP beneficiaries experience a sharp cut in their annuity upon reaching the age of 62. The payments are reduced from 55 percent of retired pay to 35 percent. This unfair reduction hits military widows at a time in their lives when they are the most vulnerable. Democrats have signaled their support for efforts to phase out the unfair reduction of survivor benefits.

Under the leadership of Senator Jay Rockefeller a series of amendments is being supported to increase VA health care funding. Senator Rockefeller is supporting the Veterans Health Care Funding Guarantee Act, a bill designed to ensure that the VA gets its health care funding on time at the beginning of each fiscal year to avoid having VA health care get caught in partisan budget battles. Senator Rockefeller, the most senior Democratic member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, is working hard to protect and improve critical services and benefits for Veterans.

The West Virginia Democratic Party urges state government to keep open all Veterans Affairs offices, to make the Veterans Affairs Director a cabinet level position within state government and to maintain full funding for operation. We urge the state to fully fund the veterans' office as a stand alone agency and ensure proper funding is appropriated and authorized to care for veterans. We urge that military professions not be taxed.

As Democrats, we are ever mindful that we have a moral commitment to our nation's veterans. It must never be forgotten what veterans already have sacrificed when they answered the government's call in our nation's time of need. The Democratic Party will not forget this country's veterans and will continue to honor their patriotism.