No veteran should have to wait for claims. If there's anybody impatient here, I am that individual.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I hear daily from Hoosier veterans who are forced to wait months on end for their disability claims to be processed. Unfortunately, this is typical.
For our veterans to have to wait long periods of time to receive care is not only unacceptable to us, but to elected officials as well.
We have a VA hospital back home in St. Louis. Like many of our colleagues, we hear continued concerns about the access and the service. I have seen a statistic that more than 60,000 veterans today are waiting more than 6 months for an appointment at a VA hospital.
Caring for our veterans is the duty of a grateful nation. Unfortunately, the Bush administration and congressional Republicans have not lived up to this duty.
While we can't begin to repay the debt we owe our veterans for their brave service, we can certainly take steps to ease the physical, psychological and financial hardships they may be experiencing.
As a judge, when I saw veterans in legal trouble, I created the state's first veterans court to help them get treatment and get back on their feet.
We have to make sure the Hell the veterans come home from is not the Hell they come back to.
We need to move past blame and make sure we are delivering care to our veterans.
While we have made great progress in increasing funding for veterans' benefits, we still have a long way to go in fully meeting the promise to our veterans.
Any veteran can tell you it is already hard enough to see a doctor down at the VA and get the health care they were promised when they signed up to serve this country.