Kerry hopes to recruit vets

Kirsten Searer

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 11:20 a.m.

Presidential hopeful John Kerry told a conference call of veterans this morning that he has coordinators who will focus on the veteran vote in all 50 states, including Nevada.

Kerry hopes to recruit about 9,400 veterans in Nevada to help push his candidacy. Three Nevada veterans gathered this morning to hear the conference call at the office of Kerry's co-chairman in Nevada, Terry Care.

Kerry said that Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals are overworked and understaffed because of the increasing numbers of veterans who need medical care.

"Too many veterans who need the service aren't getting the service," he said.

Veterans also are seeing their co-payments and deductibles go up, Kerry said.

"There's been a real breach of faith with the promises made to those who served," he said.

After the call, several Kerry supporters said they hoped to appeal to Nevada's 240,000 veterans by holding rallies around the state and talking to veterans one on one.

While Nevada veterans are waiting for their first full-service Department of Veterans Affairs hospital to open, many Las Vegas Valley veterans wait months for medical service and sometimes are sent to California for procedures, Vietnam veteran Johnathan Abbinett said.

Abbinett, 51, said that he was also angry over the war in Iraq, including the number of casualties and the lack of proper equipment, such as enough flak jackets.

Kerry's campaign argues that veterans deserve better health care options and more consistent benefits.

His Web site states that he would provide mandatory funding of veterans' health care.

In an online chat last week, Anthony Principi, the president's top adviser on Veterans Affairs and a Vietnam War veteran, told supporters that President Bush has increased the Department of Veterans' Affairs budget from $48 billion in 2001 to $65 billion in the next fiscal year.

But Care this morning pointed to a recent Washington Post article that cited a White House memo stating that the Bush administration expects to cut the VA budget by $910 million in 2006. Care said he thinks Republican and Democratic veterans can find "a common bond" in Kerry.

Principi also said that Bush signed a bill into law that would allow disabled veterans to receive both military retirement pay and disability compensation. He also pointed to the president's work to open 12 new veterans' cemeteries and shorten the backlog of claims for disability compensation.