VIDEO: Cleland Veterans Tour

Watch highlights from Sherrod's statewide tour to support our troops. Special guests include former Senator and Vietnam war veteran Max Cleland and Iraq veteran Paul Hackett. Stops include Mansfield, Dayton, and Cincinnati.

08/09/2006 / Permalink / Cleland Tour, Iraq, Veterans, Video, (all tags)

Sherrod Brown: Veterans programs under assault

From Mansfield News-Journal: 

Cleland, who earned the Bronze Star and Silver Star in Vietnam before losing both legs and part of one arm in a hand grenade training accident in 1968, joined Brown in blasting President Bush and Sen. Mike DeWine -- Brown's opponent in November -- for "trade agreements that ship jobs overseas."

"Ohio has been the hardest hit state in terms of job losses under the Bush administration," Cleland said. "Over 50 percent of the 400,000 manufacturing jobs lost in America have been here in Ohio."

Cleland cited the historical marker in Central Park that heralds Johnny Appleseed's run to Mount Vernon for reinforcements against a feared Indian attack in 1812 when he called for Brown's election for "reinforcements that are needed in the U.S. Senate."

He praised Brown's early opposition to the war in Iraq, "based on the lies this administration has told," but said Brown had been a steadfast supporter of troops by fighting for sufficient body armor for them.

"I believe the present government has deliberately underfunded the VA," Cleland told the park audience, which included several elderly veterans. And he compared the current war in Iraq to Vietnam. "It looks more like that to me," he said.

Click here to read the full article. 

08/09/2006 / Permalink / Cleland Tour, Iraq, Northeast Ohio, Veterans, (all tags)

Brown Visits with Veterans in Downtown Mansfield Park

From Mansfield News Journal: 

Congressman Sherrod Brown brought his campaign for the U.S. Senate to the heart of his hometown Tuesday, armed with national political firepower.

Max Cleland, a Vietnam veteran and former administrator of the U.S. Veterans Administration, joined Brown for a morning rally at the Central Park gazebo. Billed as a “Talk in the Park” on veterans issues, the gathering was the first of several that would take Brown and Cleland to Dayton and Cincinnati later in the day.

...“Our first responsibility to veterans is to fully fund Veterans Administration health care,’’ Brown told an audience of about 125. “There are more than 6,000 Ohioans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and when they come home we’ll need to care for many of them.’’

Brown, a Mansfield Senior High graduate who has represented the 13th Congressional District in northeast Ohio since 1992, called for an end to the “disability tax” which he said reduces the pensions of disabled veterans. Their pensions are reduced to cover the cost of their disability health care, a practice which Brown said is unfair.

Click here to read the full article. 

08/09/2006 / Permalink / Cleland Tour, Iraq, Northeast Ohio, Veterans, (all tags)

Democrats push for veterans’ benefits

From Cincinnati Enquirer: 

Veterans are being neglected by the government, some Ohio Democrats and veterans claimed at a forum Tuesday.

"The government will pay for the war but won't take care of our nation's veterans," said Max Cleland, former U.S. senator, Veterans Administration (now Veterans Affairs) administrator from 1977-81 and disabled veteran of the Vietnam War.

"This administration is spending $8 billion for the war in Iraq but will underfund $6 billion for the VA budget for the next five years."

More than 50 people showed up at the Public Library downtown Tuesday evening for the veterans forum, hosted by U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who is running for the U.S. Senate. Brown, Cleland and Iraq veteran Paul Hackett addressed issues regarding U.S. veterans, such as funding for proper health care for those affected by war.

"There's real professional care that needs to be delivered," Cleland said. "Not just physical wounds but the hidden wounds of war ... You've seen the world explode before you and that is very difficult to handle - sometimes you can't do it alone."

Brown called on Congress to do three things: repeal the Disabled Veterans Tax, seek to fully fund veterans' health care and pass a GI Bill for the 21st century.

Click here to read the full article. 

08/09/2006 / Permalink / Cleland Tour, Iraq, Southeast Ohio, Veterans, (all tags)

Sherrod Brown, Max Cleland, Launch Tour Honoring Ohio’s Veterans

Bush and DeWine failed to fully fund veterans' benefits, develop winning Iraq exit strategy

AMHERST, OH -- U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and former Senator and Vietnam veteran Max Cleland yesterday toured Ohio to hear the concerns of veterans in Mansfield, Dayton, and Cincinnati.  Today they issued the following release calling for a new direction in Ohio, and leadership in Washington that will fully fund veterans' benefits and develop a winning Iraq exit strategy.

Brown condemned slashes to VA health benefits at a time when the nation is at war.  "With tens of thousands of our troops serving in Iraq, Mike DeWine voted to rubberstamp budgets that slashed VA funding. We must honor our soldiers' service by fully funding veterans' benefits, ending the disabled veterans' tax, and passing a GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century."

08/09/2006 / Permalink / Cleland Tour, Iraq, Veterans, (all tags)