Support for Veterans

America’s veterans have risked their lives so that their fellow citizens can enjoy this country’s freedoms. Our veterans are dedicated, accomplished, upstanding citizens. They’re patriots. They not only put their lives on the line but also spend extended time away from their families, who must support them from afar and face unique challenges of their own on the home front. It’s tragic that our veterans don’t receive the support they deserve. We’ll engage with veteran advocacy groups in an effort to promote programs that are of the utmost importance to our veterans, reserves and active duty personnel.

Why We Need It

Each day, 20 U.S. veterans take their own lives. There’s something very wrong with our veteran support system.

Few veterans obtain the health care they have earned. Unfortunately, many don’t know how to take advantage of available support. Among all new veterans, a mere 60 percent are actually registered for VA health benefits. Even if they request care, veterans often find that medical information isn’t transferred between agencies. Despite commitments to try to reconcile the divide between the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration, we still don’t have a tenable method of sharing information as straightforward and vital as electronic health records. Our veterans are getting lost in the shuffle when these two departments fail to share the data. As a result, they wind up not getting the care they need when adjusting from active duty back to life in civil society.

The impacts of these failures are clear: over 37,000 veterans were homeless in January 2019. It’s time for change.

What We Are Fighting For

We’re fighting to ensure that our veterans get the support they deserve. We will fight to:

Create a Universal Basic Income. While this will help all of our citizens, it will be particularly beneficial for our veterans transitioning back to civilian life.
Provide affordable housing to more veterans.
Furnish the VA with an improved data collection program to gather a more thorough understanding of the number of service members and veterans who are at risk of becoming unhoused
Establish free public college and vocational school and student loan amnesty. This will provide better options for all Americans while specifically assisting veterans who decide to continue their education.
Pass Medicare For All and expand mental health services across the country.
Advocate creating a U.S. Department of Peace. One of the best ways to help our veterans is to reduce the number of wars we wage in the first place.

What It Will Do

Supporting our veterans properly will result in improved health care access and quality for the people who have put so much on the line for their fellow citizens. Broadening mental health services will help veterans tackle the challenges they face, whether unique to their service or unrelated to their military experiences. Confronting the affordable housing crisis will provide more veterans with a safe place to live as well as a higher quality of life. Establishing programs like a universal basic income, free community college and vocational school and student loan amnesty will benefit all of our citizens, especially veterans adjusting back to civilian life.

Our nation’s stability is inextricably linked to the courageous women and men who continue to defend democracy at home and abroad. We must do a better job of supporting the brave Americans willing to risk everything. We must set them up for success during and following their service. Our freedom depends on it.