Clinton Calls For New G.I. Bill For Troops

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a new GI "Bill of Rights" for men and women in uniform, arguing that Democrats can do a better job of protecting and providing for U.S. troops than the Republican administration.

"This administration is frankly unable to run a two-car parade," the Democratic presidential candidate said in a speech at the Center for American Progress, a think tank run by former Clinton White House aide John Podesta.

The New York senator, who leads early polls of Democratic contenders for the party's nomination, said she would put together a package of proposals designed to ensure troops have all the equipment they need when they're deployed, to ensure they receive proper health care, and to provide for families.

"I am here to say the buck does stop with this president and if he doesn't take responsibility, I can assure you that the next president will," the Democratic senator said Thursday.
Her call for better benefits for troops comes amid a public outcry over conditions at outpatient facilities at a Washington military hospital roughly seven miles from both the White House and Congress.

"In the leadership vacuum that has been left by the Bush administration, too many members of the military and their families have been left literally holding their breath," Clinton said.
Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been an outspoken critic of Bush's handling of the Iraq war, but she has resisted calls by some in her party to label her 2002 vote authorizing the war a "mistake." She has said she wouldn't have voted to authorize the war if she knew then what she knows now.

Her proposals come as Democrats in Congress seek to curtail Bush's recent troop increase to Iraq -- an effort Republicans charge is tantamount to abandoning U.S. troops in the field.

My response to this is it's about time! If America really loves and supports it's troops then we need to make damn sure we're taking the best care of them, during and after their service, that we possibly can! The scandal at Walter Reed is bringing to light what any American who took the time to inform themself already knew, we are Not supporting and caring for our troops the way we should!!! These young people volunteer to defend us, willingly giving their time, energy and sometimes their limbs or very lives and it makes me sick that we as a country can't keep up our end of the bargain and give them quality healthcare and the money necessary to support themselves and their families.