WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Patty Murray on Saturday accused President Bush of “hollow talk” in support of U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and said the Bush administration has not done nearly enough to provide veterans with the care they need.
Murray, D-Wash., said, “The president can call on Democrats to follow him in lockstep all he wants, but when it comes to caring for our veterans, we are not about to start taking advice from George Bush.”
Bush scolded Democrats on Thursday for combining spending bills for defense and veterans programs with one for labor, health and education matters. Republicans consider the bill bloated.
The president also lamented that his emergency spending request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still languishes.
Murray, delivering the Democrats’ weekly radio address, accused Bush of underfunding the Veterans Affairs Department and said thousands of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are “stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare” and aren’t getting the health care they need.
The senator said the number of uninsured veterans has grown rapidly in recent years. The administration also lost the personal data of millions of veterans and failed to correct shoddy outpatient treatment and poor living conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, she said.
Murray, the fourth-ranking Democratic senator, defended a Democratic bill that pays for veterans programs and other priorities such as education and medical research.
The bill provides thousands of new case workers to help reduce delays for treatment, improves conditions at Walter Reed and other facilities and invests in new ways to treat ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.
Murray’s comments were criticized by Republican National Committee spokesman Brian Walton, who noted former Sen. Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala are working to implement recommendations of a presidential commission to improve treatment of wounded veterans while “Democrats like Patty Murray are standing on the sidelines throwing out shrill, unhelpful rhetoric. “
“The President has said the need to enact these reforms and complete the Veterans Affairs appropriations bills is urgent, and hopefully Congress will pass a bill he can sign,” Walton said.
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