What Gosar Believes In: Cutting Veterans’ Benefits
What You Don’t Know Will Hurt You – Even If You’ve Served Our Nation in Uniform
PRESCOTT, AZ – It doesn't seem like a very tough question. Especially with Arizona’s young men and women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, every public official should be looking to make Washington keep its promises to our Veterans. Ann Kirkpatrick has used her seat on the Veterans Affairs committee to make significant strides for Arizona servicemembers. So where is Paul Gosar on this issue?
Shockingly,
Gosar has actually committed to slashing Veterans' health care.
Blindly following his national Republican bosses, Paul has endorsed across-the-board cuts to the federal budget – with no exceptions for programs like Veterans’ health care or Social Security. [Yavapai Forum, 7/27/10] Gosar then repeated his desire for across-the-board cuts after Ann’s ad pointed out that they would heavily impact these programs! [Arizona Daily Sun, 9/19/10]
This no-exceptions, across-the-board cuts plan is as careless as it is troubling to the Veterans who depend on the benefits Paul would slash. ‘His’ proposal would be doubly devastating to those seniors who count on both Social Security and Veterans’ benefits.
Ann Kirkpatrick, on the other hand, keeps a quote on her desk that reads, “Fight for Veterans with all your might - For they have already paid the price.” In her first term, that has been
her guiding principle in
her relentless fight to
improve benefits for our men and women in uniform.
Would Paul Gosar be the same kind of champion for our troops? “Paul Gosar’s reckless and irresponsible statements go to the core of who he would be as a leader. It’s astonishing, but we’ve got to take Paul at his word—that he really does want to see across-the-board cuts that would include Veterans’ benefits and Social Security,” said Kirkpatrick campaign manager Carmen Gallus.
“Ann Kirkpatrick has been a steadfast ally for Greater Arizona’s veterans.” Gosar of course would rather folks didn’t take him at his word – he’s now trying to flip-flop his way out of his statement by claiming that having "everything all the way across the board cut" [Arizona Daily Sun, 9/19/10] actually doesn’t include these programs.
"Gosar’s attempts to rewrite history are either blatantly dishonest or show a total lack of understanding of the consequences of toeing his party’s line instead of being an independent voice for Arizona. So which is it, Paul - are you lying, or just unprepared to represent Arizona? Greater Arizona deserves someone who does more than just repeat Washington Republican talking points," said Gallus.
