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Richardson vet plan shaves tax, boosts care

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson on Friday proposed a $15.5 billion plan for military veterans that calls for cutting their income taxes, giving them a health care card to access private care and expanding education benefits.

The New Mexico governor would pay for the plan by collecting certain capital gains taxes, which he said would pull in $25 billion.

He said conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center represent the Bush administration’s “terrible mistreatment of America’s veterans.”

In February, reports surfaced of shoddy outpatient treatment, poor living conditions and bureaucratic delays at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Soon afterward, Bush set up a presidential commission that called for broad changes to veterans’ care that would boost benefits to family members caring for the wounded, establish an easy-to-use Web site for medical records and overhaul the way disability pay is awarded.

“Not every wound can be treated with bandages,” Richardson said during his speech. “We have to have a national strategy and we don’t. We need to make mental health care a priority for veterans.”

Richardson said his plan would implement the recommendations of the commission, which he estimated would cost $100 million.

His campaign planned 29 stops in 23 Iowa towns over four days to roll out the plan, which included eliminating federal income tax for all veterans in their first year as civilians, a $2.2 billion cost. It also would reduce federal income taxes for all veterans by 5 percent for life at a cost of $6.1 billion.

Other plan benefits would include:

• A health care card entitling veterans to their choice of care when they cannot conveniently access Veterans Administration care.

• Full mandatory funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

• One year of comprehensive disability insurance for family members, who must leave work to care for a critically wounded soldier.