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Democrats pledge higher pay for troops, improved VA care

The Democratic Party has rallied around a platform that calls for better military pay raises, more support for wounded veterans and military families and the repeal of restrictions on military service by gays.

The 2008 Democratic National Platform, approved at the party’s national convention in Denver, also calls for ending the war in Iraq, strengthening U.S. forces in Afghanistan to fight al-Qaida and rethinking homeland defense in a top-to-bottom review of threats and how to respond to them.

Key sections of the platform for service members, veterans and their families outline pledges for revitalizing the military while being more supportive of those who are serving or have served.

“We must better support those families of whom we are asking so much,” the platform states, promising to create an advisory board on military families to recommend “practical policies” to help spouses and families.

“We will protect our military families from losing their homes to foreclosure. We will work for pay parity so that compensation for military service is more in line with that of the private sector. We will end stop-loss and reserve recall policies that allow an individual to be forced to remain on active duty well after his or her enlistment has expired, and we will establish regularity in deployments so that active duty and reserve troops know what they must expect and their families can plan for it,” the platform states.

The Republican Party will adopt its own platform at its convention in Minnesota.

Party platforms are promise-filled roadmaps that are not binding, although the Democratic plan closely follows promises already made by Barack Obama, the Illinois senator and the party’s nominee for president. Lawmakers are free to stray from the document if they don’t agree with what it says.

The inclusion of many military-related provisions, and promises about better treatment for veterans, are part of an effort by Democrats to win more support from the military community.

Democrats tried to keep service members and veterans in mind during many phases of their convention, including a news conference in which Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, some running for political office, were unveiled as new veterans who are supporting Obama, such as former SEAL Michael Lumpkin, running for an open congressional seat representing part of San Diego.

Lumpkin, a retired Navy captain with 21 years of service who is an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, has joined other Democrats in pushing for an end to the war in Iraq.

Tammy Duckworth, a disabled Iraq war veteran whose husband is still in the Army and recently returned from a deployment to Iraq, said troops and veterans will be better served by Obama than by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the Republican candidate.

“The administration of George Bush — supported by John McCain every step of the way —has let our warriors down,” said Duckworth, who ran for Congress two years ago but lost to a Republican. “This administration has redeployed them until they are overstretched, stressed and strained.”

Duckworth said Republicans have rationed Department of Veterans Affairs health care by blocking some veterans from enrolling in the VA system and that things could get even worse because of talk about having VA focus on treating combat injuries and sending other veterans to the private sector for treatment.

“Barack Obama and the Democrats have a different idea,” she said. “Barack Obama will live up to their tradition of honor and sacrifice. Barack Obama will use war not as a first choice, but a last resort.”

Duckworth, the head of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, said Obama visited her when she was hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The platform provisions include quality health care for physical and mental injuries for every veteran, with screening of every person returning from combat.

“We will aggressively address Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury,” the document says. “We will work to ensure that every veteran receives the benefits he or she has earned and the assistance they need by making the disability benefits process more fair, efficient and equitable.”

The platform also promises to “dramatically reduce the backlog of disability claims” and “combat homelessness, unemployment and underemployment among veterans and improve the transition” of service members between the Pentagon and VA medical systems.