Trump and Clinton actually agree on one issue: Helping vets
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are bitterly divided on nearly every issue. But there's one hot-button topic on which they largely agree: helping veterans.
Both candidates call for a "21st century" agency, promise to expand employment opportunities for jobless or under-employed veterans, and focus on the needs of female vets, such as hiring more obstetricians and gynecologists at VA hospitals.
The two favor more accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has been tarred by complaints about long waits for medical appointments and a scandal over falsified records.
"They both want to be on the right side of this thing and it is a complex issue," said Raymond Kelley, national legislative director for the 1.3 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).
"There's been huge progress on simply getting the candidates to focus on veterans issues," said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
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The strongest difference, veteran advocates say, is in the area of buying private-sector health care for VA patients.
Trump would essentially remove the agency from a veteran's medical decisions, allowing anyone eligible for VA care to visit any private doctor at the government's expense so long as the physician accepts Medicare.
"Donald Trump is the only one that has got real reform and the bold ideas that need to be invoked in order to change the way veterans are treated by their federal government," said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and a key adviser in shaping the campaign's VA positions.
Veterans — many of whom want more choice but remain protective of the VA — have taken notice. "He right now has the most aggressive position on privatization we've seen in the modern era," Rieckhoff said.
Clinton would largely retain the current system, calling for "strategically" purchasing private services "when it makes sense to do so" for certain medical specialties or timely care.
That view is in line with veteran organizations like the VFW. Kelley said the group favors purchasing private care for veterans to ensure timely treatment. But the VFW believes overall management of each veteran's health care should remain with the VA.
"Veterans' health care conditions are often much more complex than a regular civilian's and trying to coordinate all that on your own is a rough proposition," Kelley said.
VFW officials regularly consult with both campaigns and had hoped Trump had eased, at their urging, his position on widespread purchase of private-sector medical care, Kelley said. But the Trump campaign says that remains a key position.
Veteran issues have achieved a prominence in this presidential race not seen in previous campaigns. Both candidates addressed the VFW's convention in July and will speak at the American Legion convention later this month. They will appear at a first-ever forum on Sept. 7 held by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which counts 187,000 veterans as members.
The VA is the second-largest federal bureaucracy — after the Pentagon — and struggles to provide prompt care to many of the 6 million veterans who are patients. A 2014 uproar over appointment records falsified to conceal long wait times forced the VA secretary to resign and led Congress to approve a $15 billion overhaul.
Even so, the number of veterans waiting 30 days or longer for a doctor has actually increased since that legislation passed in 2014. It is now more than a half-million veterans.
Despite their focus on VA improvements, Trump and Clinton each has run afoul of veterans during the campaign. Clinton drew criticism last October when she said the VA wait-time scandal has "not been as widespread as it has been made out to be." Her campaign later clarified that she is "outraged" by what happened at the VA.
Trump drew fire from several veterans groups for his critical remarks about the Democratic National Convention appearance of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents of a U.S. soldier who died in combat in Iraq. The VFW issued a rare rebuke of a presidential candidate saying "to ridicule a Gold Star mother is out of bounds."
Veterans groups analyzing the speeches and positions of the two candidates say both advocate many similar changes.
Trump offers a three-page platform and a 10-point plan touted during speeches. Clinton has 11 pages of VA ideas, something her supporters argue shows a more thoughtful consideration of what needs to be done.
"Hillary Clinton has definitely exhibited a breadth of understanding and knowledge about veterans' health care," said Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., acting ranking member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Both wrestle with the thorny issue of accountability and firing corrupt employees, particularly in the wake of the 2014 scandal. The reform law tried to streamline the firing process but ran into constitutional problems over denying due process for civil service workers. A new law aimed at correcting this is pending in Congress.
Trump said he will push for a bill that would let him "fire corrupt and incompetent VA executives that let our veterans down." Clinton, with a nod to the civil service protections, said "supervisors must be empowered to suspend or remove under-performing employees in accordance with due process."
Trump would appoint a commission to investigate "fraud, cover-ups, and wrongdoing" at the VA and present findings to Congress for legislative changes. He also vowed to create a 24-hour White House hotline for veterans with complaints and personally resolve issues that aren't fixed promptly.
Clinton said she would create an oversight board to promote best practices for VA health care and a president's council to help synchronize and integrate veteran services across the government, plus convene a White House summit to address progress on veterans' issues.
"They're both talking about VA reform. That's good to hear," Rieckhoff said. "But we've got to hear details. Saying you're going to clean up the VA is like saying you're going to clean up Washington. It's the new political pander line. ... How are you actually going to do that?"