Sen. Talent's Votes on Veterans

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill has been running an ad that says Sen. Jim Talent has voted 23 times against veterans.

If you haven't seen it, you can watch it HERE by clicking and scrolling down to "Josh."

We recently caught up with Sen. Talent at a campaign event in Springfield where he won the endorsement of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Here's my exchange with him about those votes McCaskill refers to:

Catanese - Is there any truth to those 23 votes against veterans?
Talent - No, I mean those votes were by and large against tax increases that were linked to some kind of veterans proposal. These organizations (VFW) don't endorse somebody who doesn't vote for VA health benefits. I've been a strong advocate, I voted for $20 billion dollars in VA health increases over the last 4 years and we have been able to significantly increase VA health in this decade. VA health spending is up 50% in the first 4 years of this decade. That's better than it was.

Catanese - I took a look at one of the vote's back in March. The President had proposed to double or triple health premiums for some veterans. Sen. Kerry introduced an amendment to stop the increases.
Talent - I think that one had tax increases in it too.
Catanese - But isn't if fair to say you voted with the President to increase healthcare premiums?
Talent - No, no. I've not voted for health fees or premium increases for veterans programs. What I voted against however is tax increases. I voted for $20 billion in increases for VA health funding. I don't vote for premium increases. What I typically do is vote for the benefit increases without the tax increases. I don't think we need to increase taxes on the American people to support veterans. In fact, veteran spending has gone way up without a tax increase.

Catanese - McCaskill says get rid of the tax cuts for the millionaires and then the veterans wouldn't have to have the burden of higher premiums.
Talent - What she wants is to raise taxes on small business people, professionals. That's what she calls raising taxes on the wealthy, and I'm not for that. Revenue increased last year by almost $250 billion dollars. We don't have a deficit because we're taxing too little. We have a deficit because we're spending too much. But we were able to raise veteran benefits a lot within the context of reducing the deficit because we set some priorities.

Catanese - Do you think there's a such thing as Gulf War Syndrome?
Talent - Oh yeah, I really do.
Catanese - Even in the face of that recent report?
Talent - Oh yeah. Look, one of the problems with the Veterans Administration is you have to constantly stay on top of them to make certain that they are continuing to extend services to the vets . . . They don't do anything unless they get pressured.