Veterans deserve delivery on promises

Editor’s note: All candidates for local, state and national elected offices are invited to publish one 600- to 800-word Opinion piece in the Frontiersman during the election cycle. Send submissions to news@frontiersman.com.

Last month, I announced my candidacy for U.S. Senate, holding kick-off events in Anchorage, Wasilla and Fairbanks. My wife, daughters, father and mother-in-law, and I had a great day, driving close to 400 miles to take our campaign message directly to the people of our great state. This message emphasized the importance of standing up for our veterans.

A number of people, including several veterans, remarked on the U.S. Marine Corps boots I wore at my campaign kickoff events. I wore those boots in honor of our veterans who have defended our great nation for decades and deserve the benefits they have sacrificed for, but that Washington is not giving them.

According to Stars and Stripes, the backlog of veterans’ benefits cases has skyrocketed by almost 300 percent from approximately 150,000 in 2009 to more than 600,000 cases in spring 2013. This is an outrage.

As a 20-year Marine Corps infantry officer currently serving in the Marine Corps reserves, I care deeply about veterans’ issues. That is why yesterday, on Veterans Day, I released my first of many campaign policy initiatives on crucial issues for Alaska. Appropriately, the first one was on Veterans matters, titled the “Promises Delivered Project.”

The “Promises Delivered Project” addresses several important issues, including:

• Reducing the appalling backlog of veterans’ benefits cases. With leadership and focus, we can fix this unacceptable problem.

• Re-examining the definition of combat service-related deaths and injuries to ensure that veterans who have served in harm’s way are fairly compensated.

• Ensuring the delivery of services for veterans throughout rural and remote parts of Alaska.

• Creating more jobs for our veterans.

• Providing veterans the same relief from Obamacare’s mandates that certain members of Congress and their staffs are eligible for.

To learn more about the “Promises Delivered Project,” please visit my website, sullivan2014.com.

The bottom line of my proposal is to ensure our veterans receive the benefits for which they so greatly sacrificed. In an era when trust in our national government has plummeted, there is no more important issue than keeping faith with our veterans.

There is no doubt that one of the most important issues facing our county is the need to reduce the trillions of dollars of deficits that have been run up by our federal government over the past several years. But this should not be done on the backs of our veterans who have earned their benefits through hard work, sacrifice and in many cases, through physical and mental injuries and even death.

As my proposal emphasizes, enhancing veterans services and benefits is appropriate in certain cases, but the best thing that our government can do for our veterans is to promote economic opportunity and good paying jobs. In many parts of the country, this is not happening.

The Obama administration has one of the worst post-recession unemployment and economic growth records in American history due to its policies of over-regulating and overtaxing our economy. This has increased uncertainty and stymied broad-based economic growth throughout much of the country. We need to change this.

Good jobs for our veterans is a classic win-win situation that we need to take advantage of. As the U.S. military is downsizing, we have incredible servicemen and women who are moving into the workforce. They bring to employers an impressive set of skills: discipline, leadership, initiative and the ability to get things done with little supervision. These veterans need good-paying jobs, and our economy needs their “can do” work ethic to help spur economic growth. So the most important thing we can do for our veterans is to grow our economy at traditional, robust American levels of economic growth.

To all Alaska veterans, thank you for your service and sacrifice, and I hope you enjoyed Veteran Day yesterday — you’ve earned it!

Dan Sullivan is a candidate for U.S. Senate.