Kerry Supports the Troops??

"I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

-Senator John Kerry, March 16, 2004.

In his speech to the VFW in Ohio yesterday, John Kerry spoke about how he supports the US military and admires them for their service.

But his record says something completely different:

In 1991: Kerry voted to cut the defense budget by 2 percent and to shift these funds to social programs. [Charles R. Smith, "Kerry's Real Defense Record", Newsmax.com, March 4, 2004]

In 1992: Kerry voted to cut $6 billion from defense.

In 1993: Kerry voted against a militry pay raise. He voted to reduced overall defense spending by $8.8 billion. [Senatorial Congressional Resolution 106]
He also wanted to force early retirement of 60,000 active duty service members. This is the year that the World Trade Center was bombed and terrorists declared war on America.

In 1994: Kerry proposed cutting $43 billion from defense spending (remember, the terrorists delcared war on us...) Kerry said: "What we have offered to the Senate is an opportunity to register our votes for real choices for a set of choices that reflect what the American people would really like to be spending their money on as opposed to being forced to spend it by continuation of programs that the President [Clinton] has asked to have cut."[John Solomon, "Kerry's 1994 Effort to Cut Defense Eyed" Assoc. Press, March 19, 2004]

Not even Robert Byrd supported this bill: "We have already cut defense spending drastically.....Cutting another $4billion (for fiscal year 1995) is simply unwise and insupportable." [Ibid.]

In 1995: Kerry voted to freeze defense spending.

In 1996: Kerry proposed $6.5 billion Dept. of Defense budget cut. He also proposed a spending freeze. Not one single senator supported his proposal. Remember, by this time, embassies had been attacked by Al Queda and Americans were killed....the war was still on.
Kerry also stated that the missile defense system was not needed because "the supporters of this bill will say that North Korea, Iran, Iraq, or Lybia now have or will have shortly, the ability to launch a missile that can reach our shores. That is simply not the case."

From his Ohio speech yesterday: "For example, why are we unilaterally withdrawing 12,000 troops from the Korean Peninsula at the very time we are negotiating with North Korea – a country that really has nuclear weapons?"

An obvious example of Kerry's shortsightedness. Now he thinks North Korea is a threat, but back in 1996, they weren't a threat. Hmmm......read on:

In 1998, North Korea fired its Taepo Dong missile over Japan, on its way to dropping a simulated nuclear warhead off the west coast of the US. China has a ballistic missile tracking system, obtained from the Clinton administration, that can reach the US mainland.

6 of the last 10 years, Senator Kerry has voted to freeze or greatly reduce the defense budget even though Al Queda had delcared war on the United States.

He also voted against the $87 billion increase in the Iraq war funding...

This bill went towards supplying our troops with body armor, hazardous duty pay increases, humvees, and a $1.3 billion increase in medical care to military families. Bush also gave the military pay raises this year as well.

From his speech yesterday: "Military families are going through difficult times these days. Many of their loved ones are in faraway places, leaving them to care for their families alone. The last thing our servicemen and women need on their minds is the stress of wondering if their loved ones back home will be okay.... That means making sure families have competitive pay, good housing, decent health care and quality education for their children. "

Yep, and this bill will help these families.

Kerry did not vote for this bill and neither did other liberals like Kennedy, Harkin, Kucinich, and Pelosi. They claim that it was an "inappropriate" use of taxpayers dollars. [ Chad Allen, "The Only Spending Liberals Hate" Washington Dispatch, September 12, 2003]

So, John Kerry's idea of "supporting the troops" isn't what we Americans call support.

His record stands on its own.....and it stands on sand.

From his speech yesterday:

"What they need is a president who protects their families while they are putting their lives on the line protecting the American family."


Thank God they have one in office now.