An hour with Senator Bob Dole

from the national press club in washington dc kbr presents an hour with senator bob dole k mcintyre the good news about the wars in iraq and afghanistan the mortality rate has dropped dramatically from previous wars with almost ninety percent of seriously wounded soldiers surviving the bad news many of those wounded soldiers face far more extensive and traumatic injuries and an often overwhelmed military healthcare bureaucracy last year president bush appointed senator dole to co chair of presidential commission on care for veterans for cancer center there was flowing in that were five former secretary of health and human services donna shalala and now here is senator dodd frank bealer much good in adoption i sat down to you and you not been around a long time and i've been working with veterans ever since i was a county attorney in russell

kansas in the forties service also the legion and the vfw saw that a lot of contacts with veterans in hospitals and no people to be more bureaucracy and i've enjoyed almost every night i'm now involved in a week on our flight program which flies all those old guys and to see the world war two memorial that some will look upon your website on her flight thirty one states and all they fly un and back then i am one day and cost you one dime you can be in a wheelchair you can try to claim you can bring your son or daughter to make care there is always a doctor available and as it's a wonderful program we never walk or get people like jose and his generation but we don't want to get a what we call a disappearing generation

and we're losing about the world on margaret mead nine years old wooden believer look at it but we lose about twelve hundred world war two veterans every day we got them sitting on that and you can't i can't explain the emotion and what it means to lobbies eighty five nineteen ninety five year old veterans mostly men but some women who get a chance to touch and feel of war work and more they're saying as happened in years and i've been a member of the restaurant so they get a chance on wednesday or saturday i've sort of become the unofficial greeter i cut agreed every group and the guys really well it's very exciting for me and as a revenue but i want to take just a few minutes to nine o'clock here where

is it the lack of republicans see the desperate people but i think this is a good time to speak briefly i know some of this is about a doll and dry but it's very important to veterans and their families and we got memorial day coming up which is not an important data most families a seventy eight percent of the people out on a lot of is this poll recently signing to thirty two percent the border stamped moral is all about and so that's an indictment what the people are busy and mortar much as another day all the others it's a very very special time in our not target just about those who died in uniform i'm talking about your parents your grandparents their children were mad men has passed away it's not just about all day and it's gonna be a

wonderful day and a starter way back in the civil war days and i really are caught in those historic lows of the story where this group women put flowers on race of those who were killed so warm weather and the ideas spread and a very different stories about reported started but there's a lot of accepted some say it started when the slaves decorated union graves in charleston where back in eighteen sixty five but the official birthplaces waterloo me or where they began celebrating on a regular basis and in making sixty six and so it was a big big event that and in the year two thousand people say congress can't agree on anything congress agreed that there should be a moment of remembrance on memorial day at three pm local time where you may be and just

a pause as an active national unity reflective on the sacrifices made in free thought oh we're all busy but you know three o'clock and you can be offered few minutes you know and nobody's watching and a country club somewhere would have you do it so it is not think about it but i think go and you think to twenty six million veterans some require our care and then in a hospital they ask the oldest more geriatrics at the older veterans who maybe see a person wants or for the person right and the food and maybe that's it or the water volunteers preview of the wiper some of the older veterans men and women is not a very pretty picture that it hadn't been done and racism and all wrote this it

got everybody's attention was about building a team that was about it the sony now but there is about episode a final word is because my ancestors son had a brain tumor and he was treated and will review he didn't survive but she stayed on that motel which letter was purchased by the army and it would run down nomination and hausler it was this craze and i credit dave and others who wrote about it so everybody is feeding frenzy which happens in washington dc everybody a lot of these of this novel that i can and you give me twenty minutes now find it but discontent in many different views we have problems in world war two and that their world war two or korean or vietnam veterans are

who had trouble getting their benefits who had trouble sometimes of their care and have a devastated in world war two for everyone for every survivor a dime and now and bring you all you can be injured an award or whatever and baghdad on tuesday and be at walter reed on friday and that's a big improvement that's a big plus that's why more people are surviving that's why as bad as it is there are probably about forty two hundred seriously wounded or injured or rock afghan veterans as too many love again take care of that and we are words that shape but i do it not president bush felt some responsibilities administration and congress did something about improvisation and i think both may insert a flight and really

made needed to be on a commission we've seen them come and go but we been on them and they're going on my shelf years later they're in on what they're doing but they're never really like much of an impact now secretary so well you know mahler this a great partner i mean she's tough she's determined cheese reasonable he's flexible and we never talked about politics i never bought it can seem to mind and i don't know anybody else on a commission that would everything about president bush i'm a times he met with us jose and spend an hour or two hours or the commission and talk to us and imam of the day when we walked over to the window and he didn't say how many republicans are on the commission

they're not on the commission all i know is it five or disabled or even salman says it's going to cost he said three words whatever it takes andy also properties said that he was responsible for every one of these young men like jose coming back from afghanistan iraq with serious injuries and mr charles london just to those two continents and one at another hero here in a minute so it's a person responsibilities shut and then we started and done a lot of great ideas made great commissioners and omar kamal meadows now student harvard program that intuition he got a very bad a shattered leg a lot of the severely burned service member can members are often run over eighty percent of his body his hands again do anything with his hands

the director the national rehab center in washington a somebody money to know it at all who's severely disabled and gail wilensky many men are no promises and then mr frazier of the fisher family have all these fischer homes and many many facilities and there is the money privately quietly no fanfare can was a great number and dr martin harris the cleveland clinic upon to know more about it than anybody vital information technology and the da's not a great system and the dod is trying to catch up and so he's gonna work back and forth and so these are the kind of people we met in a lot of time we had reported operate first four months to get up and running into all these things and also to skip along here but i'd all imagination three wise women

one was marie making it to work for me years ago in the senate the democrats have won the question then or now does he was executive director and the decadent it is paradise two of our dimensions and then this lady that knew everything ms sue us a whole set of the rand corporation in every thirty some years plus we have this excellent staff the outstanding men and women including about two dozen detail easom dod and the va now we are only there for one purpose what really do to address some of the real problems there were problems at some are exaggerated but the rope rubbed so is all prompted by now get credit towards imposing those road stories and then there are things that fall but it's a dead open up everything and we did we went out

on all the country meant to hospitals and we try to go ahead and have the doctor following us around to the patient might feel intimidated knowing what is looking for a factory on a night anybody we want there to criticize anybody we want to make the system better and that's why some of these people like jose they're the center if i don't i'm with disabilities in a week i understood what disability laws and what what you can do with your life so i think we concluded one thing we concluded that it almost without exception that the terrier is a man in the head or dod there's only as axel nominate job or we're gone on butter outta there are stories written and our people were who didn't get the care they deserve and that's happened though was

like remember the best notes drillers will be getting better and we are getting better and yet dr peter on tuesday was the first physician and the administration there's a wonderful man and i hope whoever is elected president keeps is guided not political is a doctor he cares about people sell you know we got a make headlines i'm audi mourn idea that this adaptation not very often but that you know you say some major gonna make it if you attack somebody gonna make him by the way i'm speaking as that i know you're all kinds of my good friend and our friend ted kennedy and we had different is they work together on a lot of things like american disabilities act is among the harder work and senator that i've ever known then senator kennedy so we all wish him well

but to get a story without some anti ba ordeal the bias was pretty hardcore sabah was aimed primarily at president bush because there hadn't been a great love affair between president bush and the media but we wanted that this article a gallon are brought our problems to try to find the facts we're the first time in illinois so that the top of the rebels and i dont care coordinator jose allen a case were greeted us can you remember you may go last political caseworker and that caseworker that scary but then they're shipped off somewhere or they go somewhere and then in another case or and jose had so many he can remember their names now how can somebody follow up on your appointments or your medicine or your family if they don't have somebody there who's with you from the start to the end when you walk into walter reed where

one out of four comeback go the getting somebody's obvious sign you and somebody on a paul y'all went through well beyond that now and we got our first well in the domain of the first airport in oman to get to an m and this is a very basic recommendation that cost guarantee anything that involve thousands of people were drawn not a hundred max maybe two hundred people were talking about falling a serious disabled man no one was injured and to me that's something that this out why some of unthinkable and trying to get the boy nearby jose was only brought up the target was a credit right after me enjoy it and but the first reset and recover recovery

corner of the system can't wait can't stand up and his wife sarah our awareness of it the players then the place to pee servers testify an imam are many criticisms she made which were appropriate and now she's written a piece which i read out it's probably somewhere on about how you were say by this care coordinator their care coordinator is a registered nurse i mean these are really taken care to not everybody some people are good fortune that the amputees a tb isensee severe ptsd is an interview saying sometimes paralysis we need care coordinators and a change their entire life right

so this was a cabinet that employs twenty five million dollars is not always putting more money at the problem you're going to see that it's doing things that are important so for all this name that we also think it's time to change the disability system we believe when jose was unarmed he's gonna get compensated for loss of earnings but our view was jada get another payment is called quality of life is his quality of life has gone from a candlelight idaho and has gazed up it would delay that has gone down from most veterans could be around the beast it's actually related anything and an intense gaze north korea life is way down so we

say okay they're volunteer hawkins yeah they volunteered when i came back came back with an injury or loan than whatever takes the president said we ought to do now we're getting low resistance from somebody at frontier from a veterans group to an iraq war with them because if we get a tad more money and i was a more money and they'll get any more money going on the disabled veteran where what do it it seems unfair that's allocated differently i don't think my father would care if i got a hundred dollars more a month than he did and it's a different time and it's a different war were living in the tech not been major technology laws and i can use text message in all iced up and t e mail so overt i work out with groups like that he didn't say all american veterans are great up at mom probably

remember but we get it we get it the veterans group to sign off on this is going to work as you know what are veterans groups have in congress there's another change we recommend it when you got out of the service and you know that i'm asked that all you want to get paid for maybe six months well the transition plan you get a chance to get back home and unpacked and get your marriage on track or whatever to get your school gets unrolled another in such an animal again is not a big big costly thank and the cardinal i think we're talking about seriously disabled so these are just two of the better recommendations and also a single physical we know it will be a deal being an ego to be a value it was rewarding a pilot program working and i've cut the waiting time and have and you get your benefit checked within thirty days

so this pilot program is now working anna larsen eric continued to work is gonna be a big improvement in your banana to be a physical and of your town and that triggered a one hundred and one regular nirvana the pain and some people waited for five hundred days of that summer stories non some cases they appeal to manipulate takes time and have a right to appeal and other cases i think it's just been too bureaucratic so i cannot act in arkansas to see the veteran group's pointed you completely but nothing congress and impeccable image of ptsd that's sort of been the number one thing people talk about you know ptsd has a high percentage what the twenty percent they claimed ptsd and every provider the mild and moderate and severe know my view is the william winter park you wanna get better

night wanting a backing a fatal back your job or go back to school but our some not many who want to get better but that only about the check the compensation and so yap gonna watch or that you know that happens in every federal program and not very much an advantage program that does happen on it there are some people trying to use the system that is for me it goes there with a ptsd that got there today and under the end up another beginning because of congressional action the news during everything else they're really perking up their new baby at the us the program's would not a new treatment sides expected next year you want to drive for miles congress is earmarked for the bad word but earmark money for a new center for excellence and ptsd i guess nine hundred million dollars a marcher antibiotic dubious that it's remote assets in this area they're hot time or beep oh

that'll help people you know experts in that aisle there are far shore and so they're doing always sang about i think it's an appalling cost a couple billion dollar billion well actually what we spend a day in iraq and afghanistan so the brothers write whatever it takes not a minute to build good reasonable we have an obligation to very special occasion sony then our video the exam on ptsd before you go that were based on and then when you come back you have another examination slate pretty much telling change well you were wrong and that see anybody the questions here today now i guess what i would say but there's more support for family was gonna be up on the website this month in august where veterans can get on the website and later on as your they can put in their own name and a profile of everything anymore now and it's

all secret nobody else can get in there and it just push a button and it tells you what to be awarded all of your benefits are religious part of the new technology this one ok so an about as walter reed we felt walter reed army captain a one condition until the very day somebody turns off lights back some other sign but by less been decided so we want we want to make sure in our recommendations at walter reed was kept up their stuff and they have to pay these good people out there who care for people and at a given saturday but the bottom line is is to keep in mind sure things have gone wrong and that he has made mistakes and build his mental state but think about the people in these hospitals are like the people in israel this is our commitment this is our

life trying to make better and again they'll get him back on track now sometimes you don't get a hundred percent of the loans but it just seems to me when we start going after will be a year dod us all one commentator a whole article program called waging war on the pa exploded documentary with that title you can believe it so my view is we owe a lot to do we'll these young men everything and young women and so it brings me to the point where i would go this remind you that you know we all looked alike and kind of gets in the habit and it closes the proposal phone call the day i read a man who stood to speak of the view of a friend he referred to the dates on our tombstone from the beginning to the end you know the first candidate or birth and he spoke of the following day with tears

but it's never mattered most of all was the dash the dash between those years for that measure prevents all the time that you spent alive on earth and now only those who wonder you know what that the line is worth or it matters not how much we own the cars the house the kaddish what matters is how we live and love and how we spent our danish so frank about his long are other things you'd like to change or you never know much time is that there can still be rearranged if we just slow down enough to consider what's true and real and always try and understand the way other people feel and the last bit to anger and show appreciation more people arrive like when our law before if we treat each other with respect and more often where a

smile remembering us remembering that this special dash they only last a while so i know you're getting ready with their wives action strash wouldn't be proud of the place they say about how you spend your day i did you're listening to the senator bob dole the national guard in washington the individual not a question from the audience both music and poetry are plenty of other critics with apple my windowless and you mentioned the generational objections to compensation recommendations of the commission how do you think that will be resolved or somebody taking leadership on them or however as all those differences i was a good that's going to be up to congress resolve a united i'm i'm a veteran i belong to these groups in

hand i think most of the daughter almost welcoming congressman waxman waxman know some of these scam artist or one guy with ten different groups running for money that for some poor veteran newly would appear under this opinion so we're working on that too but i understand that congress wants to extend this to everybody nautilus world war two veterans are much worse shape than we were six years ago so that its very guarded do it lost our moral or two why that would be so difficult but it's got a date and i'm as i said you know you would like to see these recommendations past but on holder brett lyden in congress and not in on other people disagree all and it's the body was take on the veterans' groups and there was oh so they got a polite we need to resolve

some unease if a robin and resolve this why should i was a goner dollars more more or get it to undergo whatever is somebody medicare was in the vietnam war or maybe sell and then maybe the next president we'll get to that would you ever voted for the amendment that included the gi bill expansion welcomes i haven't read it which is not a rich weimann in congress chris israeli followed a month for the concept back to talk about some of the people working on it and i think the question was it's not a porn senate bill which is a lot i'm overlook was a pretty expensive and the baroque an animal on the desolate that's the other question i don't know the answer we've got experts

are gonna do audit our people down and leave the service early because i got this college education made a business of say to people the workforce or years it didn't get a college education as sort of like the the nba and college basketball you could play one year then you can go in at all and i think that your question out of the arm for had gotten us out so i got an education at about a story or two and the gi bill are brighter than any money and that's clark education they'd say yeah my generation and they got other events vote for you're going to be on for the concept i was in the particulars

if we have the money well where would the money come from both for that and some of the other state compensation programmer the dr expanded medical benefits lot on all seven then every twelve years but then trouble on the house side as i understand it and follow this closely so called blue dogs the more conservative democrats who are paid for and i suddenly a tax increase and that nobody would suggest that at this point so you now but it if i'm on the budget committee i can figure out ways to delay this program a few months in this for a few months and thought i get enough to pay for this for a few months it is not illegal just create you also mentioned one of the objections that has been raised about the bill the gi bill that senator mccain shares that objection that it would encourage people to leave the military rather than

re upped for another two or do you think that holds water well adam on in iraq but it's normal in a minute we got a bright be a bright young men and women in the service but a lot of people don't have that you and i understand that they don't think we have a stoplight people dolman i think education most important thing in america and someday they may have a universal education in a seven listener that but are you i know the answer that no i never met a study on only out of dod deals that way that it was based on it we want everybody wants him to get that education is question of how many years did you serve before that given its for that note meant summers entries our series six the only problem with that do you think president bush's threatened veto of the war spending bill because in which in part is

because it includes more money for veterans' benefits and he wants is in any way motivated motivated by his desire to give republicans republican candidates are waiting or emailing to me it really think that there is any political motivation there it allows republicans to distance themselves from him now and i think there's a veritable unlike every other bailouts got a lot of stuff that shouldn't be in there and then you know you're the taxpayers only forty percent of americans pay taxes now sonnet a cupola sixty percent say they'll raise taxes and the bottom eight now that the vote in our getting fewer rich people the other one percent rather than that they get seventeen percent of the income but pay thirty five percent of the taxes and forty percent pay ninety nine point nine percent of the taxes and you're rich when you get up in the seventy thousand range so i don't know i'm in and i don't think that's the

case here i'm in on what letters that they'll be nonpartisan and audi veterans' education it was on that bill barely passing world war two it was i think three or four boats as out sharply divided on what target was but the name very common raven kansas huge international legion commander and a group of veterans in room three twenty the mayflower hotel robert hersh yeah as secretary pete when he was here this week said that he thinks too many young veterans are being labeled with traumatic brain injury or post traumatic stress disorder or do you agree that there is over labeling going away at all is what is his gun always experts and i always ask is the expert if i bring somebody analyst says the us centers of ptsd which you get all the internet and you can you

can you know examine that person ends and get the pretty definitive answer that is still not there are those milder whatever moderate or severe i sat down with a group of about thirteen ptsd patients in the miami florida on the commission and i tried it that night in the home and i don't know i think we call that battle to dig in world war two but it is real and it compensated that's why now they're doing all the sayings that you get free care after five years out so but is there some gaming the system why don't we probably until you get making people involved in one point five million to go to iraq and afghanistan and you know somebody might decide that there's very very minor so it we just need to make certain that you're getting the treatment that is available and we do what whatever it takes

summer mccain will release his medical records today how much importance should voter place on that voters place on that kind of information they're important i'm never mind then again member a doctorate from the new york times and he thought i did a great job by released everything manly wrote a piece and there are all these new york times which i say because i don't have any other state and the local set i say that very clearly what my problem it as important and i understand the game's are very positive for some really one will be wages faces an issue all serve with it i'm

speaking also many us navy asked if you're available what well we want a politics showing four years ago republicans were aiming to establish a permanent majority in congress now they're fighting to avoid being shut out of government what went wrong question wants to know well i was wrong is the iraq war that getting into whether we do it on or whatever it's not on it's not popular or wasn't popular and then about the time the world's up his surge is working in the economy goes down a bright gas prices go up now maybe that's nobody's fault that you know gets blamed as the person in charge of the party in charge in this case one day can be a lifetime in this business of politics the summit and say something or do something or something happened that would change a congress that i think is bigger again as a doctor elephants

and there have been a lot of an announcer then of water out there but the democrats have an edge that are most exciting as them they raise the most money they got this race of obama and clinton which you know people will follow the law to get bigger turnouts but you know nobody stopped at a cost and nobody really has focused new at it and i'm not a very good justin's i lost but you and i don't think a lot of voters are really made that decision yet the iraqi mention iraq the iraq and afghanistan wars have stretched the military fan is it time to rethink the draft or why i don't think so i mean i i would have the all volunteer army and dada know if there's

a draft and i think the people who don't want to be entered gonna finally not to be in but that went out one of the critical but the whole payoff we get some desperate situation but i don't see anything come in on the road it's going to require a pr world than but you know we've been around in the dmz for sixty some years in you know we met people everywhere in the world on fire and where almost everyone on the viral so it really they are not the best judges i don't think i don't travel good friend while i gather draft reinstated i don't think there's time have your views about the war and a lack of all of that several years and if so to what wow they have a lot on whether

you know some of these sayings history will decide when president truman left the white house with approval ratings twenty four percent when i smile at the white house a one much higher amount of this has had a chance to look back and look at the day's the truman days guys are days i'd say they're both in the top ten i'm aware and this is when a judge and a president of the democrat republican of deadly when elliott talking about a rock all pretension should there be branches that should be part of our policy well it depends on what the danger is and somebody isn't it out you don't give them the first shot of you know and either someone in your family so i've never been i've been the draw it away on iraq but i believe that even all american people like that and i like to

cnn ever there was a cnn i don't think down deep i think the basic things that americans worry about our liberty and freedom and if we leave iraq member vietnam a gravel normalized helicopter trying to get out of saigon that we want and i would assume is a great country we got a risk but we're doing better i they don't address served on a lot of a job of lonely men and once so i don't have any action it that way but i think above all people like jose and and dead and others who serve their country in a way that makes us proud and americans don't want to lose no country likes to lose politically was some guy like that crazy guy in iran and outside of the taliban people like that a few years ago when you were at this very

podium you closure taught by reading a note from your friend judy miller was then in jail because she refused to divulge her sources you read her plea for a federal shield law it's three years later and there's still no shield law what will it take and have you encouraged her former congressional colleagues to support it well i'm a republican i let people i felt and madagascar rwanda is a duty ago when johnson you know whether people might think about was done or what she did you sitting in jail for only days eighty seven not easy and he did it based on principle is now thought about all she'll always appropriate still do another interesting and innovative recently but there's opposition to two percent some of those signs

do you think they should've that people especially religious leaders who offer their endorsements in other words what do you make of the mini controversy the that that attached itself to obama and mccain because of statements are sermons made by testers who support them well i did an example in our campaign we got a donation from republican gay and lesbian group and we sent that an instant hit yes my view should of them is what ronald reagan's us it's a grilled my bosses and one a subordinate that's fine and having a big press saying and this activist in the campaign in a lot i don't care what you want to have a preference to

list ethnicity race what lifestyle you know i sat up all i want i can't think of somebody i didn't want to vote for me chris thought of a couple of thought in my view that the doors open when i was chairman department of the door off the republican party headquarters and called the open door policy and we started the black republican council really an all this outreach an accord watergate came along sought out but you say expand the party to some people at all well my view is that most i realize in our most of people are i'm a little road and maybe a moderate liberal or moderate conservatism and i thought it's a place to be in the middle of the road you know ms moore says political and then all on the fringe

of the well what your questions now rather like we're out the question is that as a registered lobbyist what is your opinion of senator mccain's decision to exclude lobbyist from his top campaign staff well really obvious international art there together we don't think that in four years than identities people of ten senators senator kennedy senator biden senator dodd i don't think i'm up similar interviews and then on another but the uk i'm tired of putting together in this another lot of very smart people who have been advocates that sort of use lobbyist as a connotation and evil are a member when our law firm are represented taiwan an adult for registration that and there's an editorial i can his paper that thought i was

a spy that i want a meal is such as wild sow advocate be better word but i'm on the nevada yeah the right to petition congress it's in the constellation that you want somebody else to do it for your you wanna get a group like this table save money and it's money do it for him as a right a constitutional right we're my view a lot as always was that they'd tell me the truth you know can they give me the facts and that's not at all come back and mostly we're like that they're not up trying to make some dealership money under the table the other two bad apples everywhere some undivided and some of minneapolis but i've been good john but audio all means all the available time a lobbyist lot

about libya the second period of state and the last question you've alluded to this a couple of times on the show mccain picked for his running mate and are you available for him or mccain well i think it's far too early the baker running mate on all of the noise the missile party on arizona can get a reservation but you know they're out there the one that i met john mccain and looking at all while you don't get to be president of your republican line but you know in ohio and florida and they beat michigan but i don't not want certain john mccain i used to tie myself looking around in the audience it may be a whole lot of that role in the bed and i'd say b it would be a good thing if somebody outside politics some business man or woman or professional who understood government

and had a great reputation in their state in the community so far my duties i would really appeal to the american people not in a close one pole or this is a quote from the british historian john stuart mill i did know in the summer time and so it was warren i believe i have read that as not the other is two things medicaid and degraded state of moral unpatriotic dealing with signs of nothing is worth more is much worse the person has nothing for which is willing to fight nothing for which nothing which is more important than his own personal safety as a miserable creature and has no chance of being free from us made in caps so by the assertions a better man than himself

thank you senator bob dole at the national press club in washington dc reported may twenty thirteen thousand eight the audio archive of senator cole's talk was provided by the national press club broadcast operations center with special thanks to mike marshall i'm j mcintyre kbr presents is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas the chinese people have gotten even more sought to eliminate will say god peace and to seek independence prosperity and happiness next time and keeping our presents we look to china on the eve of the two thousand eight summer olympics join us at eight o'clock sunday night on kansas public radio for kansas state landon lecture by chinese ambassador jo one john i'm looking to get that serves as opposed to an account

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