On Thursday, October 13th, EANGUS Executive Director Frank Yoakum and Legislative Director Scott Bousum, together with members of The Military Coalition, attended a meeting with Clinton for America and Donald Trump campaign officials and advisors in Alexandria, Virginia.
The eleven Clinton for America campaign people spoke about VA improvement, GI Bill preservation, and making government work. They talked about moving away from arbitrary budget caps, maintaining a strong commitment to White House initiatives like Joining Forces, but said they had no strategy for fixing the budget or cultural issues within the government.
The ensuing discussion covered such salient points as personnel compensation and the pay gap; privatizing the VA; impact on the defense industrial base; commissary; national defense strategy; health care and electronic health records; military readiness; survivor issues; and the uncertainty of the future.
The five Trump campaign officials talked about ending sequestration; not holding defense funding hostage to domestic funding; VA reform but not privatization; putting veterans in charge of their health care; protecting benefits; increasing defense funding; family support and jobs; transferrable licenses and certificates between states; suicide prevention; and how veterans are talked about.
The discussion included many of the same points from the earlier meeting. Other topics included women serving in uniform; perceptions tying women to sexual assault; VA Commission on Care report; Toxic Agent Exposure Act; Fairness for Veterans Act; the demonization of the VA system; other than honorable discharges and its effect on suicides; and personnel versus weapons systems spending.
Both campaigns believe there is value in continuing the discussion with Military Coalition members and conducting periodic meetings after the elections to ensure that the military and veteran voices are heard.