Kerry Urges Congress to Ease Burden of Lengthy Deployment on Nat. Guard

Kerry Urges Congress to Ease Burden of Lengthy Deployment on National Guard and Reserves
September 19th, 2005

Before delivering his “blistering” speech today at Brown University, John Kerry held a field hearing at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., on the impact of deployments on National Guard and Reservists who own or work for small businesses. This issue is one that Kerry has been very vocal about for some time. I have posted other pieces on this here, here and here.

A key issue discussed at the hearing was Kerry’s Military Family Bill of Rights, a bill that includes comprehensive and direct assistance for military members and their families, including loans, grants and tax credits for Guard and Reserve members who own their own small businesses or work for one.

“The repeated and lengthy call-ups of our Guard and Reserve troops are putting a tremendous financial strain on military families in Massachusetts, the Gulf region and across the country. Too often, our troops have to surrender part of their income to serve, and too often, small businesses struggle to absorb the loss of an employee. They should be able to rest assured that when they return from Iraq and Afghanistan, their homes and their jobs will be waiting for them,” Kerry said. “Congress can choose to talk about helping military families or it can actually do something to help them. I’m trying to get Congress to put its money where its mouth is. For a lot of these guys, it’s just been too much hollow rhetoric.”

MORE - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=604

and he's been working on this issue for some time. The Senate actually passed something on this Thursday, so it seems that they do care some -

Senate Passes Kerry Legislation to Provide Tax Relief, Help Guard and Reserve Troops Hurt By Katrina
http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=568

"40 percent tax credit for wages paid up to $6,000 after August 28, 2005 and before December 31, 2005. This credit will help employers in the Gulf Coast who pay employees that are not able to work because the business was either damaged or destroyed and pay reservists and guardsmen that worked for them right up to the time before they were deployed."
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Doesn't address ad hoc lengthy deployments. If the military were not run like FEMA we and they would have definitive answers on length of service. Any one of the service men or women could easily make more money stateside.

He has to beat the drum on this thing whether anybody cares or not. He's used to beating the drum on stuff people ignore. It doesn't seem to stop him.