Ron Paul Calls Out Barack Obama on Veterans' Issues and Foreign Policy

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, now making his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination, sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Tuesday regarding proposed cuts to veterans benefits and international affairs.

As a doctor, an Air Force veteran, and congressman who serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee and has always fought for the best interest of our troops, I was deeply concerned to learn that our military retirees are now facing benefit cuts under your proposed $1.5 trilliontax hike, wrote Paul, who is considered one of the leading libertarians on the political stage. Our military men and women have fought bravely. In exchange, our country made a promise to them, and we must honor it. There are trillions of dollars in unwise and unconstitutional spending we must cut. There are few other leaders in Washington willing to cut spending as deeply as I am and truly balance our budget.But, we must make sure we take care of our veterans who fought to take care of us.

We have put our troops in harms way, and we must honor our promises.And, our troops have paid a heavy price these past 10 years. Over 5,000 have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, 40,000 have seen crushing injuries, and hundreds of thousands more suffer from brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, added Paul, who has been a leading critic of American military involvement overseas. Failing to meet the promises we have made to our troops would be unjust and immoral. The cuts you announced yesterday, combined with the rumored cuts in benefits reported in publications like Army Times, have our soldiers and veterans deeply concerned.

Mr. President, instead of cutting our veterans' benefits, I call on you to support our troops. Support them by bringing them home to our shores, to protect our borders and defend our country. Ensure that they are rested and equipped to repel any real credible attack. Reunite them with their families. And, make sure they no longer play policeman in dangerous foreign civil wars, Paul continued. Cutting the benefits of our veterans' benefits, while we subsidize the security of other wealthy nations like Germany and Japan and play world policeman, makes no sense. The money we would save extracting our fighting men and women and our equipment from overseas conflicts and regions will more than offset the savings you seek by upending the manner in which veterans receive care.

Bringing our troops home would ensure that we keep the promise to our veterans, strengthen our national defense and secure our borders, Paul wrote. Do not mistake me for a pacifist or a person solely focused on the economics of the unsustainable global security and state-building that has helped our country arrive at the shores of financial ruin.On the contrary, I consider my military service as an Air Force flight surgeon during the Cold War to be among my highest personal and professional achievements.

Authentic, constitutionallysound national security a strong national defense begins with guarding our borders and not the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Paul wrote in conclusion. Mr. President, I call upon you to support our troops, honor our veterans, and ensure our wounded get the care they deserve. To do so, we must end these protracted, trillion-dollar wars and bring them [U.S. troops] home.