August 28, 2012

By Rachel Brooks

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., delivered a speech in a park pavilion Saturday outside the Columbia Veterans of Foreign Wars building as part of her campaign for re-election to the U.S. Senate.

“I will fight with every breath in my body to not break promises to veterans about benefits they will receive,” McCaskill said.

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee for six years, she has had input into writing the new G.I. Bill, renovating Walter Reed Army Hospital after a 2007 housing scandal, and improving Arlington National Cemetery after an investigation into the [mishandling of human remains last November](http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2011/11/15/mccaskill-calls-investigate-soldiers-remains-issue/).

With an audience of about 50 people, including more than seven veterans, McCaskill presented bar graphs showing the growth in veterans’ benefits during her time in the Senate, benefits she said she considers crucial.

Since 2007, when she first took office, there has been more than a 57 percent increase in funding for veterans’ programs. She has also fought for tax credits for employers who hire veterans and is currently working to expand this to Reserve and National Guard soldiers, according to a fact sheet on McCaskill’s website.

Marine Corps veteran and Missouri State Rep. Stephen Webber, D-District 23, introduced McCaskill.

“This election is more than who can pass a fifth-grade biology test, but who can stand up on issues in Missouri,” Webber said.

Two main issues facing the Senate are how to educate veterans so they can re-enter the workforce and to ensure they receive health care benefits, including those for post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and suicide prevention, Webber said.

McCaskill also touched on these issues during her speech.

“(Veterans) deserve the best we can give them, and that includes mental health care services,” she said.

While McCaskill’s been in office, the mileage reimbursement rate for veterans traveling to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities has increased from 28.5 cents per mile to 41.5 cents, McCaskill’s fact sheet states.

She said she was embarrassed Missouri has the lowest cigarette tax of any state, at 17 cents. The national average is $1.49 a pack, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The senator also discussed Social Security, education and student loans. She said she supported federally backed loans like Pell Grants.

McCaskill invited members of the Mizzou College Democrats, including treasurer Bo Mahr, to the speech.

“We thought it went really well, especially with (McCaskill) addressing Pell Grants and student loans, because this isn’t ‘Fantasyland,’ as she called it,” Mahr said. “Private banks aren’t going to give 17-year-olds a loan.”