Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley unveiled a five-point plan to help veterans and jabbed Congress for failing to address the "mess."
"We have 33,000 homeless veterans in this country. One in three of our heroes suffer from PTSD or have thought about suicide," Haley underscored at the Politics and Eggs event at St. Anselm College Wednesday. "Seventeen of our heroes commit suicide every single day. That's shameful."
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Her five tenets include: accountability for Congress, expanding healthcare access, bolstering mental health services, improving the transition from the military to civilian life, and ending "wokeness in the military."
Top of the list for Haley to help veterans is a requirement that members of Congress receive their healthcare from the Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. At the moment, members of Congress are offered health insurance plans through the Small Business Health Options Program, per the Office of Personnel Management.
"When every member of Congress has to go to the VA for their health needs, I bet you they'll fix that up," Haley quipped during her speech.
For years, the VA has been dogged by reports of lengthy wait times and lackluster service. These concerns came to the forefront in 2014 amid numerous reports of turmoil, including an audit that found that 120,000 veterans either didn't receive care or were straddled with long waiting times. Officials at the VA claim that progress has been made in the time since.
Second, for Haley, is an objective to reduce wait times, expand telehealth, and grant veterans more options "to see the doctor of their choice." Over 2.2 million veterans relied on telehealth in 2022 from a pandemic-era initiative, but Haley wants to make that permanent.
For mental health, her proposal calls for screening mental health "the same as other routine health issues and speed up help for substance abuse." Seven out of "every 100 Veterans" will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder at some point in their life, according to the VA.
Fourth, Haley is seeking to "support veterans from start to finish." This includes enhancing flexibility for how veterans can utilize "GI bill funds" and "continuous outreach long after they leave the military."
Finally, her plan calls for an end to "wokeness in the military" and increase investments in defense.
"For God's sake, let's take the wokeness out of the military. There is nothing that demoralizes the military more than that. My husband will tell you the idea that our soldiers are having to take gender pronoun classes is ridiculous."
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Haley's husband, Michael, served as an officer in South Carolina's Army National Guard and was deployed in Afghanistan.
"As the wife of a combat veteran, I have a bone to pick with Congress," Haley wrote in an op-ed outlining her strategy to help veterans. "Our heroes put everything on the line to protect our country and our freedoms. These brave men and women in uniform fight for America with all they have. They deserve leaders who fight even half that hard for them."