Rep. Cannon renews gaffe on Veterans Part II

Deseret Spectacle has been posting about Chris Cannon's repeated insistence of his putative support of veterans in light of horrible ratings by Disabled American Veterans (DAV) who rated Cannon with a 0% rating in 2006 and 2005, and his C- rating from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

By the way, Cannon has constantly repeated that he does not know who--as Cannon calls them--these "marginal" groups are. On Friday I posted an excerpt from the KUED Debate where Cannon claims that he "supported everything in congress for payment for the services our vets need." This claim is a lie. Now I am a lawyer, I do not take the word "lie" lightly. I might say that Cannon is spinning, or making a misrepresentation or misleading us. But his claim is so categorical and false, I have no problem calling this claim by Chris Cannon a lie.

The truth is that Chris Cannon repeatedly voted against payment for the services our veterans need. After the KUED Debate this topic came up again the next week, on November 3rd--the Friday before the election--in the KBYU Debate:



Cannon Highlight:

"All the major veterans groups rate me very, very, high. I have supported every single vet program that has come to Congress since I have been there. And we have done wonderful things as Republicans in the Republican Congress for vets. There should not be any complaints about how we have treated our veterans and how I particularly have supported our veterans."

This is another lie. See here where the Disabled American Veterans have rated Cannon's key votes over the last few years. Out of 14 key votes Cannon missed 2, voted against DAV 11 times and for DAV once. Note that the only pro-DAV vote was on November 14th, 2006--11 days after I outed his voting pattern in the KBYU debate.

You can view all of the votes where Cannon voted against the interests of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

On September 13, 2006 our campaign made the following press release:

Congressman Chris Cannon voted with only thirty members in the US House Thursday against a prescription drug relief program for veterans.In Thursday’s vote the House passed an amendment to defense spending bill 5122 directing pharmaceutical companies to provide discount prescription drugs at retail pharmacies for military veterans (amnd. 434). Congressman Cannon was the only member of the Utah House delegation to vote against the measure. The amendment passed by a wide margin, 374-30, with 181 Republicans voting in favor of the legislation. A similar provision has already passed in the Senate, with Utah Senators Hatch and Bennett voting in favor of the provision.The amendment will provide discount prescription drugs at all retail outlets for military veterans enrolled in the Tricare health network.

By the way IAVA gives Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson UT-2 an A-.