
On January 28th, Lamar Alexander's campaign website ran an article entitled, "A Tennessee Veteran Sets the Record Straight." In it, a U.S. Army Veteran defends Lamar Alexander's role in the last budget battle that ultimately led to the passage of Ryan-Murray. The author of the article says Alexander isn't to blame:
Recently, I’ve seen a lot of misinformation about the budget vote that impacted the COLA for military retirement pay. After meeting with Senator Alexander I wanted to reach out to you to correct the record.
Lamar voted against the budget agreement.
In his statement regarding his vote, he singled out the way veterans were treated, saying: “I voted against the budget agreement because it avoids the federal government’s most urgent need: reducing the growth of runaway entitlement spending. Instead, it spends savings that should be used to strengthen Medicare, pensions, and the air transportation system. It is particularly troubling that the budget agreement takes money from pensions in a way that treats military retirees worse than the civilian federal employees.”
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As veterans we’ve served our country proudly. We know that nothing is ever black and white. We should argue and debate and continue to work on constructive ways to address our nation’s serious budget challenges – but when we do, we have to get our facts right.
Lamar voted against the budget agreement because it was a bad deal for veterans.
What's really amazing is that Alexander admits on his website (the same website that posted the veteran's article) that he voted to allow the Ryan-Murray plan to come up for a vote: