President Obama announces job training services for veterans

RENO - Seeking the veterans' vote in hard economic times, President Barack Obama on Monday announced an overhaul of job training and transition services for the men and women returning from war, saying it's still too tough to find jobs despite the skills they learned in the military.

"We're going to set up a kind of reverse boot camp," Obama said, addressing the annual convention of Veterans of Foreign Wars. He said it would provide more job training, education and advice for starting new businesses with the goal of boosting veterans' "career readiness."

"Our American veterans have the skills America needs," Obama said to mostly polite applause from several thousand veterans at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. "So today, our economy is growing and creating jobs, but it's still too hard for too many folks to find work, especially our younger veterans, our veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan."

The jobless rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans fell in June to 9.5 percent, down from 12.7 percent the previous month and 13.3 percent in June 2011. Among veterans coming home, the jobless rate has been seesawing .

For veterans of all generations, the June jobless rate was 7.4 percent, a slight improvement over the 7.8 percent rate for May.

Obama's recent stepped-up focus on helping veterans find jobs comes as the economy remains stalled with the unemployment rate at 8.2 percent nationwide, threatening his re-election in November. In Nevada, the jobless rate is the highest in the nation at 11.6 percent.

The president's Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, argues that he is more qualified as a former businessman to lead the country back to economic health. Romney is scheduled to address the VFW today before he heads to London for the Olympics and then to Israel and Poland.

The former Massachusetts governor's foreign trip is aimed at raising his profile as a potential statesman, much as Obama did in the summer of 2008 when he traveled overseas.

Obama did not mention Romney's name once during his 32-minute VFW speech. But he made the case for his re-election to veterans who mostly voted for his GOP opponent four years ago, U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war.

The president said he fulfilled his military promises from four years ago and has not let down the nation's veterans.

The president noted that he ended the war in Iraq, he will end U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan by 2014, and the U.S. military killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden on his watch.

"You don't just have my words, you have my deeds," Obama said. "You have my track record. You have the promises I've made and the promises that I've kept."

Although Obama can point to overseas military successes, veterans back home are suffering as they return to no work, underwater house mortgages and everyday struggles.

On Monday, Obama told the VFW that he signed into law a veterans "skills to jobs" act to require federal agencies to look at relevant military training when approving applicants for federal licenses and certificates. That should give veterans another job boost, he said.

"We've got to put those folks back to work," the president said, winning warmer applause when he said he had a message for private business: "If you want somebody who gets the job done, then hire a vet."

As commander-in-chief, Obama told the veterans, "I've got your back."

Standing in front of a U.S. flag backdrop, he said, "We have a solemn obligation to all who serve - not just for the years you're in uniform, but for all the decades that follow."

In his speech, Obama also issued a warning to Congress to agree on a balanced budget deal to avoid $500 billion in automatic cuts to the Defense Department over 10 years.

"Let's stop playing politics with our military," he said. "Let's get serious and reduce our deficit and keep our military strong.

"I will stand with our troops every single time," Obama added, saying he will not allow any automatic budget cuts to affect the veterans' health care system, which he said must get better.

As an example, Obama decried the high suicide rate among veterans, 18 every day. He called it a tragedy. "It's heartbreaking. It should not be happening in the United States of America."

Obama also said he will not privatize the Department of Veterans Affairs to save money.

"As long as I'm president, I will not allow the VA health system to be turned into a voucher system," he said, taking aim at his unnamed opponent Romney.

Romney has been criticized for suggesting the VA privatize its health care system to save costs. The VFW has opposed such an idea.

The Romney campaign said Obama, too, once sought to change the VA system.

In 2009, Obama drew criticism for suggesting the VA bill private insurance companies for the treatment of injuries and medical conditions related to military service. Aimed at saving $530 million, the plan would have covered amputations, post-traumatic stress disorder and other battle wounds. The VA already pursues such third-party billing for conditions not service-related.

Romney has said he would not cut the Pentagon budget and would protect veterans.

"Mitt Romney is only interested in providing veterans with the world-class care they deserve and reversing the crippling defense cuts and failed policies of the Obama administration," said Mason Harrison, Nevada spokesman for the Romney campaign. "The Obama campaign's dishonest attacks are ridiculous given that the Obama administration has already proposed a plan to privatize veterans' benefits that was widely criticized by veterans' advocacy groups."

Harrison added that under Obama's watch, "the backlog of veterans' benefits claims has more than doubled to nearly a million, his budget will cut $12.9 billion from military health care, and returning veterans are facing unacceptably high unemployment."

Veterans could sway the 2012 election as America's military men and women choose, for the first time since 1944, between two men who have never served in the armed forces.

At least 300,000 veterans live in Nevada, or more than 10 percent of the population, a key voting bloc in a swing state. Nationwide, veterans account for 7 percent of the population, about 22 million people. Of those, about 2.4 million have served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The VFW, founded in 1899, is the nation's oldest and largest veterans organization with 1.45 million members and more than 7,300 posts nationwide.

Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow her on Twitter @lmyerslvrj.