Obama calls for better healthcare, jobs for vets

President Obama called for veterans to receive better healthcare and good-paying jobs during a Memorial Day speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

{mosads}“We have to be there not only when we need them, but when they need us,” Obama told the crowd of survivors who have lost loved ones in battle.

“For us, the living, those of us who still have a voice, it is our responsibility, our obligation to fill that silence with our love and gratitude and not just with words, but with our actions,” the president said.

“Truly remembering means that after our fallen heroes gave everything to get their battle buddies home, we have to make sure our veterans get everything that they have earned — from good healthcare to a good job,” he continued. “We have to do better.”

Obama’s comments on his final Memorial Day as president come as his secretary of Veterans Affairs is under intense criticism for remarks he made about wait times at VA clinics.

“When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? What’s important — what’s important is what’s your satisfaction with the experience,” Robert McDonald said a week ago.

Veterans’ groups have ripped the comments, and some Republican members of Congress have called for McDonald’s resignation.

Turning to America’s fallen soldiers on Monday, Obama called them “the best of us, those whom we asked everything.”

“They didn’t speak the loudest about their patriotism,” Obama said after laying a wreath at the tomb. “They let their actions do that. Whether they stood up in times of war, signed up in times of peace or were called up by a draft board, they embodied the best of America.”