Stacking the Deck

Clinton bragged about her role in protecting wounded soldiers from penny-pinching bureaucrats at the Pentagon, but she claimed too much credit for herself and unfairly laid blame on the president.

    Clinton: You know, Tim, the Bush administration sends mixed messages. They want to recruit and retain these young people to serve our country and then they have the Pentagon trying to take away the signing bonuses when a soldier gets wounded and ends up in the hospital, something that I'm working with a Republican senator to try to make sure never can happen again.

Clinton is referring here to bonuses that the military gives out to new and returning enlistees. Although most bonuses are paid in installments over the term of the enlistment, some enlistees (depending upon their specialty and their time in service) are paid the entire bonus up front. In November, a Pittsburgh television station reported that Jordan Fox received a letter directing him to return part of his signing bonus when he was medically discharged after being seriously wounded in Iraq.

Clinton is wrong to blame "the Bush administration" for a policy of requiring soldiers like Fox to return enlistment bonuses. No such policy exists. It is true that the military does attempt to "recoup" bonuses, but, according to the Department of Defense, "Department policy prohibits recoupment when it would be contrary to equity and good conscience, or would be contrary to the nation's interests," circumstances that include, "an inability to complete a service agreement because of illness, injury, disability, or other impairment that did not clearly result from misconduct." In other words, according to DoD policy, Fox should never have received the letter he did.

Clinton did in fact cosponsor the "Restoring Guaranteed Bonuses for Wounded Veterans Act of 2007." That bill passed unanimously, and it requires the Department of Defense to pay full enlistment bonuses for soldiers who are medically discharged. In other words, the act directed the DoD to follow the policy it already had in place. Clinton wrote legislation putting into law a policy that already existed, and she pushed it through a Senate where no one was opposed to the measure.

Edwards' False Implication About Immigrants

Edwards falsely implied that immigrants generally can become citizens without being required to learn English.

    Edwards: I think if you want to become an American citizen and earn American citizenship, you should learn to speak English.

Actually, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, applicants who wish to become naturalized U.S. citizens already "must be able to read, write, speak, and understand words in ordinary usage in the English language." The only exceptions are for those with physical or mental impairments, those who have been legal residents for 15 years and have reached age 55, or who have been legal residents for 20 years and have reached age 50.