Veterans Day: Obama says veterans provide example for healing after divisive election

On his final Veterans Day as commander-in-chief, President Obama said the example set by America’s veterans can help to heal the divisions exposed by the hard-fought presidential election between President-Elect Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

“When the election is over, as we search for ways to come together, to reconnect with one another, with the principles that are more enduring than transitory politics, some of our best examples are the men and women we salute on Veterans Day,” Mr. Obama said in his annual address at Arlington National Cemetery.

The president said the military provides the example of “one united team all looking out for one another, all getting each other’s backs.”

“It’s the example of the single most diverse institution in our country — soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who represent every corner of our country, every shade of humanity, immigrant and native-born, Christian, Muslim, Jew and non-believer alike, all forged into common service,” Mr. Obama said.

As he called for unity, however, Mr. Obama also sounded a note of partisanship on the federal holiday by urging his audience to reject conservatives’ attempts to privatize the veterans’ health-care system in the wake of a series of scandals at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

We have to resist any effort to outsource and privatize the health care we owe America’s veterans,” Mr. Obama said to applause.

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, Florida Republican who is reportedly on Mr. Trump’s short list to be nominated as VA secretary, said the nation must put veterans first “throughout the year.”

“It has been a true honor to serve America’s heroes,” Mr. Miller said in a statement. “Working on behalf of such a special group of men and women is a privilege that has shaped my life and will continue to do so in the future.”

The president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown in Arlington before giving his address. He cited his administration’s achievements on veterans’ issues, such as increasing VA funding by more than 85 percent, cutting veterans’ homelessness nearly in half and delivering more mental-health care services to more veterans.

Mr. Obama acknowledged there is still more work to do.

“It is still a tragedy that 20 veterans a day take their own lives,” the president said. “We have to get them the help they need. We have to keep solving problems like long wait times at the VA, [and] we have to keep cutting the disability claims backlog.”