Veterans’ choice: Two candidates with no military experience

>>> when voters cast their ballots this election, it will be the first time choosing between two candidates with no military experience in their backgrounds. president obama says his record on foreign affairs speaks for itself. yet a may gallup polls show vets favor governor romney . in fact, during wednesday's debate governor romney reiterated his commitment to strengthen the nation's military.

>> we have a responsibility to protect the lives and liberties of our people, and that means a military second to none. i do not believe in cutting our military. i believe in maintaining the strength of america 's military.

>> so let's bring in beau biden , attorney general for the state of delaware. he is also a major in the delaware national guard having served a 12-pomonth deployment in iraq. he's also the vice president's son. mitt romney has hammered president obama for the automatic military cuts that could take place as a result of congress failing to reach a debt deal. even the defense secretary said the cuts could be staef dating. does that hurt the president in the vet community?

>> number one, congress must act and avoid sequestration op any of these defense cuts. number two, you know, governor romney seems to confuse the defense budget from the veterans budget. what i have spent the last several months talking about is the president's, not just his decisiveness as a what happeneder and chief and what a strong leader he's been and going after al qaeda around the world and eliminating osama bin laden from the face of the earth, but also honoring the commitment to veterans . you know, mitt romney , as you well know, spent his entire convention speech accepting his party's nomination to be commander in chief and didn't mention those serving in what will be america 's longest war in afghanistan and didn't mention veterans once. his website didn't mention veterans until sometime this summer. the president has made sure we've honored our commitment to veterans , increased funding for veterans by more than any president has in 30 years. there's a very stark contrast just on the issues of veterans alone.

>> let's talk as you bring up this great distinction between a vet budget and the defense budget , something the defense -- the defense bth is something mitt romney wants to increase, something they're not even asking for.

>> that's right. he's asking for $2 trillion beyond what the pentagon has asked for and as smart as he and paul ryan are, they act like that's the answer to making sure we take care of veterans . as you know, the veterans piece of the pie is over here, the defense budget is over here. and the paul ryan budget, the romney / ryan budget would cut veterans affairs funding by $11 billion in the first year. look, we're a nation that has been in war for ten years, one of which will be our longest war , only less than 1% of our population is serving in those two wars. it seems as though mitt romney and paul ryan are more interested in making sure that 0.1% of our population gets a massive tax cut than making sure we honor our commitment to those who served in iraq and afghanistan over the last decade representing less than 1% of our population. it's a matter of values and what you value. look, these are honorable, decent men, but they seem to value making sure that the wealthiest among us get a tax cut on the backs of veterans , 22 million strong in america , 1 million in ohio, many, many in iowa and new hampshire where i just was, and less than 1% of them having served over the last decade.

>> beau, you bring up the romney / ryan plan, specifically paul ryan 's plan is what has gotten a lot of press over the last year, but when we speak about the preps that your dad is going through to get ready for the vice presidential debate against congressman ryan , what do you know? what insight can you give us about how your dad is getting ready for that?

>> well, he's methodically preparing to understand and have a clear sense of what paul ryan 's budget is about and it's been adopted by the united states house of representatives and been embraced by governor romney , understand his plan tomedicare, co nsistent, by the way, with governor romney 's plan to voucherize the va. he's studying very hard. paul ryan is a skilled debater, a skilled -- very -- he's very smart, encyclopedic knowledge of the budget he's proposed and the domestic issues that are out there, working hard to prepare methodically for the debate against sarah palin , so he's working very hard.

>> delaware attorney general bo biden, thanks for coming on today.