The Hendricks County Flyer reports:

A recently approved House Bill amendment drafted by Congressman Steve Buyer (R-4th District) is drawing criticism from Buyer’s Democratic challenger in the upcoming November election.

Nels Ackerson, a Zionsville attorney running against Buyer in the November election, accuses Buyer of grandstanding in an election year and maintains that the congressman “took the lead in proposing an unprecedented tax on veterans to pay for their healthcare.”

Those claims come amidst a new press release from Buyer’s office crediting the Congressman’s amendment for an increase in healthcare and readiness of the nation’s active and inactive troops.

Buyer’s proposed amendment was attached to the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act and calls for an increase in dental readiness funding to $22.3 million and $8.5 million for demobilization of reserve components during the 2009 fiscal year.

His office says that poor dental health among Army Reservists and those in the National Guard has become a growing problem for the Department of Defense which has been forced in some cases to declare personnel unfit for deployment.

Officials from the DOD did not return telephone calls seeking comment on the issue.

Ackerson maintains that the new amendment does not erase what he characterized as an era of unprecedented increases in the taxation of military veterans.

“Mr. Buyer’s cuts in veterans’ health benefits have been painful and I don’t begrudge a small step but we need to look at the whole package and so far that package has been dismal,” Ackerson said. “He has a record of very substantial cuts to veterans’ benefits over his years in Congress and he has occasionally come back to make some smaller increases in military benefits and this seems to follow that pattern.”