The vice president spoke to the VFW convention July 21 in St. Louis.

The vice president spoke to the VFW convention July 21 in St. Louis.

Vice-President Joe Biden tells a national veterans convention in St. Louis the country has a long ways to go to meet its obligations to veterans.  He tells the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that  99% of Americans owe a debt to the one percent that serves in uniform.

He says the nation has many obligations.  But only one of them is sacred, “to care for and equip those we send to war and to care for them and their families when they come home from war.”

AUDIO: Biden  :29

He says every state now allows people licensed as military truck drivers to automatically qualify for commercial drivers’ licenses.   Biden says every state should allow every military specialty to qualify in that profession with no further tests.

He says those and other initiatives are reasons that veterans unemployment is lower than it is for the rest of the population for the first time in his political career.

Watch Biden’s speech