Democratic U.S. Representative Leonard Boswell is blasting Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney's plan for veterans' health care.

Romney suggested during a Veterans Day campaign stop that he is open to big changes in the VA health care system:

“If you’re the government, they know there’s nowhere else you guys can go, you’re stuck,” Romney told a group of veterans at Mutt’s BBQ restaurant here [in Mauldin, South Carolina]. “Sometimes you wonder if there would be some way to introduce private sector competition, somebody else who could come in and say each solder has ‘X’ thousand dollars attributed to them and then they can choose where they want to go in the government system or the private system with the money that follows them.”

Romney added, “Like what happens with schools in Florida where people have a voucher that goes with him.”

Boswell is a U.S. Army veteran who piloted assault helicopters for two years during the Vietnam War. He hit back on the op-ed page of today’s Des Moines Register. Excerpt:

Proposals like Romney’s have been overwhelmingly opposed by veterans organizations, and on Friday, the Veterans of Foreign Wars once again made clear that it does not support privatizing veterans’ health care. The Veterans Health Administration delivers the best health care in the world and as an integrated health care system, does it at a lower cost than the private sector ever could. Even partial privatization with a voucher system would drive up costs and undermine veterans’ care.

It’s disappointing, but it’s not surprising to see this kind of rhetoric from Romney. He has proposed a plan that would privatize Medicare and slash Social Security. He’s proposed more tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires while opposing payroll tax cuts that give the average working family a $1,500 break.

In his attempt to gain the support of conservative Republican primary voters, Romney has endorsed plans that would pull the rug out from under seniors and middle-class families in Iowa, and if he stands by his proposal to privatize veterans’ health care, he’ll be pulling the rug out from under the men and women who have bravely served our country.

While Romney is working to dismantle services for our veterans, President Barack Obama is working to strengthen them. Obama understands that our commitment to the men and women in the military doesn’t end when their service is up.

Last week, the Senate unanimously passed the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warrior Tax Credits, two pieces of the American Jobs Act that will encourage businesses to hire veterans and increase resources for veterans looking for work. These tax credits would provide businesses up to a $5,600 credit for hiring a veteran who has been unemployed for more than six months and a credit of up to $9,600 for businesses that hire veterans with service-connected disabilities.

Boswell is facing a tough re-election campaign against Republican Representative Tom Latham in Iowa’s new third Congressional district. Latham hasn’t endorsed a Republican presidential candidate and is unlikely to do so before the Iowa caucuses. I have not seen any comments from Latham on Romney proposal.

Boswell and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have repeatedly slammed Latham for supporting House Republican plans to change Medicare.