BUMPED and UPDATE: Obama Caves – now, go crawl under a rock for even thinking of floating this plan!
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Filed under Plain Politics – as this is where it belongs. This is personal – no, not me, but for both my sons – the Eldest served in the Marines and did a tour in Iraq and the Youngest is assigned to the Army’s 101st Airborne.
And Obama is willing to use MY tax money to pay for the healthcare for illegal aliens and wants to charge our veterans for the same? AND HE THINKS HE’S SUCH A GRAND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF?!?!?!
I already gave one dose of what the military thinks of Obama here – this ain’t going to help things. So what AM I talking about? This!
Obama May Charge Veterans’ Private Health Insurance for Service-Related Ailments
The Obama administration is considering a plan to charge the private health insurance of veterans for treatment of service-related ailments that currently are paid for by the Veterans Administration — a potential change that has veterans’ groups outraged…
…Last week, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed to the House and Senate committees on veterans’ affairs that the idea to bill veterans’ private individual insurance was being considered by the administration but was not yet a formal proposal.
That is, former General Shinseki. I never served in the military but it is my understanding that the well being of the enlisted is the highest concern of an officer. So, when is Shinseki going to do the right thing and resign, as I rather doubt that this is in the best interest of our vets! He retired when he was upset with Bush’s decision – he’s going to go along with this?
Now, this is going to get killed off rather quickly if this is any indication as a number of Senators and Congressmen have already declared it DOA.
Now, did Obama say he was going to do this during the campaign? Er, not so much! In Fact, the word LIAR is coming up large on the insides of my eyeballs, especially when my memories were confirmed:
I presume this proposal will go down in flames in Congress. But it seems to pretty clearly violate Obama’s pledges on the campaign trail:
- Barack Obama will restore our sacred trust with our nation’s veterans: Obama and Biden are committed to creating a 21st Century Department of Veterans’ Affairs that provides the care and benefits our nation’s veterans deserve.
- Help returning service members: Obama and Biden will improve the quality of health care for veterans, rebuild the VA’s broken benefits system, and combat homelessness among veterans.
- Improve mental health treatment: Obama and Biden will improve mental health treatment for troops and veterans suffering from combat-related psychological injuries.
All statements from Barack Obama come with an expiration date — even the ones that you thought he would never dare let expire.
And this!
Obama, a year ago this week:
"When soldiers return from fighting, they deserve nothing but the best in medical care, he said. More needs to be done, he said, to understand the effects of post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury on soldiers returning from war.
"We’ll have to keep our sacred trust with our veterans and fully fund the (Veterans Administration). We’ll have to look after our wounded warriors, whether they’re suffering from wounds seen or unseen," he said.
Sorry, but making vets shell out more $$ is NOT going to help their mental health (or financial, for that matter) better. And the Veterans organizations are all over this and are THEY MAD!
The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization says he is “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.
“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”
So, this is NOT just a stupid trial ballon by some low level flunky leaking an idea to see if it floats or sinks. This is coming directly from President Obama himself!!
This further shows a number of things:
- He confirms my intuition that he dislikes the military, no matter what machinations Michelle is up to in showing otherwise (more Obama magic – look over here instead of what I’m doing over there…)
- As this stupidness story goes wider, it will make the military LESS inviting to new volunteers – why would it? Thus, he accomplishes one of his goals (as all Democrats lately have treated the military worse than a step-step-step child by a third marriage).
- He nails the private insurance marketplace – they get higher costs and will be made out to be the meanies that won’t support the troops. In other words, he’s already greased the rug to be pulled out from underneath BOTH
- He is serious in making the Government the ONLY option for healthcare and healthcare insurance.
He does create some HUGE problems for himself if he keep this going:
- Regardless of his view, the American people LOVE the military! His political caluculus will be an F – even though fewer and fewer people are directly connected to the military, the Viet Nam and Desert Storm Vets, among a host of others, are responsible for changing the mood of the country with the motto of "We will not let what happened to us happen to them".
- He’s trying a political trick ("The Obama administration explains that it wants private insurers who sell coverage to vets to pay their fair share") by trying to demonize the insurers of being stingy – problem is, wrong argument coupled with the wrong audience!
- If he shows that the Humongous Government he is in the process of making cannot even take care of the healthcare of those that put their lives on the line for the rest of us, Obama shows that he cannot take care of the rest of us!
It is really sad that he would put the well being of future vets at risk – "Thanks a bunch, Prez!"
Ask yourself – would Bush ever do something like this (who raised the Vet Admin budget by 50% in 7 years)? Is this a Change you really wanted?
I wonder what my CongressCritters are thinking about this: Carol Shea-Porter, Paul Hodes, Jeanne Shaheen, and Judd Gregg? THey will be getting a call….
“It’s a betrayal,” said Joe Violante, legislative director of Disabled American Veterans, which signed the letter to Obama. “My insurance company didn’t send me to Vietnam, my government did. The same holds true for men and women now fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s the government’s responsibility.”
