Obama Not Making Any Friends With Veterans
A few days ago I posted about the Obama administration’s plan to rob soldiers of some of their medical benefits. Today the head of the American Legion (the nation’s largest veterans organization) paid a visit to Obama to talk about the issue, and he didn’t leave happy.
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.”
The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, “This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ‘ to care for him who shall have borne the battle’ given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm’s way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America’s veterans!”
Normally I am a staunch advocate of limited government and privatization. But in this instance we have troops who served their country, often in awful war zones that left them scarred and maimed, and they did so with the assumption that medical care would be one of the benefits they’d receive as compensation. The government has no business trying to opt out of that.
For all intents and purposes our troops are federal employees (or technically state employees, in the case of the National Guards). They’re a special class of federal employee, but even so. They performed a duty for their country and thus are owed certain things.
I imagine that Obama’s buddies in Big Labor would be raising cane if he were trying to cut back on health benefits for, say, veterans of 30 years behind the desk in some dusty federal administration building. But cutting health benefits for the troops?
Well. That’s ok.
Remember when the left was outraged about Bush not funding veterans care adequately? Remember when they hung the Walter Reed scandal around his neck? Where’s that outrage now?
What is perhaps the most odious part of all of this is the fact that even as Obama tries to cut costs by stiffing veterans he’s spending billions on bailouts to corporate executives and mortgage payoffs to irresponsible citizens.
Hope and change!
