Stupid and cruel idea, Obama
Obama mulls making vets foot bill for service injuries
WASHINGTON–The Obama administration is considering making veterans use private insurance to pay for treatment of combat and service-related injuries. The plan would be an about-face on what veterans believe is a long-standing pledge to pay for health care costs that result from their military service.
But in a White House meeting Monday, veterans groups apparently failed to persuade President Obama to take the plan off the table.
“Veterans of all generations agree that this proposal is bad for the country and bad for veterans,” said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “If the president and the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] want to cut costs, they can start at AIG, not the VA.”
Under current policy, veterans are responsible for health care costs that are unrelated to their military service. Exceptions in some cases can be made for veterans who do not have private insurance or are 100 percent disabled. </em>
Absolutely and completely unacceptable. You want to cut spending in the military, we’re all for it. Bring our occupying armies home from the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Cancel contracts with defense contractors hidden in the black budget of the Pentagon. Stop maintaining an overbuilt, useless nuclear arsenal.
But when you hire a man to potentially die for his country- in wars of choice waged by insane tyrants that don’t merit a single death, much less thousands- when you hire someone to do this dangerous and unnecessary work, then you don’t welsh on the deal. VA benefits are nothing more than workman’s comp for the military. If I slip at work and break my arm, then my company is damn sure going to pay for it. This is no less true if your injury occurred in the hills of Afghanistan.
This idea is hopefully stillborn, because to continue discussion of such an odious notion is insulting to our country, and cruel beyond belief to those people, who, right or wrong reasons aside, stepped up and served. Obama, you should be ashamed.
