I knew a thief once. By the time he was just leaving teenaged juvenility he'd figured out two personally riskless ways to steal something he coveted. Hide it close to where he found it, then later, when things cooled off and no one was looking; make off with it. The next gambit was to wreck it. Just enough; by removing a small vital part rendering it as useless as possible, then offering to get rid of it if it couldn't be fixed easily, the stolen part unavailable (replacement part not sold separately)
In the first instance, if caught, the thief would claim "Hey, I found it just laying here behind the...". Not quite a full on lie. The second comeback was in some ways even easier though the prize was too large to pocket and often more valuable. The thief had only to wait until the thing is discovered as useless and offer to help get rid of...whatever the booty was... that was beyond repair.
Which reminds me of the same juvenile lack of impulse control demonstrated over the years by notorious conspiracy nut, - Darrell Issa - along with a preoccupation for thieving he's been unable to shake since his teen years - three times back then - allegedly
..and not unlike the GOP's long time campaign of misinformation and "conservative" efforts to burden the Constitutional U.S. Postal Service into a fiscal trap in order to further their privatizing-for-profit goal, the GOP have another target they've spent years softening up by slashing funding, deliberate sabotage by republicans in management positions, and the purposeful creation of a crisis where there is none; squealing the words "crisis" waiting for the stampede just as crying "fire in a theater" will do.
VA threatened by conservative privatization push
Rachel Maddow shows how right wing groups have worked to create a political environment where the previously radical idea of privatizing veterans' health care can be presented as a viable alternative to the VA.
Link to Rachel Maddow report | well worth a look see - imo | April 15, 2015
(video | duration 7:55)
"Part of the deal we make with people who agree to serve this country in the military is that if you are a veteran our country agrees to take care of your health care needs."
- Rachel Maddow
Taking care of our Veterans used to be an uncontroversial idea. A pledge, and one of our government's core functions
VA History in Brief | Department of Veteran Affairs (pdf)
In his second inaugural address in 1865, President Lincoln called upon Congress “to
care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.” This
was later adopted as the VA’s motto.
Taking care of our Veterans was also a non-partisan concern:
"..it's about how we treat our Veterans every single day of the year. It's about making sure they have the care that they need, and the benefits they've earned when they come home.."
- President Obama
"..America must and will keep its word to those men and women who have given us so much. Veterans have been promised good health care when they are sick and disabled. They must be treated with fairness and respect"
- President GWB
"..We honor our Veterans as well. In Abraham Lincoln's word; 'By caring for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan'.."
- President Bill Clinton
"..I've said before that America's debt to those who would fight for her defense doesn't end the day the uniform comes off. For the security of our nation it must not end"
- President Reagan
Not anymore. Not if "conservatives" have their way. The VA is being undermined using a blueprint of political maneuvers mirroring those that the GOP has and is currently wielding against the USPS in its efforts to divert yet another public institution's revenue stream into private profiteers' financial strongbox.
GOP profiteers don't much care what Veterans and people in general want and even less, what they need. They'll try again and again to seek ways to syphon off tax payer revenue from even the most cherished public institutions. A "conservative" movement profiteer's relationship with society is akin to a parasite and its host in this regard.
Presidential candidate John McCain tried it in his losing run against President Obama. His efforts though were premature. His privatize-for-profit attempt skipped a vital step in the GOP blueprint and the overreach failed. - that was 2007 - 2008 thereabouts
That missed first step is key. Wreck the government institution first (the Dept. of VA) by hook or crook..then once enough Veterans are mistreated, ignored and angry or worse off, offer up the "GOP premium deal" of privatization promising to right what was purposefully wrecked.
Republican Ken Buck got slammed when running against Sen. Michael Bennet, for the same premature privateering mistake. The GOP hadn't quite fouled things up enough yet to sell the profiteering scam and Veterans were having none of it. - that was 2010
The next year Mitt Romney also went off half cocked, adding to his list of political blunders
Fast forward to today:
Three leading GOP presidential candidates are at it again
Mr. [Jeb] Bush becomes the third 2016 GOP contender – following Mr. Paul and Marco Rubio of Florida – to support a system of vouchers to replace or compete with the VA health care system, which experienced intense criticism last year when an internal audit revealed that VA employees falsified reports of patient wait times at facilities across the country.
So now that republicans seem convinced that wrecking of VA hospitals is beginning to pay political dividends; next up - Lie about the fix. Experts in that department can usually be found and financed by the Koch bros.
The effort to privatize elements of the VA system is a priority of the Koch brothers-backed group, Concerned Veterans for America, which in February called for creating a “premium-support private insurance option”
There it is. Paul Ryan's "Premium Support" con; block-grants to the states; vouchers; all part of the GOP "conservative" movement to
'defund the left' and end the 'New Deal' so privateers can take over - Paul Ryan's same source of BS to cover his con
(video @ link with Robert Greenstein, founder of CBPP (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) with Joy-Ann Reid and Lawrence O’Donnell)
In this case the Koch bros. inc have labeled the fix (aka the con) their: "Concerned Veterans for America"
Concerned Veterans for America ...was funded almost entirely by TC4 in 2012.
At a Koch brothers retreat, Kevin Gentry, vice president of the Charles G. Koch charitable foundation, introduced
CEO of the 'Concerned Veterans for America' Pete Hegseth who was caught on tape boasting of their efforts to wreck VA Hospitals:
Hegseth addressed the crowd and not only confirmed that the Koch network “literally created” CVA but explained giddily “the central role that Concerned Veterans for America played in exposing and driving this crisis from the very beginning.”
More on that statement of the Koch created and "concerned" lobby group:
"Now unless you've been living under a rock for the last couple of months, you know about the crisis at the Department of Veterans Affairs. What you probably don't know is the central role Concerned Veterans for America played in exposing and driving this crisis from the very beginning"
"Exposing and driving this crisis from the very beginning". This echoes of the republican
asshole who was caught on tape bragging that
republican voter disenfranchisement laws would indeed knock eligible American voters off the roles so that Romney would win. The republican was proud of his "achievement", denying the rights of people to vote
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So what once was a fringe move by the GOP privateers that they paid a political price for, has now become something that is not only mainstream GOP agenda, but the manufactured urgency to privatize the VA Hospitals (for profit) will be one of the false narratives they will be running on up to the 2016 elections.
# # #
The truth though as reported by the Rand Research Enterprises corporation is quite different from the privateers con job:
How the VA Outpaces Other Systems in Delivering Patient Care
The VA also performed consistently better across the spectrum of care, including screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.
Key findings:
♦ VA patients were more likely to receive recommended care than patients in the national sample
♦ quality of care was better for VA patients on all measure except for acute care, on which the two samples were similar
♦ the greatest difference between the two samples were in areas where the VA actively measured performance
♦ performance measurement had a positive "spillover effect" on related care
- Kudos, Rachel Maddow for raising a flag on this - the work Rachel and her team have done on this is really good. I am unable to post the video so here is that link once again
# # #
with one last note: There is always room for improvement in health care and that includes the Dept. of Veterans affairs. Yet instead of allowing the saboteurs their prize and allow for this con to go unanswered, we Dems have a golden opportunity to make sure that this kind of greed spawned wreckage does not work and is rewarded with punishing defeat for the GOP and their reactionary juvenile impulses - from the highest office down to the local races and everything in between - imo
- It's gotten late now; time to turn in - Thx for stopping by