Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance. …Fast forward to 2012:
No official proposal to create such a program has been announced publicly, but veterans groups wrote a pre-emptive letter last week to President Obama voicing their opposition to the idea after hearing the plan was under consideration.
The groups also cited an increase in “third-party collections” estimated in the 2010 budget proposal — something they said could be achieved only if the Veterans Administration started billing for service-related injuries.
Asked about the proposal, Shinseki said it was under “consideration.”
“A final decision hasn’t been made yet,” he said
"Mr. President, in just the 3rd month of your Presidency, your Secretary of Veterans Affairs announced that your Administration was considering forcing military personnel injured in the line of duty to use their own insurance to pay for their care. Mr. President, this is indefensible."
And repeat.
Clearly, the way this was leaked was to gauge public reaction in a way that would damage the President as minimally as possible. Make no mistake, this is not a proposal from the VA -- this comes straight from the Obama White House -- and we should never forget that.
UPDATE: How long til we see this one again?
So far, they have done almost everything they have set out to do...
ReplyDeleteSpending money we don't have is at the top of the agenda!