Trial balloons are a mainstay of Washington. Tell a reporter, hear the public reaction, then kill it or move forward. What idiot in Obama’s circle thought this would get anything but derision and anger? Can you imagine how enlistments will decline if this is done? Our injured vets deserve our country’s best. Period. On the other hand, gotta pay for those AIG bonuses somehow…
Democrats in Congress are organizing to squash a White House proposal that would require veterans to use private insurance to pay for treatment of their combat and service-related injuries.
In a letter being sent to the White House, a group of House Democrats, led by Rep. Glenn Nye (D-VA), warned that such a proposal “could harm our veterans and their families in unintended, yet very serious ways, jeopardizing their families’ health care and even negatively affecting veterans’ employment opportunities.”
“While we strongly support your plans to increase funding for the VA by $25 billion over the next five years,” the letter reads, “it is with equal conviction that we oppose the proposal to bill veterans’ private health insurance plans for care and treatment of service-connected injuries or disabilities.”
[…]
Veterans groups say they’re concerned that the Obama proposal could ultimately lead to the privatization of health care for returning soldiers, and note that third-party billing for war-related injuries could result in ballooning insurance costs.
Where are the Republicans, those defenders of all things military, in complaining about this?
From Victor David Hanson:
What are progressives thinking when they hear of these trial ballons from the Democratically-controlled congress and administration about taxing health-care benefits, making veterans first draw on their own health-care plans for postbellum injuries or stresses, and, now, regulating farmers’ markets in a way that would increase costs and turn them into, well, a sort of Saturday morning DMV experience? I think we can expect some very illiberal ideas coming forth from now on for two good reasons. One, there simply are not enough rich around to squeeze to pay off a $1.7 annual deficit that is fueling a $11 trillion national debt that is growing hourly, and so the voracious federal timberwolf is coming down from the estates of the rich still hungry, and looking for prey anywhere he can find it; and, two, when two liberal creeds collide — like big government and always-growing federal-subsidized bureaucracies versus the little-guy family farmer trying to make a buck outside of the corporate agricultural nexus — the richer and more powerful always win.
Rep. Glenn Nye (D-VA), Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), and Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) don’t like this proposal and neither do I.
Why would any Vet get health insurance or for that matter why would any insurance company cover them. This is a proposal that wasn’t given much thought. Shifting ones responsibility to someone else is fundamentally wrong. While I can’t stand insurance companies they will not end up being the victims here. They will pass the cost on to you and me, which was our burden, through taxes, to begin with. Adding another layer of red tape only costs us more in the long run.
#3 said “This was invented to make them look bad.This is how our”press” works”
The press invented this story and many members of congress fell for the bogus story? To the point of writing letters to the WH opposing this imaginary proposal?
Rep Glenn Nye (D-VA), along with other house members wrote “While we strongly support your plans to increase funding for the VA by $25 billion over the next five years,” the letter reads, “it is with equal conviction that we oppose the proposal to bill veterans’ private health insurance plans for care and treatment of service-connected injuries or disabilities.”
This sounds exactly as what Uncle Dave said. The WH sent out a trail balloon to see what the reaction would be. This is how D.C. works, no matter the party in power.
SMOKE SCREEN..
LOOK around see what else they are doing..
GET the public to THINK about 1 thing and SLIP something ELSE PAST…
Place it onto another bill and slip BILLIONS out the door..
Is it time to LOCK UP and restrict our gov, from doing anything WITHOUT CONSENT OF THE PUBLIC??
#30, Mr. Diesel,
Wait a second, how does an announcement get made?
The White House will send a notice to the White House Press Corp, or the President will say so in a speech, or a Cabinet Secretary will say it in a speech or press release, and then they will put the announcement on their web site. The White House does not make announcements behind closed doors. They are always out front with them.
So I guess announcing it in a meeting with people doesn’t really count. It’s just used to stir up shit to see if anyone likes the idea.
“Mission Accomplished”
Who ever came up with that idea needs to feel pain without regard to race, party, gender, age, etc.
#38, Mr Diesel,
Perhaps you might need to buy a dictionary, thesaurus, or use an on-line equivalent.
When the White House announces something, it is done in public to publicize the news. If it is done behind closed doors to a select group and they talk about it, it is called a discussion.