Now they are coming for the veterans

The Trump administration is planning to privatize health care for veterans. Pushing the plan is a shadowy self-defined veterans’ group, well outside the mainstream of authentic veterans’ organizations and funded by the Koch political apparatus. What could possibly go wrong?

The New York Times reported on the proposal last week:

“If put into effect, the proposed rules — many of whose details remain unclear as they are negotiated within the Trump administration — would be a win for the once-obscure Concerned Veterans for America, an advocacy group funded by the network founded by the billionaire industrialists Charles G. and David H. Koch, which has long championed increasing the use of private sector health care for veterans.”

The rationale for pulling vets out of the Veterans Administration health care system and leaving them to the tender mercies of private doctors and hospitals is classical GOP bull. Choice. Efficiency. Better care at lower cost. Republicans, while you are at it, sell us the Brooklyn Bridge, the Miami Circle and the Grand Canyon.

The reality is that, having failed to totally destroy the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, the GOP wants another bite at the apple. It is following the same script it used against the ACA. Focus on the problems in a flawed system that can be improved and that most veterans are satisfied with already. Replace it with something yet to be defined that will reduce care and cost the vets more while opening the door wide for the profiteering of our mercenary medical non-system.

Like George W. Bush’s failed attempt to partially privatize social security, this is a very bad idea. But it is an idea that fits the worldview of today’s Republican Party. It’s a party that worships at the altar of the coldest, cruelest form of capitalism. Donald Trump was an exemplary practitioner of this dark art long before he became Republican or president. His presidency offers the GOP the best chance they will probably ever have of bringing to fruition their dream of a society that would make the age of the robber barons seem like a model of democracy and equality. That’s so important for them that they will support, or at least tacitly accept, all the outrages and lunacies of Donald Trump.

These are the kind of things that Republicans would have tarred and feathered Barack Obama just for musing about. Dynamiting NATO. Feuding and railing against tried and true allies like Canada and Germany. Systematically undermining the credibility and morale of U.S. national security and intelligence agencies. Cozying up to autocrats of all stripes who carry out political killings, brazenly and with impunity, including the Saudi Crown Prince, the Russian president, the leader of North Korea, and the dictator of the Philippines. Blowing up the deficit.

Gunning for the VA would seem to be a bridge too far especially for a party and a president rhetorically enamored with all things military.  But their true love is for savage capitalism. To apply it to veteran health care, however, the GOP would have to battle all of the major veterans’ organizations, according to the New York Times. That’s an awkward position for any political party. The paper quoted the comments of one of the groups opposed to the plan.

‘“We don’t like it,” said Rick Weidman, executive director of Vietnam Veterans of America. “This thing was initially sold as to supplement the V.A., and some people want to try and use it to supplant.”’

Warren L. Wilkie, the secretary of Veterans Affairs denies the intent of the proposal is to privatize the VA. The VA plays a critical role for a vast and growing number of veterans. According to the departments’ website:

• 48% (9.7 million out of 20.4 million) of all Veterans used at least one VA benefit or service in FY 2016, an increase of 10 percentage points (38% or 9.1 million out of 23.6 million) since FY 2007.
• Of the 9.7 million users, 44% used multiple benefits which is up from 31% in 2005.
• The percent of female Veterans who used VA benefits increased from 35% in 2007 to 47% in 2016. The corresponding rate among male Veterans in 2007 and 2016 was 39% and 48%, respectively.

Although the administration has not disclosed the details of the plan, experts predict it would be very costly to shift the extensive health care services the VA provides to the private sector. But Congress is unwilling to increase funding for the VA. The numbers are likely to be balanced on the back of veterans.

This is the typical GOP scheme to mine for money by raiding the benefits of the most vulnerable to fund lavish tax cuts for the most affluent. The 2018 election should be a warning to Republicans that the people are getting tired of this stuff. Now, the people must follow up in 2020 by giving the Republicans a thrashing.