VFW: Healthcare Bill Betrays Veterans

For those of you sore 'winners' who think the hue and cry directed at 0bamacare is some sort of manufactured partisan outrage courtesey of the right wing noise machine, guess again.

Thomas J. Tradewell, head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars had this to say:

“The president and the Democratic leadership are betraying America's veterans,” [snip] “And what makes matters worse is the leadership and the president knows the bill is flawed, yet they are pushing for passage today like it’s a do-or-die situation. This nation deserves the best from their elected officials, and the rush to pass legislation of this magnitude is not it.”

“The president was very clear at our VFW national convention last year when he said he was going to protect these programs, as did the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate repeatedly throughout the year. Now we have this flawed package that everyone is trying to rush through that blatantly omits any protections of the healthcare programs our nation provides to millions of veterans, military personnel, military retirees, and their families or survivors.

“This is Washington doubletalk at its very worse, and the uproar is going to be huge in America’s military and veterans’ communities,"

At issue is the fact that H.R. 4872 omits any mention of protections for healthcare programs provided by the Veterans Administration and the military's Tricare system.

The way this thing was passed makes me wonder if omitting any protections of the VA or Tricare programs was a design flaw or a feature.