First, Bush and the GOP invade Afghanistan and Iraq, creating millions of new veterans, many of them serving multiple tours and coming home with PTSD.
Then, in Congress, with Obama in office, the GOP filibusters and denies any additional monies for the VA. After all, it's illegal for a Republican to cooperate with Obama and the Democrats in any fashion whatsoever, right? The country can just go to hell while the GOP throws their tantrums.
So now we have a VA in crisis. Most of it can be laid right at the doorstep of the GOP. Yet, all the outrage gets directed at Obama and the VA. We have seen this script before. The GOP is getting pretty good at deflecting any and all blame. And with a stilted, entertainment-driven media (and FOX News), the American people rarely learn the truth.
and here's a note from Thom Hartmann:
Back in 2012, for example, GOP senators blocked a $1 billion jobs bill would have helped millions of unemployed veterans find work. And in that same year, Republican opposition also blocked a bill - the so-called Veterans’ Compensation Cost of Living Adjustment Act - that would have kept veterans’ benefits on par with rising expenses.
The list goes on. Before that, GOP lawmakers killed the Wounded Veteran Job Security Act, the Veterans Retraining Act of 2009, the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, the Disabled Veterans Home Improvement and Structural Alteration Grant Increase Act of 2009, the Veterans Business Center Act of 2009, and the Job Creation Through Entrepreneurship Act of 2009.
Every single one of these these bills would have helped veterans and every single one was killed exclusively by Republican opposition. So don't be surprised if I take the GOP’s newfound obsession with veterans’ issues with a big grain of salt. But Republican hypocrisy when it comes to the VA is only part of the story. What we’re really seeing here with the calls for Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki to resign and the bashing of the VA as a whole is one of the best recent examples of what I call the “Republican Chaos Strategy.”
Republicans know that the while most people know that Barack Obama is president and that he is a Democrat - the vast majority of Americans - 60 to 75 percent by some estimates - don’t know which party is in charge of the House of Representatives or who controls the Senate, or either.
And, so, when something like the Phoenix VA hospital controversy comes along, Republicans know that they both can use it to trash the administration and, at the same time, confuse the American people about who’s really responsible for the problems plaguing the VA and our country.
Original.
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