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Trump won votes promising to protect veterans, but major veterans groups are rattled by his plans
The Los Angeles Times ^ | December 22, 2016 | Evan Halper

Posted on 12/22/2016 4:08:11 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Donald Trump’s flair for connecting with veterans won him an overwhelming share of their votes, but the durability of the alliance is already being tested as Trump’s search for a Veterans Affairs secretary veers in a direction that has alarmed some of America’s most influential retired soldiers.

Under pressure from conservative activists, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and organizations funded by the Koch Brothers, Trump is contemplating choosing an agency chief who would upend the entire veterans healthcare system. That would come over the protest of the country’s major veterans groups.

An appointment like that could prove an early test of whether the voters who backed Trump in November will continue to stick with him when his agenda smacks into interest groups that have been crusading on their behalf for decades....

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Health/Medicine; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: fakenews; healthcare; laslimes; military; trump; trumpagenda; trumpcabinet; trumptransition; trumpveterans; veterans
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To: GJones2

As a 4 year peace time vet, I wouldn’t even think of walking into a VA hospital with an ailment.
Yes, I believe the VA should be for 20 yr retirees and combat injured.
I wouldn’t have the audacity to think I could even enter that building.
Sorry, but that’s just me.


41 posted on 12/22/2016 5:34:30 PM PST by Undecided 2012
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

more bullshit from the LA times


42 posted on 12/22/2016 5:40:00 PM PST by pissant ((Deport 'em all))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Fake news.


43 posted on 12/22/2016 6:01:46 PM PST by tennmountainman ("Prophet Mountainman" Predicter Of All Things RINO...for a small pittance)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

...and he’s not even president.


44 posted on 12/22/2016 6:09:57 PM PST by Organic Panic (Rich White Man Evicts Poor Black Family From Public Housing - MSNBCPBSCNNNYTABC)
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To: Undecided 2012

> As a 4 year peace time vet, I wouldn’t even think of walking into a VA hospital with an ailment....Sorry, but that’s just me.

So, yes, you are in favor of dumping veterans who retired thinking they had enough to subsist and are now too old to find jobs “...into the rest of the indigent population, in many instances causing them to lose their homes or not be able to pay rent, in effect, putting them on the street”

In my case I served in wartime, but peacetime doesn’t always stay peacetime. Persons who serve in the military give up many of their freedoms to do what they wish and go where they please. They too assume the risk of being put in harm’s way at any time.

I agree that this doesn’t necessarily entitle them to special compensation for the rest of their lives, or even special provisions when they are elderly. The most deserving are the veterans who make greater sacrifices.

I have no problem with saying — well ahead of time — that your level of service doesn’t qualify you for full health care in your retirement. Then it would be up to persons with lesser qualifications to make the proper provisions for their retirement just like everybody else. If not, they end up with the rest of the indigent.

To “improve” veterans health care, after they are retired, though, and make them ineligible when it’s too late for them to fend for themselves, really sucks! Trump didn’t campaign on that.


45 posted on 12/22/2016 6:21:28 PM PST by GJones2 (Reducing care for veterans)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They want him to make the extant system work. It probably can’t be done and it needs “upending.”


46 posted on 12/22/2016 6:35:10 PM PST by arthurus
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To: GJones2

Dude, I hate to say it, and I do thank you too for your service BUT like I said me sailing around for 4 yrs with ballistic missiles, just in case, Is not the same as all my ancestors did in all our prior wars, nor those current Marines that had to retake Ramadi and Fallujah.
Those are the guys that should be front and center in line at the VA.


47 posted on 12/22/2016 6:40:13 PM PST by Undecided 2012
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To: The_Republic_Of_Maine

All of the CA newspapers are fake news. The Sacramento Bee is really unhinged.


48 posted on 12/22/2016 7:07:07 PM PST by wjcsux ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

FAKE NEWS! GET YER FAKE NEWS HERE! READ ALL ABOUT IT! TRUMP HATES VETS! LETS THEM DIE! READ ALL ABOUT IT! VETS KICKED OUT OF VA! GET YER LA TIMES FAKE NEWS HERE!


49 posted on 12/22/2016 7:07:49 PM PST by Awgie (Truth is always stranger than fiction.)
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To: Undecided 2012

> Those are the guys that should be front and center in line at the VA.

Who the hell said anything about them not being in front? If you’re not already retired and too elderly to work, I have no problem with you not receiving full health care, or with you not receiving any health care at all beyond the eligibility of ordinary citizens. I know the difference in levels of service. I sustained no disabling injuries myself, and my own level of service was low compared with that of my father, who was killed in combat.

What I do oppose is these off-the-cuff remarks about restricting coverage to the most deserving without taking into account retired low-income veterans, previously eligible, who are now too old to adapt to changes in eligibility. They made provisions for their old age based on their eligibility under the previous rules. To “improve” veterans health care, at this stage of their lives, by dumping them into the indigent population is not what I call improvement. It sucks.


50 posted on 12/22/2016 7:11:44 PM PST by GJones2 (Reducing care for veterans)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When you see a headline like this, the first thing you do now is to look at the source and... sure enough... there it is — LA TIMES. No need to read further.


51 posted on 12/23/2016 1:45:42 AM PST by AdaGray
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To: The_Republic_Of_Maine

Yes. LA Slimes = Fakestream Media.


52 posted on 12/23/2016 8:28:57 AM PST by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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