Posted on 03/19/2009 2:40:01 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Obama administration on Wednesday abandoned a controversial plan to make veterans use private insurance to pay for costly treatments of combat-related injuries.
Stung by the angry reaction to the proposal, the administration made the decision after a meeting between officials from 11 veterans advocacy groups and top White House officials.
"Our voices were heard," said Norbert Ryan, the president of the Military Officers Association of America. "They made the right decision on this."
The plan would've reversed a longstanding policy of providing government health coverage for all service-related injuries. Few details emerged beyond its reported savings of $540 million, however.
Most veterans use private insurance only for health problems unrelated to their military service.
"This is a moral issue for us," said Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
What was most puzzling to experienced activists and others was that the White House floated the idea in the first place. Several said that the administration came off as politically tone deaf to the importance of the issue.
"They've grabbed hold of the 'third rail' and they shouldn't have done this," said Rick Weidman, director of government relations for Vietnam Veterans of America. "If they had asked anyone informally, we would have informed them, 'Are you kidding? All hell will break loose.'"
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the intent of the plan had been to "maximize the resources available for veterans."
He said, however, that President Barack Obama, who met with the veterans groups on Monday in their first trip to the White House, recognized their concern that it could "under certain circumstances, affect veterans and their families' ability to access health care."
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
I’m thinking a lot of posters have a good idea that Obama is fundamentally anti-military and any move to make military less attractive is good for him. But this move also echoes the Clinton Administration which routinely “floated” or “leaked” possible moves in order to gauge the public reaction. If there was not a substantial reaction, the move became formal. If public reaction was severe, they usually announced that the “leak” was premature or unfounded. In other words, we may be back to a PR administration. Let’s wait to see where the Obamas start taking their vacations.
The real “Slogan” that should be ringing across the country is, what's good enough for us is good enough for our representatives in Washington!
401K’s not absurd retirement programs.
Private healthcare like you and I have.
No automatic pay raises in fact no pay raises until the budget is balanced.
He throws stuff out to see what will stick. He is a sick dude; and over half of us voted for this nutbag. Hope they have a great life with him; there is not way I will make over 250k to fund this crap!
Obvious. Double target.
Damage the military, damage the health care system.
Don’t worry, they’ll be back for both. They’re not done with either.
“but what was it thinking?”
I’ll tell you, “We’re the majority opinion, right? RIIIGHT?!”
That’s what they were thinking.
Yep, I think that’s the plan. We should all be keeping our eyes open, and be prepared for more (and WORSE!). Obama is a Communist, and Communists ALL want the same thing - power. And, they will do ANYTHING they can to achieve it. I feel we are headed for some very dark days.
You assume they were thinking to begin with.
hussein is evil, not stupid...
well at least more evil than stupid...
please tell me your joking...
2DV...i ammend my earlier post...not stupid at all...simply 'pushin'...
After all, priorities are priorities. We need to look to the bailouts of foreign banks, the payments to ACORN, and the funding of Hamas, first!
please tell me your joking...
No, LibertyRocks is NOT joking. I've heard "campaign style" radio announcements in Austin to that effect.
Please see this FR thread:
“Obama Asks Supporters to “Knock on Doors” This Weekend [March 21 & 22] to Support His Budget”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2209495/posts
Here’s a direct link to Obama’s YouTube/Email Video @ YouTube:
“A New Foundation for Growth”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8QVg2TWLo8
Dear Leader and his gang are rather like Sollozzo in the “Godfather”. They ain’t that smart. Anything they get away with is only because the media gives them a pass. The remaining newsprint and network outlets have too much invested in these thieves. They CAN’T be allowed to crash.
That is the important point which is being ignored!
The left is now saying how since he changed his mind, no harm no foul! Unreal
Anyone who knocks on MY dooor with this IS NOT going to like the answer. If I’m going to be called a bigoted bitter gun clutching racist regardless, perhaps I should start acting like one. Besides, PC ducking and jiving gives me the vapors.
It isn't all that complicated.
---
"Probe with a bayonet: if you meet steel, stop. If you meet mush, then push."
-- Lenin
I just WISH one of those MO’FOs come to my door. They won’t like the welcome they are going to get.
Please do NOT assume these people are stupid. One of the quickest ways to get yourself into trouble is to underestimate your adversary.
Most of the people at the “top” know exactly what they are doing. They use “useful idiots”, as Lenin called them, to do their dirty work because those people are “expendable” (see all the people under Obama’s bus - used while they are valuable and then tossed aside like so much trash - pure scapegoats). These Communists will act and play games to get you to THINK they can’t or won’t do any harm, all the while they are plotting and scheming for a way to destroy capitalism and our Constitution because THAT is what stands in the way of their Communist dreams.
This has been going on for decades now. What we are seeing is the result of Communist infiltration into our society since the 40s and 50s.
For good measure I am copying below a list of goals that was read into the Congressional Record back in 1963 from a book named the “Communist Manifesto”. It outlines EXACTLY what the Communists have been doing within our country for the last 3 generations. Many of these things have already come to pass...
Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record—Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 10, 1963 .
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman’s request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following “Current Communist Goals,” which she identifies as an excerpt from “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen:
[From “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen]
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture—education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use [”]united force[”] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
Note by Webmaster: The Congressional Record back this far has not be digitized and posted on the Internet.
It will probably be available at your nearest library that is a federal repository. Call them and ask them. Your college library is probably a repository. This is an excellent source of government records. Another source are your Congress Critters. They should be more than happy to help you in this matter. You will find the Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto interesting at this point.
Webmaster Forest Glen Durland found the document in the library.
Sources are listed below.
Microfilm: California State University at San Jose Clark Library, Government Floor Phone (408)924-2770 Microfilm Call Number: J 11.R5
Congressional Record, Vol. 109 88th Congress, 1st Session Appendix Pages A1-A2842 Jan. 9-May 7, 1963 Reel 12
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