Veterans groups are angry after President Obama told them Monday that he is still considering a proposal to have treatment for service-connected injuries charged to veterans' private insurance plans
Why indeed ??
I’ve been looking at this and think I finally figured out why Obama would present such a proposal when he had so ardently opposed changes like this before the election and would surely know that no one would agree to it. On the surface, it makes no sense for him to even make such a proposal.
BUT
Obama is a smart man. That may be the exact reason he proposed It. He had to know that neither the Republicans nor Democrats in the Congress would support such a plan. As a matter of fact everyone on both sides of the aisle are pissed off about it:
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs vowed Tuesday that the plan would never gain the panel's approval "VA's sacred duty is to care for veterans injured in honorable service to our nation, and the department should not turn to wounded warriors' private insurance to pay for combat injures," said Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. "Under my chairmanship, the Veterans' Affairs Committee will not advance any such legislation."
The above is from a Democrat, but I have read equally strong objections from Republicans also. I don't believe there is a congressman alive who would be willing to go home and tell his/her constituents that they supported this proposal.
But Obama also knows that there is a $540 million shortfall in the VA budget that has to come from somewhere. What better way to get Republicans and Democrats to work together to solve the problem than to give them an issue on which they both agree, even if it is against something he proposed:
The message, according to some of the people in the room, was that if the groups do not like this idea, they need to come back with another way of saving or raising revenue for the VA.
Unlike Bush, or even Clinton, we finally have a very smart president who may be using a little psychology on Congress. Up until now, most presidents side with whatever their party proposes or vise versa, which splits congress down the middle and gets very little done. What if this president is willing to let everyone get pissed at him just so that he can advance an issue by getting congressmen on both sides of the aisle to work together to come up with a viable, non-partisan, solution.
There IS a new sheriff in town.
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UPDATE: 3/18/2009
The White House on Wednesday
backed off a controversial plan that would have dramatically altered the way the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) handles insurance claims, after veterans groups staged an all-out fight against such a proposal.
President Obama will not pursue a proposal that would have allowed the VA to charge private insurance companies for the treatment of veterans with service- and war-related injuries. The proposal raised the ire of prominent Democrats on the House and Senate Veterans Affairs panels. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was the first to publicly announce Wednesday afternoon that the president won't pursue
GREAT....NEVERMIND