EXPOSED: KILL the VA? Koch-backed Concerned Veterans of America trapped the Republicans.

[TheBlackAdder]

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Head Of Koch-Backed Concerned Veterans Of America Leaves Without Explanation

Well, this is an interesting twist. We've been reporting on Concerned Veterans For America for years now, since the days when Pete Hegseth became a regular on Fox News for commentary on veteran's affairs.

Here's Pete, arguing for the privatization of the VA, which Rachel Maddow just slams in the video at the top. "Here, veterans, here's your voucher. See ya later!," she taunted.

Hegseth is a Koch-made man. Without the Kochs and the Koch network, he'd be nothing. Nobody.

In Rachel Maddow's segment, she said she wasn't sure how much the Kochs had given Concerned Veterans for America. Here's what I know.

In 2012, its first year of existence, it received $1,968,500 from Koch-related trust entities.
In 2013, Freedom Partners Trust, the Koch bank for related non-profits, gave $5,245,000.

Hegseth himself admitted at a Koch meeting that it was a project of the Kochtopus.

After building up the issue of privatizing the VA, and Pete Hegseth as the face of Concerned Veterans for America, Hegseth is erased entirely, without so much as a gold watch or a going-away party.

Why?

Watch the video at the follwing link (The C&L Player works really well):


http://crooksandliars.com/2016/01/head-koch-backed-concerned-veterans



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[Wellstone ruled]

1. The Koch Family has always wanted direct

access to the Federal Vault,which is the bottom line for any Privatizer.

[malaise]

2. You win the thread

That simple

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Most V.A. facilities are

State of the Art,and have the best equipment for patient care. What is lacking is Qualified Personnel and Adiquite Funding. You just have love those phony front names the Oligarchs use to try to Privatize various Governmental Agencies. It is all about having a fixed money stream and being able to monetize that stream of money. Koch Brothers/John Birch Society/Feudal/Indentured Servitude.

[malaise]

4. They are thieves and they need compliit thiefing politicians to

succeed.

[HereSince1628]

5. I regularly go to the VA in Milw. It's 4 miles from the SOs

so I have the convenience of a place close-by. Until the tumor on my foot made it impossible I could walk there, in a bit over an hour That almost neighborhood access was not possible for many vets.

Vets who I have sat with came to the Milw VA have from way beyond walking distance...sometimes from near a hundred miles...one-way. And although the VA does sometimes help organize group transportation, those group trips can mean a very long day and hours of time waiting for the end of the day to be sure all the vets who came on the trip have completed their appointments.

Sometimes the VA gets behind, there can be delays to that trip back home. A trip that started well before dawn to get to a pick-up locations, might not return the vet to the drop-off location until well into evening. It's great to have VA care, don't get anyone wrong. But, while it's generally good care, it's not always especially convenient. I sat next to a vet back in Nov, who came in on a bus, wandered around the campus all morning, then headed up to the pediatric clinic, checked in on the automated system (big sign next to receptionist that says USE THE AUTOMATED KYOSK), waited patiently for his appointment until he was an hour over-due only to find out his doc had cancelled all his patient's appointments for the afternoon. When parted company he was frosted, he got to wait all day for the bus back upstate.

Those buses drive by many regional clinics and hospitals on their way down the shoreline, and among the passengers have been vets who felt they're being handled like cattle. There has long been discontent about those sorts of distances.

One of my friends travels ~45 miles each way to go from his small town in rural WI to the VA near Madison. A 90 mile round trip. There is a hospital roughly 9ish miles east and another about 12 miles south of his home. The one 12 miles south was close to his employment.

Yes, the Kochs are pure-capitalists and don't think any service should be run by the government and they scheme to move America toward neo-feudalism where entire communities are owned by a rich guy, but vets have long wanted to be able to use local providers to avoid the great distances involved. And many of them are sort of glad that's been made a little bit easier.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Like I have said.

All of the V.A.'s services can and should be expanded,and all it needs is funds for Transportation and hiring of more Staff. Of course that computer system they use is just a boat anchor. Grew up in Northern Wiscony,and the Guys and Gals went to St Paul for care and now with Walker running things into the ground,medical services are headed the same direction. And privatizing the V.A. System will only turn into the same mess as the Privatizing of Hospitals during the Eighties when we seen the Privatizing HMO's . And don't think that line of Bull saved you and I any money,just the opposite.

[HereSince1628]

8. I think you missed what I thought I said clearly...other vets have told me

they don't like the distance issue. I'm really disappointed you have to call me a liar.

Having lived in clinic-less, often retail challenged small towns most of my adult life I really do understand that people from less populated places often drive long distances to do what urban people do locally.

[Wellstone ruled]

9. You are not a liar.

Just referring to what is happening in the Northwestern area where I grew up. Have Brother who faces the same issues as you. Hundred and sixty miles from St Paul and hundred and seventy from Madison. Like you say zero nadda in his area,and living out in the woods on a narrow farm road does not help. Our Sister makes sure he makes his appointments and if she can't do the drive,got a high school Bud that can pinch hit. Like you say,communication sucks,he has rode to Madison,just to find out his appointment had been changed and not a word. Hopefully he gets his paperwork for a clinic about half hour away.

[1939]

6. Just give Veterans a Medicaid/Medicare type of arrangement and let them go to their own doctors

VA pisses away their money on clerks and jerks whose primary function is to keep you from seeing a doctor. Spend the money on doctors, PAs, and NPs and fire immediately all the clerks and jerks. That applies to military health care as well. There are too many people in the system whose function is to badger and blockade the patient's efforts to see a doctor.