JUST PLAIN WRONG: AOC Gives VA an A+

Every week we publish a story centered around the stupidity of freshman Congresswomen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

And every week, I ask myself, “can she get any dumber?” So far, the answer is always the same. Yes.

Her latest offense- AOC believes the VA is performing quite well. In fact, her exact words were: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Ironically, some of the VA’s most visible failures were brought to light in Washington, DC, of all places.

CBS News listed many of the deficiencies, including:

    • Patients who underwent prolonged anesthesia because surgical instruments were unavailable once they were put under
    • Doctors and nurses forced to make do by borrowing supplies from a nearby hospital, while 500,000 items sat unused at a warehouse
    • The government rented items like three home hospital beds for nearly $875,000, that would have only cost $21,000 to buy

And that’s just one example. Historically, Veterans get sub-par treatment, which is beyond pathetic considering the sacrifice each of them made for the greater good.

As CNBC pointed out:

The VA has faced reports of excessive and contradictory spending, allegations of inadequate health care, a massive backlog of benefits claims and a secretary position that nobody can seem to hold down.

In fact, for many veterans, the claims process is a lot like a game of “legal chutes and ladders.” Sadly, in 2015, CNN reported more than 300,000 vets died awaiting care from the VA.

But according to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, none of this adds up to a problem.

She might as well travel around and give all the VA Hospitals blue ribbons.

As Fox News reports:

“That is the opening approach we have seen when it comes to privatization, it’s the idea that this thing that isn’t broken, this thing that provides some of the highest quality care to our veterans somehow needs to be fixed, optimized, tinkered with until we don’t even recognize it anymore,” she said, in comments first reported by The Washington Examiner

“They are trying to fix the VA for pharmaceutical companies, they are trying to fix the VA for insurance corporations, and, ultimately they are trying to fix the VA for a for-profit healthcare industry that does not put people or veterans first,” she said. “And so we have a responsibility to protect it.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s comments were aimed at Trump administration efforts to expand choice and private health care options in the VA health care system, particularly via the MISSION Act — signed into law by President Trump last year.

The Need to Reform

Honestly, the VA is one of America’s most broken systems. Which is why reform has been a Trump priority from day 1.

Fox continues:

The department was plagued by scandal during the Obama administration — including secret wait lists, systemic neglect and veterans dying while waiting to see a doctor.

“Putting our veterans first means making sure they are at the center of any reform efforts. That is exactly what the administration did with the VA MISSION Act — put the veteran ahead of the bureaucracy,” Dan Caldwell, executive director of Concerned Veterans for America, told Fox News when asked about Ocasio-Cortez’s comments. “The VA is structured for a veteran population that has fundamentally changed from when it was built. Policy reforms should fundamentally change with the population and the times. When the resources follow the veteran, the veteran wins.”

“When resources go to prop up an aging and outdated bureaucracy, the veteran loses. It’s not about ‘fixing’ the VA, rather it is about making sure the focus of the VA is on the veteran, not itself,” he said.

Under Trump, the VA is making incredible changes.

Current VA Secretary Robert Wilkie recently declared the VA to be making “groundbreaking progress,” on accountability, transparency and efficiency while touting the MISSION Act.

“Under President Trump, VA has done more in the last two years than it has in decades in reforming the department and improving care and benefits for our nation’s heroes,” he said in a Fox News op-ed in January, before saying there was still work to be done on issues such as suicide prevention.

Trump understands were not out of the woods. Each day we need to strive to make further improvements for our veterans.

Socialized Medicine

Our veterans deserve the best we have to offer, which means they deserve privatized care. But Ocasio-Cortez prefers the world of ObamaCare instead of private health insurance. Like most democrats, she’d rather see all health care controlled by the government. I can’t help but hear Dr. Phil’s voice asking “how’s that working out so far?”

By the time Trump took office, 16 of the 23 co-ops for ObamaCare were already bankrupt. As we reported back in 2017, most families found the penalties much cheaper that the so-called ‘affordable’ health care.

You would think leftists would learn a few lessons from the dismal ObamaCare record, but sadly, liberals refuse to learn from their mistakes.

Fox continues:

2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., this month unveiled his latest Medicare-for-all plan, signed onto by a number of other 2020 hopefuls. That plan would largely abolish private insurance plans — with Sanders suggesting insurers could be reduced to cosmetic surgery.

“Under Medicare for All, we cover all basic health care needs, so they’re not going to be there to do that. I suppose if you want to make yourself look a bit more beautiful, you want to work on that nose, your ears. They can do that,” he said.

But Bernie doesn’t say how we will care for our servicemen and women. I highly doubt he’d kick in any of his millions to provide a veteran’s specialized care needs. And with AOC’s “it ain’t broke” mentality, it’s clear our veterans aren’t a priority on the left. But most veterans already know where they stand with liberals. Which is why Trump carried the military vote in 2016, and it’s why he’ll do it again next year.

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