Mike Pence made an absurd claim in an op-ed, in which he claims "veterans have no better friend than President Trump."
Let's get this out of the way first: Trump is getting close to the two year anniversary of becoming president, and in that two year period, he has yet to visit troops in a combat zone.
Visiting the troops is the easiest thing a president could do, and everyone knows that conservatives would be bombarding Obama with criticism had he yet to visit troops.
Hell, it was just a few days ago that Trump was accusing Obama of being bad for the military, but Peter Alexander, NBC News White House correspondent tried give a little perspective that Donald Trump is incapable of:
The stupidity of Trump is also matched by his and Pence's deceitfulness with regards to the care of our veterans.
American Progress noted five things that Trump and congressional Republicans were trying to do that would hurt veterans:
1. Making it harder for veterans to find jobs
2. Reducing veterans' access to health care
3. Taking away supports and services from veterans with disabilities
4. Increasing veteran hunger and food insecurity
5. Increasing veteran homelessness and housing insecurity
Today on Democracy Now, Amy Goodman talked to Suzanne Gordon, author of Wounds of War: How the VA Delivers Health, Healing, and Hope to the Nation’s Veterans.
Suzanne Gordon has written and article in the New York Times titled, "By Protecting Veterans’ Health, You May Protect Your Own.”
"The Veterans Health Administration doesn’t just care for veterans and give innovative, state-of-the-art care to the nation’s military veterans," Gordon told Amy Goodman.
Not only is the VA responsible for research that got us the vaccine for shingles, and the first liver transplant, but according to Gordon, 70 percent of American physicians are trained by the VA. The VA's ability to also oversee the well-being of all Americans is why Trump's veteran healthcare reform is going to hurt not just veterans, but all Americans.
In the interview, Amy Goodman asks Gordon about Pence's mentioning of Trump's healthcare reform for veterans in his op-ed, called Veterans Choice.
Suzanne Gordon's response (emphasis mine):
So, this is—he’s referring to the VA Mission Act of 2018, which was passed in June. Sadly, too many Democrats also voted for this act. This act definitely is a big change. And what it will do is not make veterans healthier or really help them to deal with the many different wounds of war and of military service that they suffer from. It’s going to starve the VA of resources. I mean, it allows many more veterans to go into private-sector hospitals and doctors and mental health providers and so forth, who various studies show are not familiar with their many very specific problems. Every dollar that is paid to the private sector will come out of the VHA budget, the Veterans Health Administration budget. So, pretty soon what we’ll see is there will be more money going to private-sector doctors and hospitals, that are not equipped to take care of veterans’ problems, and money will be taken right out of the VHA budget.
It's abundantly clear that Pence declaring that veterans couldn't have a "better friend" than Trump is complete horse shit.
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