…Holy Shit.
Irradiated by LabRat
When I posted earlier on the Obama administration’s brilliant plan to stop paying for treatment for veterans wounded in the course of duty, I had kind of figured that this wasn’t so much Obama’s idea as it was some lower-level wonk on his team of lefties writing a bad decision into the budget, and that the administration would promptly back off it and throw the feckless ideologue on the growing pile of bodies under the bus as soon as the story went public.
I was wrong. The Best Plan Ever is, in fact, Obama’s Best Idea Ever- which he defended to the face of the American Legion representative that met with him in an attempt to talk him out of this boondoggle. Obama knows the moral arguments, he just doesn’t want to hear ‘em- because he plans to save five hundred and forty million with this cost-saving measure.
Think about that number for a bit. The budget includes six hundred billion plus of health care spending- including 19 billion, I really wish to emphasize that, for… converting all medical records to electronic format, which many hospitals and practices are doing anyway on their own dime. Better yet, it includes as one of eight principles for Congress in drafting health care legislations- this is a direct quote- “Aim for universality”.
Unless, of course, you were hurt in the course of defending the country, or if you want to put it in more cynical terms, risking your life to do the government’s bidding. In that case, you are on your own- and good luck finding coverage, that’s a dangerous job, you know.
Un. Fucking. Believable. Even to me.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
We are on the road to ruin…
and that road is looking pretty short.
March 16th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Apparently he wants to ensure that EVERYBODY in the miltary votes against him, as well as the families of military members. There’s shooting yourself in the foot, and there’s lighting the cannon with a punt while standing directly in front of it.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Not classy.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
That’s OK … he’s planning on bring these troops home immediately after this slap in the face.
What a retard.
March 17th, 2009 at 7:58 am
Ok, sure, it really sucks, but hey, at least now we know whose side the .mil will be on when Obama does something so egregiously outrageous (like banning firearms outright, or converting us to a system of farm and factory soviets) that it starts the Third American Revolution.
Wow. That silver lining is so thin the cloud is only half mirrored. Which means we can make a cloud based laser! Lasers!
March 17th, 2009 at 8:55 am
The good news is it will be harder for him to turn the military against the People.
March 17th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Obama can still turn the military against the people if he convinces them that HE is the People that everybody voted for him…
March 17th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Politically, Zero could care less…most of the .mil has finely tuned BS detectors, and didn’t vote Hopey McChangerson. This will convince the few fence-sitters.
I swear, every day I find new reasons to go over my Zombopocalypse supplies and lay in more stock.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
This is absurd. But also in response to having the military vote against him, if you were paying attention in the last elections the dems were making it harder for military to vote. Especially deployed and stationed overseas. Effectively turning a deaf ear to their wishes.
March 17th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Here’s a saturnine thought: suppose the idea here is to force the pool of military enlistees in the direction the relatively well-off? A really-off-the-wall ODS’er might even wonder if it’s intended as completely deniable payback for the famously higher fraction of African-Americans drafted during the VN era.
Nah, it’s simpler to assume the banal: cluelessness.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I wonder if Obama figures that if he pushes through universal suck…er…healthcare, it would by definition cover veterans, making seperate coverage unnecessary.
March 18th, 2009 at 6:19 am
I wonder when the Obama camp will throw Obama under the bus…