The Dems' catch 22

The New York Times is so funny. They work hard at living up to their reputation as a member of the lap-dog media for the DNC. In a report about Bush's new budget they begin with the “alarming” news that Bush wants to double veterans insurance copays. Oh dear! But then deeply buried in paragraph 10 are the salient details. The current copay is $7, which Bush wants to raise to $15 -- and they don't mention at all that the changes are targeted at middle to upper class earning vets whose disabilities aren't service-related.

Rich Lowry explains it in more detail:

For 80 years, the rule was that the VA would take care of veterans with medical problems related to their military service or veterans without the means to purchase their own health care. In the mid-1990s, Congress decided to open the VA health care to all veterans, prompting a flood of new entrants into the system. Today, the VA treats a million more patients than it did three years ago, for a total of about five million....

Because the VA system was overwhelmed by a flood of new patients — many of them relatively well-off — it established a new rule saying that veterans with no medical problems relating to their service and an income above a certain threshold are not eligible for VA care. The rule affects an estimated 164,000 people.

Dems whine because the war is expensive, and whine because the “rich” get tax cuts, but when Bush actually tries to solve one problem in a way consistent with the Dems supposed concern about too much government spending on the “rich” Bush is then a heartless Scrooge.

“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.” -- Proverbs 26:4,5

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

Posted by Jack Lewis at February 7, 2005 07:55 AM