Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Another Promise Kept: POTUS Signs VA Mission Act

Clifford A. Brown
By Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown Contributor
Retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a Colonel after 30 years of active and reserve assignments. M.A. Political Science, M.S. Strategic Studies, Army War College, JD. Served in 1st Armored Division in West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down, in 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea during the regime of Kim Il Sung, and commanded a logistics battalion in Iraq 2003-2004. Wide-ranging public policy interests. Occasional home brewer and infuser of alcohol spirits.
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7 COMMENTS
 

President Trump accomplished several things with this ceremony: promise keeping, serving veterans, and reforming healthcare. The first two were obvious and significant, the third was indirect and rhetorical.

From C-SPAN:

President Trump signed the VA Mission Act, which extended the Veterans Affairs’ Choice Program for one year while the department worked to consolidate its seven community care programs into one. A number of Republican lawmakers were in attendance at the Rose Garden ceremony. Before signing the bill, President Trump thanked those lawmakers for their support of the legislation and talked about recently released unemployment numbers.

Donald Trump, all the way back at The Art of the Deal, noted that the American people figure out what a president is really all about before the end of his first term. President Trump has demonstrated from Day One that he will defend his brand of political promise keeping. Look back to Trump’s victory speech:

We will also finally take care of our great veterans who have been so loyal, and I’ve gotten to know so many over this 18-month journey.The time I’ve spent with them during this campaign has been among my greatest honors. Our veterans are incredible people.

With the VA Mission Act, he again took an action to take care of our veterans:

My pledge to you, our noble warriors, is that my Administration will support you, and your loved ones, and your amazing families every single day, now and always.

This is on top of last year’s law making the firing of bad VA employees easier—a major move in the face of the whole federal bureaucracy’s investment in career protection rules. President Trump’s refusal to stand pat on DVA Secretaries without fast enough results is portrayed as chaotic, but also shows he really expects results for veterans.

The VA Mission Act serves veterans by allowing access to medical care outside the VA medical facilities. This access is granted when care is not available in VA facilities near the veteran, or when timely access to local VA care is not available. Veterans are given greater choice in healthcare.

Beyond promise-keeping and service to veterans, there is an indirect effect on the national healthcare system debate. Giving veterans more choice, and choice beyond government-run facilities, pushes back against the move towards a national health service, lately pitched as “Medicare for all.” Beyond repeal of the individual mandate, the President can point to another action by a Republican Congress, before the midterm election, to incrementally “repeal and replace Obamacare.”

The incremental movements towards popular, commonsensical reforms belies opponents’ image of President Trump as crazy, lazy, or incompetent. It may even help Congress reclaim its place as the first branch of government, regaining credibility on the margins as a legislature. So far, we see the individual mandate repealed, people with terminal illness given the right to try (“right to hope” as the President said), and one massive federal healthcare system’s grip on patients being chipped away.

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  1. cdor Member
    cdor Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    I do not understand why there even is a VA. Us old folks have medicare. Why not just have Vets on Medicare? It’s not free for me but it could be for vets. Currently we have a redundant system. Duplicate facilities, duplicate doctors, and duplicate administrators = duplicate costs. I know that vets have some special needs, but even civilians can acquire PTSD symptoms and traumatic body injuries. Can someone explain to me ( please use simple terms) why we have a VA?

    • #1
    • June 6, 2018, at 2:47 PM PDT
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    • 3 likes
  2. TheRightNurse Member
    TheRightNurse

    Best news I’ve heard all day. 

    • #2
    • June 6, 2018, at 2:58 PM PDT
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    • 3 likes
  3. Clifford A. Brown Contributor
    Clifford A. Brown
    Post author

    cdor (View Comment):

    I do not understand why there even is a VA. Us old folks have medicare. Why not just have Vets on Medicare? It’s not free for me but it could be for vets. Currently we have a redundant system. Duplicate facilities, duplicate doctors, and duplicate administrators = duplicate costs. I know that vets have some special needs, but even civilians can acquire PTSD symptoms and traumatic body injuries. Can someone explain to me ( please use simple terms) why we have a VA?

    Excellent question:

    GI Bill college fund

    VA home loan

    VA small business loan

    Voc rehab

    disability pensions

    Service connected disability rating, which drives eligibility for rehab, pension, treatment — see POTUS comment that DOD and DVA are finally doing one coordinated determination of disability (if you are too broken to serve, the same determination should direct the kind of support warranted through VA).

    …

    BLUF: single source to credit/blame for federal government support to veterans.

    • #3
    • June 6, 2018, at 3:16 PM PDT
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    • 1 like
  4. ctlaw Coolidge
    ctlaw

    I assume the embalmed woman at the left is Elizabeth Dole.

    • #4
    • June 6, 2018, at 4:11 PM PDT
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    • 1 like
  5. Clifford A. Brown Contributor
    Clifford A. Brown
    Post author

    ctlaw (View Comment):

    I assume the embalmed woman at the left is Elizabeth Dole.

    At 81, she is still involved in advocacy for military and veteran caregivers. 

    • #5
    • June 6, 2018, at 4:41 PM PDT
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    • 6 likes
  6. Duane Oyen Member
    Duane Oyen Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    Now they just need to add true choice- allowing you to go get the care wherever, even if the VA is in your area and can give you an appointment.

    But I counsel my conservative brethren to stop focusing on killing programs, stop the maniacal obsession with stuff like the GI Bill, VA home loan, Voc rehab, and disability pensions. You aren the reason that we cannot reform entitlements in a sensible way. Yes, you, the green eyeshade accounting obsessives whom the people simply do not trust to act in their interests. Like it or not, the voters are not with you.

    • #6
    • June 7, 2018, at 7:25 AM PDT
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  7. cdor Member
    cdor Joined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member

    Duane Oyen (View Comment):

    Now they just need to add true choice- allowing you to go get the care wherever, even if the VA is in your area and can give you an appointment.

    But I counsel my conservative brethren to stop focusing on killing programs, stop the maniacal obsession with stuff like the GI Bill, VA home loan, Voc rehab, and disability pensions. You aren the reason that we cannot reform entitlements in a sensible way. Yes, you, the green eyeshade accounting obsessives whom the people simply do not trust to act in their interests. Like it or not, the voters are not with you.

    It must be too early for me to understand your comment.

    • #7
    • June 7, 2018, at 7:38 AM PDT
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    • 1 like

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