This is a real head scratching question, and it frankly boggles my mind. It has been known for some time that the new right wing token African American "Messiah" - Ben Carson - wants to eliminate the Veterans Administration, on which many vets depend for their health care. It even got headlines in the 'Military Times', e.g.
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2015/08/28/carson-dump-va-reaction/71312038/
So why the hell would any sane and sensible vet even remotely cater to this fool, or indicate a remote support? I don't get it. (Although again, it may be to drag out the token wingnut black again, like they did with Herman Cain in 2012, to try to paint Lefties as "Nazis" or "Klavern types from the KKK". But it doesn't wash this time because the VA ought to be a precious benefit to every red-blooded vet and cause them to get rid of any notions that "Uncle Ben" is their bosom pal.
According to the Military Times:
"Presidential hopeful Ben Carson’s comments suggesting the Veterans Affairs Department should be eliminated drew quick condemnation from multiple veterans groups, who called the idea short-sighted and ill-informed.
On a national radio show Thursday, Carson said that the country need to re-examine how it cares for veterans but also how to cut back on government bureaucracy.
“There is a lot of stuff we’re doing that doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “We don’t need a Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs should be folded in under the Department of Defense.”
Carson said he wants to provide all veterans with health savings accounts to pay for private-sector medical care and reserve defense-run veterans clinics for highly specialized care, like traumatic brain injury treatment and limb replacements.
Just a few hours after the remarks, leaders from the Veterans of Foreign Wars blasted the proposals as harmful to veterans.
“To suggest that disabled veterans could be sent out into the economy with a health savings account card overlooks the fact that civilian health care has waiting lists of their own … and presupposes that civilian doctors have the same skill sets as VA doctors, who see veterans of every age and malady every day,” VFW National Commander John Biedrzyck said in a statement.
“(VA) provides an irreplaceable service to the nation’s wounded, ill and injured veterans, and my organization will not let any candidate for any office suggest anything otherwise.”
Officials at Wounded Warrior Project said they will not endorse or condemn any candidates, but said Carson’s proposal “would not constitute a good path forward” for veterans."
I confess I am at a loss to grasp the Wounded Warriors tepid reaction. If they had any sense and were really for wounded warriors, they'd excoriate this candidate in no uncertain terms.
As I have related to family vets, the benefit they have via the VA is like having another $150k or more saved that the rest of us don't. So why would you support a doofus who wants to take it away?
Trump, aka "the Donna", may be many things - including a spineless, xenophobic demagogue- but at least he doesn't want to take Vets' VA benefits away!
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