My, My How He Has Expanded His Reach in 2 1/2 Years
(Will he brag about that achievement???)
AP FACT CHECK (July
4, 2019, Osan AB, Korea): Trump is often wrong about the military. Trump has
falsified his record on military matters on several fronts and repeated many
times.
Cite:
1. Trump: Claims that he came up with the “genius idea” of giving
veterans private health care so they don’t have to wait for Veterans Affairs
appointments.
FACT: He was to find out that others had
thought of it but failed to get it done, but his arch-enemy, former President
Barack Obama, in fact signed the existing law getting it done in 2014; Trump
merely builds on that and claims credit for himself.
2. Trump: I got the troops got the biggest pay raise in 10 years.
FACT: Military personnel received a pay
raise every year for decades despite Trump boasting about the size of the
military pay raises under his administration top them all. Several pay raises
in the last decade have been larger than under Trump’s: 2.6% this year; 2.4%
last year; and, 2.1% in 2017.
HISTORY: Military saw pay raises in 2008, 2009,
and 2010 (Geo. W. Bush and Barack Obama) and all were all 3.4% or higher.
Pay increases shrank after that because of Congressionally-mandated budget
caps. Trump and Congress did break a trend that began in 2011, but only raises
that hovered between 1% and 2%.
3. TRUMP: I got private-sector healthcare for Veterans.
Trump said: “I
actually came up with the idea. I said, ‘Why don’t we just have the veterans go
out and see a private doctor and we’ll pay the cost of the doctor and that will
solve the problem?’ Because some veterans were waiting for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4
weeks, they couldn’t get any service at all. I said: ‘We’ll just send them out.’ And I thought it
was a genius idea, brilliant idea. And then I came back and met with the board
and a lot of the people that handled the VA. They said to me: ‘Actually, sir,
we’ve been trying to get that passed for 40 years, and we haven’t been able to
get it.” I’m good at getting things done. It’s really cut down big on the
waits. We passed VA Choice
and VA Accountability to give our veterans the care that they deserve and they
have been trying to pass these things for 45 years.”
(Note: Trump was not in office in 2014 when the ACA passed)
FACTS: Trump did not invent the idea of
giving veterans the option to see private doctor outside of the VA at
government expense. Nor is he the first president in 40 years to pass such a program. Congress
approved the private-sector Veterans Choice health program (ACA) in 2014 and Barack Obama
signed it into law.
The official title is:
“The Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability,
and Transparency Act of 2014” (H.R. 3230; Pub. L. 113–146),
also known as the Veterans Choice Act (or simply the “ACA”), is public law
that was intended to address the ongoing VA Clinc Health Scandals.
Trump cancelled
the ACA and stuck his own which in reality is simply an expansion of the ACA (plus revenge against Mr. Obama).
Under the Trump
expansion bill, Veterans still may have to wait weeks to see a doctor. The
program allows veterans to see a private doctor if their VA wait is 20 days (28
for specialty care) or their drive is only 30 minutes. Indeed, the
VA says it does not expect a major increase in veterans seeking care outside
the VA under Trump’s expanded program (cancelled the
ACA) because waiting times in the private sector are typically longer than
at VA.
Plus, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said
in March: “The care in the private
sector, nine times out of ten, is probably not as good as care in VA.”
My 2 cents: As I’ve said a million times, how much
longer can we tolerate this man who is the most-degrading, insulting,
unqualified, and quite frankly shameful ever to sit in the Oval Office to
continue in office?
Not a rhetorical question.
Thanks for stopping by.
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