Why We Should Fight for the Veterans Health Administration
Republicans and centrist Democrats love to pour money into more and more wars. But when it comes to providing public health care for the soldiers they put in harm’s way, they try to privatize and starve vets’ programs. We have to stop them.
US Military veteran and amputee Lloyd Epps walks after doctors serviced his prosthetic leg at the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital on January 29, 2014 in Manhattan, New York City. (John Moore / Getty Images)
Think of America’s forever wars as a funnel between the largest and second-largest federal government departments.
Entering at the top of the funnel, via the Department of Defense (DoD), are millions of predominantly poor or working-class men and women who join the global war machine.
Hundreds of thousands end up in a world of hurt themselves. Their later need for disability benefits or health care — what in the civilian world would be called “workers’ compensation” — is met, at the other end of the funnel, by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
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