Koch Brothers Want to Own the VA: That Must Not Be Allowed to Happen

          The Koch Goals Are Clear: Fund, Buy, Own, and Run America

Americans vs. the Koch's

Here we go again ... just like a gerbil on a wheel with those two billionaire brothers. My question is simple: Why is that?  

This story comes from Media Matters here, in part with this introduction: “The Arizona Republic 

recently published an editorial promoting Concerned Veterans for America's (CVA) efforts to privatize much of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). While the group is presented by the Republic as an impartial veterans organization, it is actually a right-wing group backed by Charles and David Koch and headed by a Fox News contributor.”  And, also from the Washington Post here which identified CVA as an “...organization that is part of the of the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers' political network.”

 

MY VIEWS:  The VA must be reformed without any doubt (their long of problems), but it must not be made private and especially allowed to become a pet project of the Koch brothers, or any other private citizen, or any special interest political group for their self-interests and business profits.

First, please allow me to remind everyone of the basis for the VA as seen in these remarks:

President Abraham Lincoln in dedicating Gettysburg said in part: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

With the words: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”

He was affirming the government’s obligation to care for those injured during war and to provide for the families (widows and children) of those who perished on the battlefield.

The government in the sense of his words means clearly that the people as the public and thus, government are responsible, and not a pack of billionaires bent on self interests and profit.

I can't say much more except leadership from those in the know about Vet issues are sorely needed to fix the VA - not a political action committee or team of ultra rich brothers.

FYI: Yes, I am a Marine Corps infantry combat Vet (VN era: two tours and three wounds).