Clinton shrugs off the deaths of 300,000 veterans
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PAUL MORIGI/WIREIMAGEOutrageous disinterest
On the Friday night following Hillary Clinton’s marathon testimony in theBenghazi hearings, Rachel Maddow invited the Democratic Presidential frontrunner on her MSNBC show to unwind. The conversation started, naturally, with a little flattery:
“You’re the only human being I know of on Earth that has done 11 straight hours,” Maddow gushed. “What did you do after?”
A beaming Clinton replied, “Well, I had my whole team come over to my house and we sat around eating Indian food and drinking wine and beer. That’s what we did. It was great.”
Message received. She won’t let the Republicans — her enemies, as she calls them — ruin her night, let alone her campaign for President.
Spiking the football no doubt pleased Clinton’s supporters, but for the folks who are still deeply disturbed about the security failures in Benghazi and Clinton’s role in either creating or concealing them, her tone seemed maybe a little too glib.
Blame that characterization on partisan politics if you’d like. But Clinton’s habitual dismissal of patently troubling issues — from questionable business dealings at the Clinton Foundation to her use of a private server — has gotten her into trouble more than once. The blasé “there’s nothing to see here” defense, especially when there’s inarguably plenty to see, makes her look smug, unaccountable and entitled.
But what might be the worst and most troubling example of this yet occurred later on in that very same interview with Maddow, and proves Clinton still has very serious problems on her hands.
Maddow asked about the systemic failures at the Department of Veterans Affairs, plagued by scandal and tragedy.
Clinton’s response was astounding.
“You know, I don’t understand why we have such a problem, because there have been a number of surveys of veterans and, overall, veterans who do get treated are satisfied with their treatment.”
Now, put aside the small messaging failure whereby Clinton refers to veterans via a survey, instead of saying “veterans I’ve talked to.”
The unforgivable error in judgment — and it’s a horrific one — is that Maddow is presumably referring to the more than 300,000 veterans who died while waiting for treatment, not the ones who do manage to survive the waitlists. To attempt to put a positive spin on that indefensible number is beyond crass.
But clear your throat. Take a breath. It actually gets worse.
Defending what she sees as the VA’s many untold successes, she continued: “Now, nobody would believe that from the coverage that you see, and the constant berating of the VA that comes from Republicans in part in pursuit of this ideological agenda that they have.”
In short, put the 300,000 deaths aside. The VA is simply getting a bad rap. “It’s not been as widespread as it has been made out to be,” Clinton reiterated about the failures.
And the failures aren’t because of gross negligence and poorly run bureaucracy. They are because of Republicans, who insist on “berating” it — or, in the parlance of anyone other than Clinton, caring.
Clinton then fell back on the provably false narrative that Republicans’ failure to fund the VA is at the heart of the problem.
The VA itself reported more than $2 billion in waste and fraud in fiscal year 2012, including $7.2 million it spent in FY 2010 on unneeded computers.
Since 2010, the VA has carried over annual surpluses from as little as $500 million all the way up to $1.5 billion. The night before the 2013 government shutdown, it bought $3.5 million in furniture so as not to lose that money in the next year’s budget.
But, says Clinton, the problem is funding. And Republicans.
When I posted her comments on Twitter, the response was swift.
“I am (a) 73 year old Vietnam vet. I just got back from the VA today. (She) is either misinformed or lying,” said one follower.
“I’m a veteran and she needs to tell us what her definition of widespread means to her. Still plenty of problems,” said another.
The organization Stand Watch, which is trying to get vets free medical care, tweeted, “We’re apolitical, but this is absurd. One needs to acknowledge the enormity of the problem before it can be fixed.”
But believe it or not, Clinton isn’t alone in shrugging off the disastrous VA problems. Last year, Bernie Sanders struck a very similar tone, saying, “We are a big country. The VA sees six and a half million people a year. Are people going to be treated badly? Are some people going to die because of poor treatment in the VA? Yes. That is a tragedy, and we have to get to the root of it.”
This is unacceptable. When did it become politically permissible to either ignore or accept the systematic negligence of our servicemen and women? And then blame the other political party for pointing it out? Clinton and Sanders owe our veterans more respect than that.
There is simply no room for nuance or spin or deflection in this case. The failures at the VA are disgraceful. Our failure to fix them is shameful.
Anyone who has any hesitation saying so isn’t qualified to be our President.
Contact Cupp at www.thesecupp.com
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