RUSH: You remember the call last week from the woman in Texas who was distraught over the treatment of the US military by President Obama and was just begging me to continue to stand up for the men and women of the armed forces in this country? And, of course, I said I would. It’s in my blood to do so. This next story is an absolute shocker. Actually, it’s a two-parter and it’s all over the place. It’s McClatchy, it’s AP, the veterans groups have even put out a press release.
‘The Obama administration is considering making veterans use private insurance to pay for treatment of combat and service-related injuries. The plan would be an about-face on what veterans believe is a long-standing pledge to pay for health care costs that result from their military service. But in a White House meeting Monday, veterans groups apparently failed to persuade President Obama to take the plan off the table. ‘Veterans of all generations agree that this proposal is bad for the country and bad for veterans,’ said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. ‘If the president and the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] want to cut costs, they can start at AIG, not the VA.” They write about this. Don’t throw all this money away on failing concerns like these banks that ought to be going bankrupt. Don’t throw the money away, don’t bail out losing causes. Honor the contract with America’s men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend and protect this country, its people, and its Constitution. Mr. Rieckhoff is exactly right.
‘Few details about the plan have been available, and a VA spokesman did not provide additional information. But the reaction on Capitol Hill to the idea has been swift and harsh. ‘Dead on arrival’ is how Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington described the idea. ‘… when our troops are injured while serving our country, we should take care of those injuries completely.” The fact is Obama is considering it, just considering it. I’ll tell you what else he’s considering, folks, and I have warned you about this on several occasions. You mark my words. At some point, not only are they going to get rid of the ceiling on taxing people’s Social Security benefits on all their income, leveling the FICA tax on all income, they are going to start counting employer provided health care benefits as income. This is exactly what they’re going to do. They’re outta money, they don’t have any money; they are going to raise taxes on everybody.
Now, there’s a companion story to this. Obama is thinking about making veterans foot the bill for their health care regarding injuries they received in combat. Here is the story from Bill McGurn in the Wall Street Journal. Apparently, Michelle (My Belle) Obama, the First Lady, went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. ‘By choosing Fort Bragg for her first official trip outside the capital last Thursday, Michelle Obama signaled that she will use her position as First Lady to promote one of America’s most deserving causes: our military families. Plainly the families loved it. Just look at the smiles on those children as she read them ‘The Cat in the Hat.’ So it was just a little disconcerting the next morning to hear the First Lady explain how she came to this issue during last year’s campaign. ‘I think I was like most Americans,’ she told ABC News. ‘Pretty oblivious to the life of military families. Sort of taking it for granted.” I just don’t believe this. She’s admitting she was oblivious to the life of military families, and then has the gall to tell the rest of us that so are we, when we are not oblivious to the lives of military families.
So while she’s out touring Fort Bragg, North Carolina, reading the Cat in the Hat to the children of military personnel and acting like all of a sudden she’s just now in the campaign. She’s just started to love her country in the campaign, she just started to be proud of her country and it was only during the campaign that she finally figured out what military family life is like while her husband is mulling eliminating government-paid health care benefits for wounds and injuries suffered in combat! I thought it was talk radio that was ginning up all this anger and angst and so forth. This is outrageous. It is disingenuous, and it is insulting, and I resent Mrs. Obama saying that she, her thoughts on military life, ‘Well, I’m like everybody else.’ No, you’re not like everybody else. Your ideas and your plans and the anger you bring to your life, you’re not like everybody else, Mrs. Obama. Please don’t equate us with your view of aspects of this country.