BACHMANN EYES CUTS TO VETERANS’ BENEFITS…. As a rule, policymakers are reluctant to cut veterans’ benefits, especially during two wars. Even those most eager to slash spending tend to make clear that veterans would be unaffected.
Michele Bachmann, however, is special.
Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.
Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.
Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said cutting veterans’ health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sullivan said he finds it difficult to see how VA could freeze health care costs without hurting veterans.
“It is really astonishing to see this,” he said.
Bachmann’s plan is rather ridiculous on its face, and won’t receive serious consideration by anyone, but it’s nevertheless a reflection of the bizarre congresswoman’s priorities.
It’s one thing to say one opposes government-run health care; it’s something else altogether to identify some of the best care anywhere — care for U.S. troops — and call for deep budget cuts.
Given Bachmann’s prominence as a Republican voice and spokesperson for the GOP’s Tea Party base, perhaps others should be asked to comment on her proposal. What’s it going to be conservatives, do you support Bachmann’s plans to cut veterans’ benefits or not?
