EQ2: For Republicans, Any Problem During Democratic Administration = Proof that Government and Democrats are Bad

Dear Friends,

The worst thing about the recently exposed problems with scheduling first visits at the VA is not the humans who acted illegally and immorally, it is that the Republicans (and some Democrats) see this problem as a political opportunity rather than a problem that needs to be analyzed and the best solution possible implemented.  The Republican ideology only permits one solution in this case which would be to privatize the VA.  At least some Republicans recall the problems they had when they spoke out loud about privatizing Medicare and they do not want to alienate the Veterans organizations by trying that.

Recently all the news is about the issues being faced by the VA but the system consistently ranks at or near the top in terms of quality of care.  You might want to read this article from MarketWatch entitled "For quality, it's hard to top veterans' health care".  The Republicans cannot admit that a government run system such as Medicare or the VA can produce great results (which both programs do) so they grab any issue and twist it for political gain rather than trying to make the systems even better.

It is time for President Obama and the Democrats to focus on how great these programs are and how they could be even better and the problems fixed if only the Republicans would join them in working to fix the problems.  Clearly one of the fixes is that the VA needs more resources to handle the huge increase in demand that has been placed on the system by the wars started by President Bush and unfortunately not stopped fast enough by President Obama.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal