Steve Schippert of Threatswatch, Matt of Blackfive, John of Op-For, and Ace (of Spades) and I have been chatting in email regarding the fallout of Secretary Shinseki's testimony before Congress that ignited the shite-storm that is spreading around. Steve made a nice "wrap-it-all-up" observation (and I don't like it just because it opens so well...):
Emphasis mine. Steve makes a good point, and one that is going to affect President Obama's ability to govern. The fact that he or his subordinates (including his MSM cheerleaders - though if you pay attention, there are some cracks in that facade) seem to rely on smothering us all in so much bumf that you really can't grasp the level of their inconsistency and sophistry.
And my reaction to this and other stuff of late is why I'm never going to be at the level of Blackfive, Ace of Spades, etc. I'm such a squish. Though I prefer the way Matt put it in a different email stream on this subject...
CJ referred to me as "He's an old, grumpy and retired veteran! hehe." Matt came back with "Curmudgeonly is the term I was thinking of..."
Yeah, that's it. Curmudgeonly.
John makes a fair point.
On the whole, my yards-off take is essentially this:
Every move this guy makes (through his administration or directly through his lips and pen) requires acres of caveat and nuance-couching in immediate defense. This is not much different on its face.
In that vein, I find it not without irony (couched double negative fully intended) that the same man who wants nationalized health care for all wants to throw barbs into the one group - vets active or disabled - that already has it.
Now step back for a second and explain that to me, if you can.
Right after you explain re-routing an Arabic-trained and Arabic culturally trained Stryker Brigade to Afghanistan long enough for the President to talk up drawdown in Iraq & surging Afghanistan, only to plug the Iraq whole after with a non-trained Stryker outfit. Then, sigh... talking about "reaching out to moderate elements of the Taliban." Don't do it with the Strykers, genius. The Taliban don't speak Arabic (maybe Obama still thinks Arabic is a language skill in desperate need in Afghanistan and Pakistan?) while simultaneously talking up the military working with tribal leaders in Iraq.
Breaking off that rant that none in here lack info on.
Emphasis mine. Steve makes a good point, and one that is going to affect President Obama's ability to govern. The fact that he or his subordinates (including his MSM cheerleaders - though if you pay attention, there are some cracks in that facade) seem to rely on smothering us all in so much bumf that you really can't grasp the level of their inconsistency and sophistry.
And my reaction to this and other stuff of late is why I'm never going to be at the level of Blackfive, Ace of Spades, etc. I'm such a squish. Though I prefer the way Matt put it in a different email stream on this subject...
CJ referred to me as "He's an old, grumpy and retired veteran! hehe." Matt came back with "Curmudgeonly is the term I was thinking of..."
Yeah, that's it. Curmudgeonly.
CJ and Matt always *did* have trouble telling John 'n' me apart.
Although I don't like Obama's policies I don't wish him ill, I just want his policies stopped.
Speaking realistically I don't care if a politician takes an opportunity to profit politically from a decision, as long as the decision was made with the best interest of the country mind.
What chaps my backside is a politician who makes such decisions on strictly political grounds, sacrificing the good of the country in the process.
I think there is ample evidence that Obama is the latter type politician.
It just seems to me that many of Obama's decisions are arbitrary and are inefficient, like using a lathe to produce a single toothpick out of a two by four.
He would divide that 8 foot two-by into 96 smaller pieces, and have 96 people, each with their own lathe, produce the toothpicks.
And at least a fifth of them would be illegals. Half of them women, 10% here on H1B visas, one quarter black, one third hispanic, all employed by a minority-owned business, with the production of the lathes financed by a gov't-owned bank, and built by a supplier to the auto industry.
That's stimulus.
Our collective fibre runs way to DEEP for them to transform our soul with their superficial visions gleaned from foreign philosophies.
As long as this nation keeps replenishing itself with Americans like THESE, my belief for America will not die.
Now, you look at VA and D.O.D., in many ways, they are docked and locked, they have become one. The question becomes will TRICARE in some way try to follow the example of the VA?
The simple answer is NO! We need to have incentives to draw people to the Military into the "all volunteer force." Nobody wants the alternative, the draft. If you want to grow an all volunteer force, then both parties need to find answers, *yesterday*! Yes, John, this qualifies as a "royal fuster cluck!"
Did I read you right, Master Curmudgeon of Arms? :)
This is what makes this so difficult to talk about...
1. DoD Retiree Healthcare: If you are enrolled in TRICARE, *and* you have other health insurance, BY LAW, TRICARE will bill the other health insurance. You will pay only those co-pays and cost shares required under the flavor of TRICARE that you are enrolled in. If you do *not* have other health insurance (as I do not) then you are only dealing with TRICARE costs (that's all you ever deal with) and TRICARE doesn't bill anyone else.
2. Medicare-eligible DoD retiree healthcare: Used to be, when you were eligible for Medicare, you could no longer use TRICARE. That was usually a net loss to retirees. So they instituted TRICARE for Life, which treats Medicare as a bill payer. So, TRICARE bills Medicare and gets what it can, and the rest is covered under TRICARE (which has better coverages than Medicare).
3. The VA: Right now, if you qualify for VA health-care for a service connected disability, you are not billed beyond whatever cost shares there may be in the VA process. The proposal is to make it like TRICARE. Meaning, if you *have* health insurance (and many people covered by this would, as they aren't DoD retirees) then the proposal would mean that VA would bill your health insurer, and eat any costs not reimbursed. Meaning that if your health insurer only paid %50 of the costs, then VA would get reimbursed for 50% of the cost. The veteran would *NOT* be billed for the remainder, ergo, in that transaction, it's no cost to the veteran, and VA costs are subsidized by the insurer (and, ot course, by the premiums of the people in the insurance pool).
So, techincally, no cost to the veteran. As AFSis points out, there are ways in which there will end up with costs creeping in.
The insurance companies, if they costs are extreme, will up premiums, which means everybody in the pool will pay more. As it is now, those costs are either paid by all taxpayers, or are passed on to veterans anyway, in the forms of restrictions to access to timely care due to underfunding.
There is no requirement under the proposal as I've seen it thus far (I have asked the VA for more info) that would require the veteran to obtain insurance, it's essentially just looking to stick a straw into the private insurance pool for those veterans who already have private insurance.
For many, the question comes up, "Why the anger and and aggression?" The thing to remember is this- When it comes to processing claims, people talk about a long time, in terms of years. But for some of us, it was in terms of decades.
Casey, it has been a bad week, about your comment, "Master Curmudgeon at Arms", this sounds something like what people call me most of the time, A BOARD CERTIFIED PAIN IN THE A$$". You just say it in a rulez compliant manner.
To all of you, thank you, for your patience. Let's take the "Old Timer's counsel and just chill out and see what they come up with for the final paperwork at the end of April. Everything is still being figured out. Let's see what the VA says to John.
V/R Grumpy
http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1658
I'm inclined to think that this is just a way to de-populate the military, so that there will be a "need" to re-institute the Draft.
As life-time benefit limits fall, and payouts for vets rise, this will force more and more vets into the VA system for all of their health care, causing "empty beds" in the private sector, the closing of more private facilities, and more overloads and expansion in the VA system. Perhaps that's the plan.
Looking at the list of unforced errors they've piled up in the last two months, there may not even be a plan, which is going to make everything worse.
That would be my take on it. They're flailing.
Just another data point for the thesis that Senators who've never held an executive position of any consequence usually suck at... administration.
I freely admit, I prefer, thus far, my Presidents to come from the ranks of the Governors and similar people.
Which includes Clinton.
For the record, I think a Hillary Clinton administration would probably have been a flailex too, seeing as how it would likely contain a lot of the same people.
I'm not sure McCain would have been hugely better, but his talent pool might have been better.