Rachel Maddow Turned VA SNAFU Into Full Blown FUBAR

Last night while waiting to fall asleep I was channel surfing when I came across the Rachel Maddow Show as she was talking about the VA. (go there to watch video before you finish reading this)

Seems Rachel is suddenly aware of what we've been talking about forever!

I actually thought I was dreaming when the graphics popped up with the same one I used last week on this very subject.
Veterans Message to Congress We're Not Disposable

Part of me thought it was great someone with a huge (ok, well, at least bigger than mine) audience getting paid to talk about all of the crap that has been going on, was actually doing it, until it dawned on me members of her staff must read Wounded Times because this crossed the line of simply being ironic.

Maddow had a chance to do the right thing on this but, as part of the MSNBC agenda, she had to get political saying that the group, Concerned Veterans For America were behind this.

Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit which seems to be funded almost entirely by the Koch brothers donor network.[1] CVA advocates for reductions in federal spending and free market policies, focusing its campaigns on themes related to veterans.

The group's CEO, Pete Hegseth, was the former executive director of the pro-Iraq War Vets for Freedom[2] and as of June 2014 was finance chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.[3] Hegseth appears to have attended at least one Koch network summit meeting.

An investigation by ProPublica found that Concerned Veterans for America submits its IRS filings under the name Vets for Economic Freedom Trust. Those documents list former Koch Industries managing director Wayne Gable as a trustee.[4]

The problem is, maybe the same folks were part of this all along but as John Boehner put it, he's been pushing to privatize the VA for "decades" yet this group only goes back a couple of years.

Nice try on Maddow's part but she turned snafu into full blown fubar!

VA threatened by conservative privatization push
Rachel Maddow shows how right wing groups have worked to create a political environment where the previously radical idea of privatizing veterans' health care can be presented as a viable alternative to the VA.

So just as wrong as Maddow was on the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act needing to be passed, even though it was simply a repeat of all the other bills Congress has pushed out like the result of a heavy duty laxative, moaning and groaning about needing to do something to get their name on a bill as if they actually did something worthwhile, she failed to see how long it has all been going on.

What is worse is she had a chance to show that aside from the wasted time, needless suffering and money flushed down the drain, there were lives involved in all of this.

Veterans suffered while Congress got to screw around and screw up long enough to convince folks the boogymen to blame were heads of the VA and not take the time to look at who was really behind all of it. (Oh, by the way, in case Maddow's staffers are reading this again, that would Congress.) The only way to privatize the VA is to destroy it and they just didn't care how many veterans were destroyed in the process.

As usual, Maddow showed up with some good information but managed to just keep her eyes closed to the biggest picture of all. Veterans suffered a lot longer than just going back to when Reagan turned the head of the VA into a cabinet position. (Yep, I caught that reference too!)