Josh's Weblog: Veterans' Benefits Strawman

Veterans' Benefits Strawman

It's hard for me not be cynical about the recent antics of the President and the results of such obvious misdirection from real issues. For someone that almost never speaks in public without a teleprompter, it's hard to believe that everything is not going according to Obama's plan.

For example, when the time came to question wide swaths of earmarks/pork in the Spendulous bill, we were treated to personal attacks on Rush Limbaugh and other obvious voices of dissent and even a treat to parsing the term “earmarks.” The bill was passed with tons of pork in place.

Also, when it came time to question the problems at the Treasury Department, including the failure to staff important posts or to notice the effects of failing to read the Spendulous, we were treated to this canard about $165M in bonuses paid to executives at AIG with the full prior knowledge of Treasury and the tacit consent of Congress. Treasury is intact, although finally some are calling for Geithner to resign.

Now we hear the President's new budget does not cover service-related injuries to veterans after they leave the service. What is this mess covering up or setting up? I can't help but think it's the usual canard of some vital service being lost if we don't raise taxes. It's always police, veterans, children, or roads that suffer if we don't shake down the “rich,” isn't it?

Update: Yeah, I didn't mention the “bring back the Assault Weapons Ban to save Mexico from drug dealers” one in this list, because I had mentioned it on the blog before, but it is another good example.

Josh Poulson

Posted Wednesday, Mar 18 2009 08:51 AM