Trump alumni launch group to push his VA policies -- and blunt Biden's

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post

By Lisa Rein
Today at 9:30 a.m. EDT

A group of senior Trump administration alumni this week launched a nonprofit group to try to extend the former president’s effort to offer veterans more access to private medical care and other policies while diminishing President Biden’s priorities at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Veterans 4 America First Institute is modeled after the America First Policy Institute, the post-Trump group that launched in April with a multimillion-dollar budget and is one of several efforts by former Trump administration officials to push his priorities. The new effort is led for now by volunteers who said they are committed to “effective management and accountability” at VA and the Defense Department, with a particular focus on what they called an intransigent VA bureaucracy.

President Donald Trump sought to expand private health care to veterans — long a priority for conservatives but not seconded by Biden — and the group’s leaders said that continuing to press for private coverage would be a primary goal.

Founding members of the group, which plans a publicity campaign, include Darin Selnick, a former senior adviser to VA and the Trump White House Domestic Policy Council; Peter O’Rourke, who served briefly as the agency’s acting secretary after other senior roles; Camilo Sandoval, a Treasury Department and VA alumnus whose last role was chief information security officer for the White House budget office; Jason Beardsley, who served in senior roles at the Pentagon and VA; and Reed Rubinstein, former deputy associate attorney general at the Justice Department.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/veterans-trump-biden/2021/08/18/fa39b5f2-ff68-11eb-ba7e-2cf966e88e93_story.html

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Former Trump officials form new group to sabotage Biden's veteran care policy: report
Matthew Chapman
August 19, 2021

According to The Washington Post, a group of former Trump national security and defense officials have formed a new advocacy group with the intent of promoting the former president's veteran care policy — and undermining President Joe Biden's.

"Veterans 4 America First Institute is modeled after the America First Policy Institute, the post-Trump group that launched in April with a multimillion-dollar budget and is one of several efforts by former Trump administration officials to push his priorities," reported Lisa Rein. "The new effort is led for now by volunteers who said they are committed to 'effective management and accountability' at VA and the Defense Department, with a particular focus on what they called an intransigent VA bureaucracy."

The founders of the group include former VA adviser Darin Selnick, former acting VA Secretary Peter O'Rourke, former White House chief information security officer Camilo Sandoval, former VA and Pentagon official Jason Beardsley, and former DOJ official Reed Rubenstein.

The effort, according to the report, appears aimed at pressuring VA Secretary Denis McDonough to continue Trump's policies of referring as many veterans as possible into private care.

More:
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-officials-sabotage-bidens-veteran-care/

[ananda]

1. Just another grifting group trying to sell policies to gullible vets

Uggghhh

[OLDMDDEM]

2. Hmmm

I think these groups should be renamed Trump First. Nothing that he does benefits anyone other than him first.

[Mysterian]

3. This is just an effort to destroy the VA and health care for veterans

"Conservative" billionaires see the VA health care system as "socialism" and want to destroy the VA by driving up its expenses and turning it into some type of private insurance scheme. It's all about making profits from people's suffering, just like the non-VA health care in the US.

[2naSalit]

5. +1

[hibbing]

6. +2 n/t

[Champp]

4. Republican Draft Dodgers will be top priority for this "non-profit" GriftoKorp

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

8. His supporters will also want a full military parade when T**** dies, and his fat ass to be buried

in the most prominent place in Arlington Cemetery, tearing out and building over the Tomb of the Unknown. Of course he'll have to have the most spectacular, hugest headstone.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

7. Say it loud, say it clear: TRUMP LOST!!!

Elections have consequences. When you lose, you don't get to run a shadow government, no matter what TFG is trying to do from Mar-A-Lago.

[gab13by13]

9. I play golf with an 88 year old

Korean war vet who goes to the VA and loves it. He gets his Eliquis from the VA and I get mine from the private sector. I pay 10 times more for my Eliquis than he pays at the VA. He is allergic to bee stings and gets his Epi-pen from the VA for like 5 bucks.

Of course the GQP wants to privatize the VA.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

10. I like the V.A. health system. Once you're in, they seem to do good work.

But, I'm not sure how long the system will be sustainable. After Vietnam, the military has shrunk by over 50%, As we Vietnam-era veterans die off, there may not be enough patients to justify a separate hospital system.

When I was in, there were maybe 3.3 million military personnel. Now there are about 1.3 million. Where will future patients come from?

V.A. hospital system makes sense today. In 20 years, who knows?

[h2ebits]

12. It's good to know that there is a gov't hospital system. . . .

so when we finally get to Medicare for all and eliminate the privatized insurance that the rest of us currently labor under; we have a running start against the privatized hospital system.

[Bayard]

11. HIS policies?

He has no policies anymore. He's TFG.

Same old story--going into his pocket.

[marie999]

13. The Mission Act under the Trump administration is better than the Choice Act was.

The Jacksonville NC clinic is for primary care, psychiatrists, and blood work. Anything else at a VA clinic is a 1 1/2 hour drive to Wilmington from our house. Under the Mission Act, we get all of our specialists locally including urgent care. Because Congress has not adequately funded the VA, it has over 45,000 openings for doctors, nurses, and technicians. You want to stop almost all of the non-VA care, tell your Congresperson to adequately fund the VA Healthcare system. We have been in the VA Healthcare system for over 25 years.