From Scrappleface:
(2007-03-05) — Democrat presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton today decried the allegedly poor conditions, stifling bureaucracy and negligent care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and throughout the VA healthcare system, but added, “Just think how bad it would be if it weren’t a government run system.”
As military patients and their spouses testified before a Senate panel about vermin-infested, moldy rooms, neglect and miles of red tape, Sen. Clinton told reporters, “This crisis serves only to highlight our desperate need for a tax-funded, government-managed universal healthcare system for all Americans.”
“When I’m president,” she said, “I’ll give the average American the same excellent quality of care we now provide for our nation’s heroes…but without the rats, mold and bureaucracy. I’ll sign legislation outlawing that kind of inefficiency, mismanagement and public employee apathy.”
This was sort of my reaction to the scandalous conditions at Walter Reed and even more how we are treating our nations injured soldiers. I wish though that the story had been more shocking to me. Being retired military I have had lots of experiences with military hospitals and while most of the care I have received has been fairly good, I have also observed how treatment is suffering because of the lack of resources. I have seen the quality of care go down and I am sure that it is the result of limited resources and not the overall excellent quality of people working in military hospitals. The simple fact is that medical care is expensive and when you have a large population of active and retired military and their dependents ways must be found to cut costs.
I have quipped before that anybody who is for socialized medicine should join the military to see just what they would have in store for them. Though of course when you would apply the same system to the whole country it would greatly magnify the problems. Or they could move to a country with socialized medicine and learn all about medical tourism to India because of rationed care in England or those in Canada coming down to the States for care.
9 comments
�Just think how bad it would be if it weren�t a government run system.�
Uh, this is typical leftist speak. Hillary, look how bad it is when it is a government system.
I can imagine a world with socialized medicine, where government regulations decide for us what treatment is “necessary” and what is not, where we all have our tax dollars pay for abortion and contraception. It’s the future.
“When I’m President …” ewwww … just reading those words made my physically shudder! She’s such a fake. And so elitist. When I was stationed at Andrews Air Force Base not long after the Clinton’s took office, I was told by ground maintenance personnel that she patently refused to fly on the “blue & whites,” as Andrews calls the planes that fly the First Lady & Congress persons around the country & the world. She said they were filthy & not to her standards. (They’re so clean the technicians, after washing them, actually take off their boots & walk all over the plane – wings & all – in their socks, buffing the plane with cotton diapers). Anyway … Her Majesty Hillary commissioned her own private jet for her first official trip as First Lady. For that one, single trip, it cost the taxpayers more that excursion than she was allocated for an entire year’s budget. She never pulled that trick again!
Amen, Jeff. I remember some Air Force flight surgeons who were real pips. They’d come into the examination room wearing loin cloths and buffalo head masks, chanting, shaking beads and rattles, and dancing around me. Finally, one would hand me something and say: “Here. You take roots and berries. Eat them all. Make you strong. Return to duty.”
That “care” is exactly what we would get as a nation if we are unforunate enough to get “Hillary Care”. I knew when this story hit that it would become a politcal football. Fix the problem, take care of our wounded vets and get on with it. Stop using the troops as a stage prop. Hillary et al are disgusting.
From a 23 yr Army vet
“I�ll sign legislation outlawing that kind of inefficiency, mismanagement and public employee apathy.”
Let me get this straight; inefficiency, mismanagement, and employees not doing their jobs, along with vermin living on the governments dime, are currently legal?
I found my care during the service to be excellent. Doctors were knowledge, caring, and gung-ho about providing quality service.
Just think how bad it would be if it weren�t a government run system.
I keep hoping when this kind of thing happens that someone who isn’t part of the politician’s entourage happens to be on hand, someone who lacks the tact not to guffaw and point out that what the emperor wears is actually nothing.
Ed,
The words “Hillary Clinton” and “wears nothing” should NOT appear on the same blog.
Ooh yeah, sorry. *pokes out eyes and cuts off fingers*
What was I thinking?