Free market competition is the answer, right? So why is your Dad partaking of a socialist system rather than using his own money to buy the best health care affordable?
Speaking as someone who has had to muddle through the VA labyrinths to try and find out how my father was doing, I feel some actual sympathy for this strip. Which is a weird thing to say.
On the other hand, if he hadn't had ongoing access to reasonably good medical care via the VA system my father would certainly be dead by now.
Thus making the basic case for taxpayer funded healthcare. Sure, its a confusing, disorganized mess. Its still better than what a huge number of Americans currently have access to.
I can't believe my eyes. MF/Tinsley is actually taking a swipe at the Bush administration!
The strip is perfectly correct: The current level of support (both medical and other) for folks who've served in the military veterans has fallen to disgraceful levels. And for Tinsley to point this out --all of which is a clear and direct result of the slashing of funding for such benefits that occurred during the last eight years-- takes great courage on Tinsley's part. He should be congratulated.
As NLC noted, Bush Administration consistently underestimated the VA system's needs, requested inadequate funding and overlooked the results. This let them understate the cost of their adventures in the Middle East, a cost which will add up for the lifetimes of our veterans and their children.
I doubt that this was Tinkley's intent but what-the-heck: Bush and McCain were united in their opposition to adequate funding for the VA (...much less the GI BIll 2008...) and if the conservatives abandonment of them for other reasons leads to doing the right thing for our warrior community, fine with me.
(May I be forgiven for suspecting Mallard's intent is the opposite: to encourage pro-profit VA privatization schemes such as McCain floated, e.g. "veteran's cards".)
dlauthor: There's an old joke about an American soldier, a French whorehouse and a duck. I won't repeat it here, but it may explain both the nature of Mallard's father's service and the reason Mallard is human-animal hybrid.
Agreed, the VA is a travesty, and its funding needs to be increased to modernize and meet the demands of our veteran population. Walter Reed was just the tip of the iceberg; the whole system needs to be revitalized. Or, as Rush Limbaugh calls it, "pork."
Just to offer a little balance, have you ever tried to deal with a F#@king for-profit Insurance Company on the phone? That'll have you tearing your feathers out.
Great comments from NLC and rewinn. For further discussion of the Bush gutting of the VA system, which was once hailed as a model for health care delivery, I'll refer y'all to this American Prospect article.
The VA is free to shop around for the best prices on drugs. The GOP has prevented Medicare from doing the same statutorily. So is Mallard coming out in favor of overt fascism against free enterprise? Strike that - fascists would oppose Medicare - they were all about the veterans.
Whatever Mallard is into would appall fascists, is the point.
9 comments:
Speaking as someone who has had to muddle through the VA labyrinths to try and find out how my father was doing, I feel some actual sympathy for this strip. Which is a weird thing to say.
On the other hand, if he hadn't had ongoing access to reasonably good medical care via the VA system my father would certainly be dead by now.
Thus making the basic case for taxpayer funded healthcare. Sure, its a confusing, disorganized mess. Its still better than what a huge number of Americans currently have access to.
I can't believe my eyes. MF/Tinsley is actually taking a swipe at the Bush administration!
The strip is perfectly correct: The current level of support (both medical and other) for folks who've served in the military veterans has fallen to disgraceful levels. And for Tinsley to point this out --all of which is a clear and direct result of the slashing of funding for such benefits that occurred during the last eight years-- takes great courage on Tinsley's part. He should be congratulated.
Way to go Bruce!! Keep it up!!
What the heck did Mallard's dad do in the war? Fly decoy missions?
As NLC noted, Bush Administration consistently underestimated the VA system's needs, requested inadequate funding and overlooked the results. This let them understate the cost of their adventures in the Middle East, a cost which will add up for the lifetimes of our veterans and their children.
I doubt that this was Tinkley's intent but what-the-heck: Bush and McCain were united in their opposition to adequate funding for the VA (...much less the GI BIll 2008...) and if the conservatives abandonment of them for other reasons leads to doing the right thing for our warrior community, fine with me.
(May I be forgiven for suspecting Mallard's intent is the opposite: to encourage pro-profit VA privatization schemes such as McCain floated, e.g. "veteran's cards".)
dlauthor: There's an old joke about an American soldier, a French whorehouse and a duck. I won't repeat it here, but it may explain both the nature of Mallard's father's service and the reason Mallard is human-animal hybrid.
I think the AHD definition of canard explains more than just Mallard's father's service in WWII.
Agreed, the VA is a travesty, and its funding needs to be increased to modernize and meet the demands of our veteran population. Walter Reed was just the tip of the iceberg; the whole system needs to be revitalized. Or, as Rush Limbaugh calls it, "pork."
Just to offer a little balance, have you ever tried to deal with a F#@king for-profit Insurance Company on the phone? That'll have you tearing your feathers out.
WV: forksem - what the Bush admin does to Vets
Great comments from NLC and rewinn. For further discussion of the Bush gutting of the VA system, which was once hailed as a model for health care delivery, I'll refer y'all to this American Prospect article.
The VA is free to shop around for the best prices on drugs. The GOP has prevented Medicare from doing the same statutorily. So is Mallard coming out in favor of overt fascism against free enterprise? Strike that - fascists would oppose Medicare - they were all about the veterans.
Whatever Mallard is into would appall fascists, is the point.
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