Fox has got themselves an actual scandal to chase around for a while instead of one of their long list of fake ones with the recent news that there is a growing list of VA hospitals accused of hiding their waiting lists and veterans dying as a result. So naturally we've got every right wing pundit and politician out there, and even some appearing on what's supposed to pass for a "liberal" network, pushing to privatize the Veterans Administration.
You can count Fox's Charles Krauthammer as the latest addition to that list with his remarks in the clip above, where he was also doing his best along with Jonah Goldberg to go after doctors at the VA as a bunch of lazy slackers who aren't seeing enough patients, and pooh poohing the idea of heaven forbid "throwing more money" at the organization.
There had better be some accountability to go along with any money is sent their way, but as Mark NC over at News Corpse pointed out, there's one group primarily responsible for any funding problems and for the overload of patients they've not been ready to handle: Faux Outrage From Fox News Ignores GOP Role In Veterans Administration Scandal:
The news that Veterans Administration facilities in Arizona were allegedly falsifying records to hide extensive backlogs in patient care has roiled both Democrats and Republicans in Washington. If the allegations are proven, this would be a monumental abdication of the government’s obligations to the men and women who have sacrificed so much for their country.
Unfortunately, partisan politicians and pundits have sunk to the depths where they are most accustomed as they seek to politicize the matter. At the bottom of that list is Fox News where reporting has consumed much of the airtime they had previously reserved for their Benghazi frenzy. In the few short weeks that the VA has been in the news Fox has already attempted to assign personal blame for it on President Obama, and Republican alarmists are calling for administration scalps. That’s all before any responsible investigations have been completed that would ascertain the actual causes and the identities of those responsible. It’s straight out of the GOP attack manual: Ready…Shoot…Aim.
However, while Fox News, and the rest of the right-wing media machine, is predictably trying to indict the President for crimes for which they have no supporting evidence, real facts are being dismissed and/or ignored. Foremost among these would include inquiries into the root causes of a health care agency abandoning its primary mission. In that regard, the economic pressures on the agency would be most relevant. So let’s take a look at the recent congressional budget battles that show Republicans aggressively cutting veterans benefits and funds for the VA:
Go read the rest of their post for the long list of the cuts that Republicans have made to funding for the VA and I want to share another portion of their post that I agree with completely.
For some reason Fox News never complained about any of those delays during the Bush years. Nor have they acknowledged that much of the current stress on the system is due to the surge in new veterans produced by Bush’s wars. There is, of course, no excuse for falsifying records and putting veterans lives risk. However, in order to fully comprehend the problem, all of the contributing factors need to be reviewed. And conservative media is way too devoted to poisoning the public debate with unfounded attacks against the President and his administration, to honestly present a balanced portrait of the situation and the potential solutions. [...]
Consequently, we can expect Fox News to continue to point a bony finger of phony blame at Obama, just as they have been doing with Benghazi, the IRS, the Affordable Care Act, and a multitude of other fake scandals (ObamaCars, ObamaPhones, ObamaGolf, ObamaBirth, etc. ad nauseum). And they will exploit these inanities rather than seek real answers to real problems. Because just like the GOP, Fox is more concerned with their own parochial interests than the welfare of Americans or America.
Amen to that brother. That's exactly what we saw from Krauthammer and his buddies this Monday, and what we'll continue to see from all of them. They've got no solutions other than to turn everything over to the private sector and to attack the Obama administration for not cleaning up Bush's mess quick enough to suit them.
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