The American Prospect Amid the rhetorical fog of their game-changing presidential debate on June 27, Donald Trump and his then-opponent dealt with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) only in passing. Trump claimed that, after he vacated the White House, “crazy Joe Biden” simply abandoned his policies of giving eligible veterans the “choice” to remain inside the VA health care system or seek treatment outside it. According to Trump, VA patients were able to “get themselves fixed up” in private hospitals and medical practices, rather than waiting “three months to see a doctor.
” The results were “incredible,” and earned his administration “the highest approval rating in the history of the VA.” Amid his general befuddlement, Biden didn’t point out two things. One, outsourcing has been a disastrous experiment that has led to and left the VHA with a projected for fiscal year 2025.
And two, Biden didn’t abandon these policies at all: There has been more privatization of veterans’ care under his administration than Trump’s. Biden instead pivoted to talk about the which enabled many more post-9/11 vets to file successful disability claims based on their past exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the next decade, the PACT Act authorizes hundreds of billions of dollars in additional spending for these claims; military veterans are “a hell of a lot better off” as a result, Biden said.
This brief, typically unilluminating exchange left.