Later today, Jeb Bush will address the Concerned Veterans for America – a Koch-backed group that supports an extreme right-wing agenda – to unveil his plan to partially privatize the Veterans Administration and cut benefits for veterans across the board.
Jeb’s plan for America’s veterans is just as bad as it sounds, and sadly it’s nothing new for the former Florida governor. Bush previously supported transforming veterans’ health care into a voucher system and opposed rules that would have made for-profit colleges, which often seek to enroll service men and women, more accountable.
When Jeb Bush talks about helping America’s veterans, he really means privatizing the health care benefits they have earned and deserved.
Health Care
Jeb Bush supported transforming veterans’ health care into a voucher system. “Mr. Bush, sitting in front of an untouched breakfast at an IHOP in Colorado Springs, told a group of veterans that he favors transferring some elements of veterans’ care to private hospitals from government-run Veterans Affairs facilities. ‘This is where I think empowering people with the equivalent of a voucher that gives you the same economic benefit of receiving care inside of a clinic or a hospital,’ Mr. Bush said in a video of the public event recorded by the Democratic firm American Bridge. ‘If you had a chance to go to another place where the money followed the patient, it would give the veterans — you wouldn’t have these kind of hostile reactions, my job is protected for life, don’t mess with it.’” [Wall Street Journal, 4/8/15]
- Bush proposed a Koch brothers-backed “premium-support” option for voucherizing VA healthcare.“Last month in New Hampshire, Mr. Bush voiced support for 2014 legislation that allows veterans to see doctors outside the VA system if they experience long wait times or live more than 40 miles from the closest VA hospital. […]The effort to privatize elements of the VA system is a priority of the Koch brothers-backed group, Concerned Veterans for America, which in February called for creating a ‘premium-support private insurance option’ for current veterans and limiting eligibility requirements for future veterans.” [Wall Street Journal, 4/8/15]
Jeb Bush attempted to privatize portions of the VA health care system while Governor of Florida. “Jeb Bush’s effort as governor to partially privatize veterans health care services in Florida went so poorly it was ended shortly after Bush left office. That hasn’t stopped the former Republican governor, now in the early stages of running for president, from arguing veterans should be given the choice to see a public or private doctor, with either visit being paid for by the government. ‘All of these government programs should shift to the person who’s receiving the benefit and they should be empowered to have more choices, rather than be told what line you get into,’ Bush said recently in New Hampshire.” [CNN, 5/1/15]
Jeb Bush’s experiment in “outsourcing veterans’ nursing homes in Florida was a case study in privatization’s pitfalls.” “But Bush’s experience outsourcing veterans’ nursing homes in Florida was a case study in privatization’s pitfalls. By the time it was over, Florida officials determined the state could provide higher-quality care at a better price for taxpayers. Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said the potential Republican presidential candidate ‘believes our veterans deserve the best care possible.’ ‘It was what he worked to do as governor of Florida, and what he believes needs to be done nationally, as he has talked about at length recently, and that includes providing veterans higher quality options,’ she said in an email to CNN.” [CNN, 5/1/15]
- A nursing home that was partially privatized under Jeb Bush’s governorship “was placed on the state’s list of facilities providing substandard care.” “In 2001, the state opened a veterans’ nursing home in Pembroke Pines, Florida, that contracted out its nursing and food services to a private company. The contract went to PhyAmerica. The company’s chief executive, a major donor to Florida Republicans who gave to Bush’s campaign, lost control of the company in 2003 after it went into bankruptcy, according to news reports. Two similarly operated facilities were open in Florida by 2004. By then, the Pembroke Pines facility was already having problems. It was placed on the state’s list of facilities providing substandard care and ranked in the bottom 20 percent of facilities in its county, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported then.” [CNN, 5/1/15]
Education
Jeb Bush opposed a rule that would increase accountability over for-profit colleges for their students finding gainful employment after graduation. “Last June, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was the keynote speaker at a Las Vegas annual convention of the trade association for for-profit colleges, The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities. Their members include ITT, Kaplan University, Corinthian Colleges and Career Education Corp. He told the convention that President Barack Obama’s ‘gainful employment’ rule was a ‘sledgehammer to the entire field of higher education.’” [Think Progress, 4/30/15]
- For-profit colleges sought to enroll military members “often in ways that are not in the best interests of veterans and service members.”“As a beefier post-9/11 GI Bill has kicked in, a surge of service members has left the ranks armed with benefits that will cover the full cost of attending public college. In 2009, the for-profits took in almost as much military money as public colleges, even though they enrolled about one-third the number of vets. Spending on military education benefits has shot up to $10 billion; for-profit schools’ share of that money has gone up 600 percent, as revealed in a recent PBS Frontline exposé. For example, at Kaplan—owned by the Washington Post Co.—military revenues grew to an estimated $48.9 million last year, up from $2.6 million in 2006. The result has been a bonanza for schools’ executives and shareholders. ‘We didn’t foresee that the for-profit sector, eager to please Wall Street investors, would go after this new funding aggressively, often in ways that are not in the best interests of veterans and service members,’ stated Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) after leading an investigation into 30 major for-profits earlier this year. Or as one University of Phoenix alum put it on RipoffReport.com, the school ‘treats military students like cash piñatas.’” [Mother Jones, September/October 2011]
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
Jeb Bush wrote a letter to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth praising them for their false attacks on John Kerry’s military record during the 2004 presidential election. “Take Jeb Bush, for example. In January 2005, the day before his brother’s second inaugural, the Florida governor wrote a letter to the ‘Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’ ringleader, expressing his appreciation for the smear campaign. Celebrating the ‘Swifties,’ as Jeb Bush called them, the Republican wrote to retired Col. Bud Day, ‘Please let them know that I am personally appreciative of their service to our nation. As someone who truly understands the risk of standing up for something, I simply cannot express in words how much I value their willingness to stand up against John Kerry.’ In this case, ‘stand up to’ was apparently a euphemism for ‘tell lies about.’” [MSNBC, 7/21/15]
World War II Memorial
Jeb Bush vetoed funding for a World War II memorial. “The memorial will include traveling and permanent exhibits at a museum in Tallahassee. When his budget ax swung last year, Gov. Jeb Bush cut funding for a project dear to the hearts of Florida’s 600,000-plus World War II veterans: a World War II memorial. Bush said the state shouldn’t spend taxpayer dollars on the memorial until a plan was in place and private fundraising started.” [St. Petersburg Times, 7/26/00]