“We passed VA Choice and VA Accountability to give our veterans the care that they deserve, and they have been trying to pass these things for 45 years.”
—Donald Trump at a May 2019 rally.
“I said, you know, ‘I have a great idea. I’ve been thinking about it a lot’. This was during the campaign and I came back to my people, I had experts, and I said, ‘I have a great idea. These lines for the veterans are too long. It takes them three, four weeks sometimes to see a doctor. I have a great idea — let’s let them go outside, go to a private doctor. We’ll pay the bill, they’ll be all fixed up all perfect, and they can do it immediately and we’ll pay the bill’.
“And I thought, I said, ‘Man am I smart. I am the smartest guy, to think of that’. So, I went before this panel of experts that were with me working on things, and I said, ‘How do you like that idea?’ And they said, ‘Sir, we’ve known about it for about 40 years, but we’ve never been able.’”
—Donald Trump, in an August 2019 Interview. [Except that The Veteran’s Choice Act, which allows Vets access to health care outside the VA system was the result of Senate Resolution S.2450, co-sponsored in the Senate by Bernie Sanders and John McCain, and House Resolution 3230, co-sponsored by Harold Rogers, Tom Latham and Jackie Walorski. After the House passed HR 3230, the Senate set aside S2450 which was basically the same bill, and Took up HR 3242 in its place.
It passed the House On Oct 3, 2013 by a vote of 265–160.
It passed the Senate on June 11 of 2014 by a vote of 93–3. The Three “Nays” were all Republicans.
It was signed into law by Barack Obama August 7, 2014.]
Oops.
