Betrayal Of Service

The Obama administration announced today that it was dropping plans for a proposal it should never have been pursuing in the first place. Actually, in an ironic note, no one in the administration even had the nerve to make the announcement so they had House Speaker Nancy Pelosi make it instead. I say this is ironic because the House was not pursuing this plan - in fact, the heads of the appropriate committees in both chambers, both Democrats amusingly enough, flat refused to even consider it - so why was this a House Speaker announcement? My guess is that no one in Obama's posse relished the idea of getting his or her nose rubbed in yet another monumental mistake.
What was this monumental mistake? Obama wanted to go after private insurance companies to pay for service-related treatment for our military personnel. Supposedly this plan would save the federal government more than $500 million and, after all, the insurance companies are getting a free ride. Obama said it, so it must be true. He even had the gall to tell veteran's groups that, if they didn't like his plan, they needed to come up with something else.
[This whole current philosophy of "you're not allowed to say no unless you have your own plan" is really starting to get on my nerves, but that's a post for another day.]
I have an idea, Mr. President. It's rather revolutionary, and I know how much you like anything revolutionary, so stop me if you've heard this one before. It's a really simple plan: Honor your commitments and don't spend billions of dollars you don't have, preventing you from honoring your commitments.
Insurance companies are not getting a free ride on service-related treatment because they have nothing to do with service-related treatment! They didn't put our soldiers in harms way, we did. We owe them! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that this president, who believes so strongly in "spreading the wealth", should have such a low understanding of paying an honest debt, but this is a new low.
I have not been a rabid anti-Obama writer. I dislike him and I certainly didn't vote for him. I believe he is unqualified for his job and is going to make a huge mess that the rest of us will have to find a way to clean. However, I believe we have had very few qualified presidents in the last 200 years, so I didn't see Obama as anything too remarkable, even in that. Now, though, I am beginning to wonder if I have been too forgiving.
We are the first nation in the history of the world who have acted like we truly believe that we can spit on our own military and get away with it. If any other military at any other time in history were treated the way we have treated ours there would have been a military coup long ago. Either that or they would have simply walked away and left us to defend ourselves. How much arrogance does it take to torment and abuse the most powerful fighting force the world has ever seen? Have we really become this stupid?
Mr. Obama, your behavior this week has been truly disgusting. Not only are you too arrogant to realize the foolishness of your actions, you lack the honor to recognize the shame of them. These people deserve your respect and your gratitude, not another one of your spur-of-the-moment, half-thought-out pipe dreams.
To those who have served this country and stuck to your guns in opposition to this scheme, thank you. Thank you for your service and thank you for your continued dedication. I promise you, there are those who have not forgotten.