The night she won the Republican primary, Christine O’Donnell was asked what her top priorities would be if she was elected to the Senate.
The next morning when I read that "creating health care vouchers for veterans" was near the top of the list, I recoiled at the thought of such a dangerous and irresponsible idea.
Serving those who’ve honorably served our country is a responsibility of our government. It isn’t a burden to be handed off in a misguided attempt at cutting costs.
The VA isn’t perfect, but I’ll fight to improve it instead of diverting funds out of the system like O’Donnell’s voucher program would do. It is a dangerous scheme that would seriously undercut the health care we provide to our veterans.
VETPAC, which has endorsed my candidacy for the Senate, agrees.
"The idea of privatizing veterans' health care is simply wrong," VETPAC President Col. Richard L. Klass, USAF (retired) said. "It would threaten the ground breaking research being done in the Department of Veterans Affairs on a host of veteran health care issues from prosthetics to traumatic brain injury to retinal damage. And it would weaken the opportunities for bonding between wounded warriors, a key component in their rehabilitation."
Giving up on the care of our veterans is surely not one of Delaware’s values, but my opponent will spend more than $2.7 million of the Tea Party’s money trying to convince Delaware voters that it is.
That’s why it was no surprise when O’Donnell turned to page two of the Tea Party playbook, which says the solution to all of the nation’s ills is to outsource as many of the government’s responsibilities as possible.
Delaware deserves better than a Senator who’ll turn to ideology rather than experience when tackling the issues facing our nation.