Trump joins Ocasio-Cortez to rent the chronically dysfunctional VA: "It's all right!

President Trump, along with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Is apparently mistaken in suggesting that the Department of Veterans Affairs is a quality agency that works well.

Finally a bipartisan agreement!

"Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is right, the VA is not down, she's fine," the president tweeted on Wednesday. "But it 's only because of Trump' s administration. We have adopted the choice and accountability of veterans. "President Trump deserves a lot of credit." Dan Caldwell, Concerned Veterans of America. "

Spoiler alert: it's not going well.

As I wrote earlier this week, the Government Accountability Office has designated the VA as a "high risk" agency this year for its persistent mismanagement. This comes after the GAO awarded the VA the same label in 2018 and 2017.

The "High Risk" warnings also follow a series of major scandals that have rocked the agency, ranging from frivolous shopping to pill mills, theft of tens of thousands of dollars by employees, to epidemics in VA institutions, going through the veterans. made to wait for medical appointments. The acting secretary even resigned in disgrace in 2014 amid scandals of mismanagement. But nothing was more shocking than the 2015 VA Inspector General's report that 307,000 veterans died while waiting for medical attention. The revelations about corruption, abuse and general dysfunction were so shocking that Congress finally came together to do something. Fortunately, the VA has improved in some areas and veterans are getting the care they need in some parts of the country, but we are still a long way from saying that it is going very well.

Try saying this to Trump or Ocasio-Cortez, who urged the president to tweet with her remarks last week at an event at New York City Hall.

"[T]That's what we're hearing today, some of the themes we've talked about, and especially with the VA, all I can think of is this classic chorus that my parents have always said to grow up. That is, "if it does not break, do not fix it," said the congressman.

She added, "And – exactly, do not fix it. And … it's their openness approach that we've seen in privatization. It's the idea that this thing that is not broken, this thing that provides the highest quality care to our veterans must be repaired, optimized, tinkered with, until – until we do not even recognize it anymore.

Keep in mind: it does not just rent the VA, which is still severely broken. She pleads against the reform.

"And here's the problem, they're trying to fix it. But for whom are they trying to solve the problem, that is the question we must ask ourselves. And that's who they're trying to fix it for. They are trying to repair the VA for pharmaceutical companies, "theorized Ocasio-Cortez.

She added, "They are trying to repair the VA of insurance companies. And they are trying to repair the VA for a for-profit health sector that does not prioritize people or veterans. And so, we have the responsibility to protect it because if there is a community that deserves Cadillac, a first-rate health care system in the United States of America, it's our military.

The respective bases of fans of Trump and Ocasio-Cortez, mortal enemies sworn, will not admit it, but their champions have much more in common than improbable.