“Get Pete Hegseth on the phone!”
It was March 2018, and then-President Donald Trump was meeting with his Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary, Dr. David Shulkin, about how to reform veteran health care. But it was Hegseth, then a Fox News personality, whose opinion Trump really wanted. Hegseth, now Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of defense, had been a vocal and persistent advocate for veterans having unfettered access to private health care, rather than having to go through the VA to keep their benefits.
Is that what we want?” Restricting VA care As CEO of the veterans organization Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, Hegseth lobbied for providing VA health care only to veterans with service-connected disabilities and specialized needs. That policy would significantly restrict the number of future veterans eligible for VA care at all.
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