The fake ‘privatization’ battle brewing over the VA

Published December 6, 2016 5:01am ET



Lawmakers and veterans service organizations are clashing over the possible “privatization” of the broken Department of Veterans Affairs under the Trump administration, even though nobody in either party has proposed such a plan.

Some Democrats and veterans groups have begun to sound the alarm over what they describe as plans by Republicans to “privatize” the VA. But other veterans groups and Republicans argue privatization has never been part of the conversation surrounding VA reform, and say warnings over privatization are a “strawman” tactic designed to distract from the VA’s massive failures.

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