The fake 'privatization' battle brewing over the VA

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.

"It's a deliberate attempt to mislead people about Donald Trump's reform plan and others' reform plans, including House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller's reform plan," Dan Caldwell, legislative director at Concerned Veterans for America, told the Washington Examiner.

Caldwell noted Democrats' privatization rhetoric has failed to pass muster with multiple fact checkers.

During the presidential race, Hillary Clinton earned a "mostly false" rating from Politifact for claiming Trump supported a privatization "agenda." Sen. Bernie Sanders and Clinton each earned "three Pinocchios" from the Washington Post fact checker.

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