Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump laid out his plan to fix the country’s VA health care system. He was speaking Tuesday at the VFW convention in uptown Charlotte. Besides the plan, Trump also attacked Democratic rival Hilary Clinton, and some in the crowd joined in.
Let’s start with policy. Trump said the government had broken an important promise to veterans, "The most basic commitment to provide health and medical care to those who fought for us so bravely has been violated completely."
To fix this Trump touted his 10 point plan to change the VA health care system. It includes expanding mental health treatment and access to veterans, allowing vets to seek private medical treatment if they can't get timely care at a VA facility. And making it easier for officials to fire, or promote VA employees. It’s worth noting these are all points President Barack Obama has also been pushing for.
But Trump also wants to launch a 24 hour hotline for veterans to report problems with the VA that goes straight to the White House. Answered, Trump says, by a real person. Trump continued by saying, "That if a valid complaint is not acted upon then the issuer will bring it directly to me, and I will pick up the phone personally and get it completed and get it taken care of. That’s a lot of work."
So much so that Trump joked it would keep him off Twitter.
As for his Democratic presidential rival, Trump again referred to ‘Crooked Hillary.’ "We know how she takes care of the veterans," he told the crowd, "Just look at her invasion of Libya or her handling of Benghazi. A disaster. Or look at her emails which put America’s entire national security at risk."
And some in the VFW crowd responded to those attacks with the chant that helped define the Republican convention last week, "lock her up!"
The VFW sees itself as a non-political organization. And VFW staffers confiscated pro Trump signs being handed out to conventioneers as they walked to the hall.
