Vouching for Veterans?

We've said it before and we'll say it again. And again, and again, and again, and again: P.J. O'Rourke's joke that "The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it"? That's no joke. They're dead in earnest. It was the first George Bush who tried to initiate the privatization of American education but failed; in 2000, Michigan and California pro-voucher ballot initiatives lost by at least two to one. But that was back when 43 percent of American parents gave their children's schools a grade of "A" or "B." By 2004, that number was cut in half. "The tests mandated by [No Child Left Behind] had ripped back the curtain and exposed a major national problem," explains Phyllis Schlafly—that is to say, the existence of public schools. Public education "is an ossified government monopoly," explained conservative intellectual Chester Finn. So it was time to drown it in the bathtub—and push vouchers.

Now John McCain has proposed "voucherizing" medical care for veterans. Why? Perhaps because the Veterans Administration hospitals are a sterling example of government that works. [1] So they have to go.

What kind of policy disaster are we talking about here? Take it straight from the veteran's mouths: