While many commentators have warned the Obama administration may face serious problems over its handling of the Veterans Administration scandal, Fox News host Andrea Tantaros predicted the White House will use the deadly health-care backlog to its advantage through blackmailing Republicans to approve a massive increase in government spending.
Tantaros appeared on Fox’s “The Five” Monday to discuss the gigantic backlog in veteran care and the ensuing cover up. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki refuses to resign over the scandal — which has allegedly claimed the lives of dozens of sick veterans — and the Obama administration has been slow to respond.
The panel — with the notable exception of token liberal Bob Beckel — agreed the scandal is a preview of America’s health system under Obamacare, an argument already used by some Republicans opposed to the Affordable Care Act.
But Tantaros cautioned Republicans against assuming the president is weakened by the bureaucratic collapse. “I predict President Obama, if he’s really savvy, he’s going to come out and he’s going to say, ‘Okay, pass the supplemental budget to the VA,'” she said. “He’s gonna say, ‘I want it on my desk in 48 hours,’ and the Republicans are going to go, ‘Gulp!'”
“And any Republican that doesn’t vote for more money for the VA — which is not the source of the problem — is going to have Democrats use it against them in the election cycle,” Tantaros explained. “They are going to turn it around and make it a political issue.”
Beckel protested, noting Obama has spent double the amount of money on the VA that President George W. Bush did.
“It’s not a money problem though, Bob,” Tantaros pushed back. “It’s an incentive issue. And the reason it it has no competition, that’s why you have these problems.”
“But that’s what Obama will do,” she concluded. “Ask for more money, and it won’t do anything.”
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