Hegseth and Collins’ push for cutting veterans health benefits alarms servicemembers and veterans groups
CNN
“Get Pete Hegseth on the phone!”
“Get Pete Hegseth on the phone!” It was March 2018, and then-President Donald Trump was meeting with his Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary, Dr. David Shulkin, about how to reform veteran health care. But it was Hegseth, then a Fox News personality, whose opinion Trump really wanted. Hegseth, now Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of defense, had been a vocal and persistent advocate for veterans having unfettered access to private health care, rather than having to go through the VA to keep their benefits. He’s also lobbied for policies that would restrict VA care and believes veterans should ask for fewer government benefits. “We want to have full choice where veterans can go wherever they want for care,” Hegseth told Trump on speakerphone as Shulkin listened, according to Shulkin’s 2019 memoir. Trump’s pick to serve as the next VA secretary, Doug Collins, has also expressed support for greater privatization of veteran health care, which advocates characterize as giving veterans greater choice over their doctors. If veterans “want to go back to their own doctors, then so be it,” he told Fox News last month. For Shulkin, a rare “holdover” from President Barack Obama’s administration to Trump’s, this was “the worst-case scenario” for veteran health care, and one he had repeatedly warned Hegseth against.
The Supreme Court said Friday it will review the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s no-cost coverage mandates for certain preventive care services, putting the landmark health care law in front of the justices again just as President-elect Donald Trump – who tried to repeal the law during his first presidency – returns to the White House.
President Joe Biden said Friday that Meta’s decision to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with user-generated community notes is “really shameful” as he answered questions from reporters on a number of subjects following a speech on the economy.
Brazil’s government will give Meta until Monday to explain the changes to its fact-checking program, Solicitor General Jorge Messias said on Friday.
Widespread destruction from the L.A. fires was inevitable, given the drought and winds. Still, the region could have been better prepared.
Rudy Giuliani has been held in contempt of court for the second time in a week, as the former New York mayor and top Trump lawyer’s fall from grace continues because of the false information he spread after the 2020 election.
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to serve as Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is voicing support for a key government surveillance authority she once sought to dismantle.
A majority of the Supreme Court appeared likely to uphold a controversial ban on TikTok over concerns about its ties to China, with justices lobbing pointed questions at lawyers for the social media app and a group of its content creators.
Prosecutors seek 15 years in prison for former New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez after bribery conviction
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The Biden administration on Friday targeted Russia’s energy sector, including its oil industry, with some of its harshest sanctions to date meant to cut off funding for Moscow’s war against Ukraine.