In case you missed it over the weekend, Hillary Clinton made the incredible statement that the problems inside Veteran's Affairs hospitals around the country, which have left 300,000 veterans dead waiting for care, aren't as "widespread" as those damn Republicans have made them seem.
Now, Clinton is receiving criticism for downplaying the scandal from both Republicans and Democrats.
Clinton contended in her MSNBC appearance that conservatives want to shut down the VA and replace it with a private-care system for veterans. She said the GOP exaggerated departmental flaws and failings "in pursuit of this ideological agenda," and have underfunded the VA because "they want it to fail."
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, an Arizona Democrat, disagreed.
"The problems we've seen at the Phoenix VA are devastating and real," she said in a e-mailed statement. "The VA scandal has nothing to do with partisan politics and everything to do with systemic failure, negligence and lack of accountability."
In the meantime, as the VA has received an increase in funding and staff, two things Clinton wants more of, wait times for veterans have gotten worse by 50 percent since the scandal broke last year. This is what we call government healthcare at "work."
