With the VA, Burr is throwing Tillis a political football

by | May 27, 2014 | 2014 Elections, Editor's Blog, US Senate, Veterans | 3 comments

I’m not quite sure what Richard Burr is up to. He chose Memorial Day weekend to start a fight with veterans’ groups. He did it in an “open letter” so obviously he knew what he was doing. In a state like North Carolina with a huge veteran population and one of the most competitive US Senate races in the country, it sure looks like a poorly played move. 

In his letter, Burr blasted the leaders of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) for failing to call for  Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s dismissal. The problem with Burr’s attack is that it cast the problems of the VA system in more political terms than human ones. Burr looks like he is trying to use the groups to attack the White House instead of offering solutions to the problems.

The groups fired back in remarkably strong language accusing Burr of playing politics with the health and well-being of veterans. It also opened up a line of attack that Republicans have been underfunding the VA system for years and the groups signaled that they are about to become far more aggressive in their political outreach to their members. If so, we could see a shift in organizations that have traditionally been more supportive of the GOP than Democrats.

Burr and his GOP colleagues may have misread the public and the rank-and-file members of the veterans’ groups. Many Republicans want to privatize the VA and maybe they saw the recent scandal as an opportunity to push the idea into the open. Burr’s letter really appealed to the members of the organizations to call out their leaders, all of whom oppose privatization. Burr tried to cast them as opponents of reform. If so, it doesn’t seem to have worked–at least so far.

The whole episode must be making Thom Tillis queazy. Traditionally, Republicans could count on support from a majority of the state’s more than 1 million veterans. If Burr is inadvertently politicizing this group and making funding for the VA more of an issue than the scandals, then Tillis could pay a price. 

Hagan has made a big deal about her work with veterans and supports increased funding for the VA. Burr is providing Democrats with a solid wedge issue and may be forcing Tillis to take a stand on an issue he would prefer to avoid. 

But this issue brings to light another point that Democrats have been making about Tillis and the GOP leadership in Raleigh. Since they took power, Republicans have been screaming that government is broken and their only solution is to cut funding. The schools are broken, so we pay teachers less and reduce resources to the classroom. Our Medicaid system is broken so we deny people health care. Our election system is rife with fraud so we cut funding and make it harder for people to vote. Our colleges and universities cost too much so we need reduce their funding, too. 

The VA situation is looking remarkably similar. Underfund the VA and then declare the system broken. At some point voters will catch on. When they do, there could be steep political price to pay. Thom Tillis better hope now is not the time that they wise up.

3 Comments

  1. Thomas Ricks

    If a conservative is speaking, a conservative is lying…and is not “We support the troops!” one of the most common things they say?

    Q.E.D.

  2. Paleo Tek

    It really does seem a bit tone deaf. This is an unforced error. It’s hard to see what gain there is for Burr to label the veteran’s support organizations as partisan. There are a few simple rules in the physics of politics: if you kick a political football, it will move. If you kick a political football player, they will kick back as best they’re able. Calling out the leadership of the VFW, DAV, and PVA is an act of the second kind.

    And, yes, Shinseiki and Hagan are probably both cheering. Changing the subject to Richard Burr’s vote to filibuster a veteran’s bill as recently as February was not a good idea. There are five months til election day, and if we spend a couple of them talking about how the Republicans in the Senate and House have been bad for veterans, it won’t do them much good. Especially in NC. This opens a line of questions Tillis would rather not answer, I suspect.

    The problem with sending dumb people to Congress is that they do dumb things there. Bank-Run Burr is the latest case in point., Keep it up, Richard, I can’t wait to vote against you in 2016!

  3. Mick

    I must say that I was absolutely amazed when I heard about this spat initiated by Sen. Burr. What could he have been thinking?, I asked, know that “thinking” often times is really not what goes on in regressive heads. Why would you start a tiff with vet groups, who are already riled over the VA health provision scandal? Why call them out as against reform, when you and your party have a very recent rack record of saying no to more adequate funding for the VA?

    I have never considered Burr to be thoughtful, but rather him and his staff to be a little aloof, arrogant, and strikingly conservative (before retirement, I interacted with his office often enough between 2006-2013). But this move is still a stunner. It suddenly gives veterans grounds to not vote for ANOTHER GOP Senator from NC. Hagan can just continue to show her strong support for the military and for vets. And Tillis may be forced to chime in, either supporting or opposing Burr’s blunder, with those options bothering either vets or GOP’ers wanting lockstep thinking between their nominee/incumbents.

Related Posts

GET UPDATES

Get the latest posts from PoliticsNC delivered right to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!