In
my last blog, I commented on the Newsweek
April 16, 2012 cover story asking, “Is Obama Making It Worse? An exclusive Newsweek
poll reveals the persistence of America’s stark racial divide.” Unlike Newsweek’s
excuses for the President’s negative influences, I concluded that the deepening
black-white gulf has been an inevitable, malignant consequence of the Barack
Obama personality disorder that underlies his policies.
Now,
another, particularly egregious, example of how the dark-triad President
attempts to enrich himself politically by playing on the needs of the
vulnerable.
Like
so many Americans, I was troubled to hear of the alarmingly high number of Afghanistan
and Iraq veterans who have applied for service-related disability benefits. But in order to understand the statistic, we
first need to travel briefly back in time.
On
July 7, 2010, James Dao wrote a New York
Times article entitled, “V.A. Is Easing Rules to Cover Stress Disorder”
that summarized the changes. He
enumerated the following salient aspects of the new rules:
“eliminate
a requirement that veterans document specific events like bomb
blasts, firefights or mortar attacks that might have caused (Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder) P.T.S.D;”
grant compensation “if they can simply show that they served in a
war zone and in a job consistent with the events that they say caused their
conditions. They would not have to prove, for instance, that they came
under fire, served in a front-line unit or saw a friend killed;”
provide benefits “for service members who had good reason to fear traumatic events, known as stressors, even if they did not actually experience
them.”
In essence then, the new Obama rules invited anyone who
ever has served in Iraq or Afghanistan to apply for disability benefits. And what did the potential benefits
include? Free medical care, free mental
health services, and anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per
month, probably for life. Dao suggested
that the program likely would cost “$5 billion over several years.”
Since I have conducted social security psychological
disability evaluations for over twenty-five years, I had well-informed reasons
to expect that the Obama-promulgated rule changes would precipitate a tsunami
of disability applications, and that many, if not most, would be
unwarranted. Anyone with any experience
with disability requests would have had concerns. In fact, even Democrat Jim Webb of Virginia,
a Vietnam veteran, felt compelled to caution his colleagues in the United
States Senate about the need for more “practical, proper procedures.”
Of course, no one with a shred of compassion and/or
gratitude can begrudge the military, especially war veterans, earned
compensation for any real harm that they have suffered in service to us and our country. I must admit, however, that I am shocked to
hear that 45 % of Post 911 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are filing for
disability benefits, alleging an average of 12 ailments. Daniel Politi of Slate (May 27, 2012) advises
that the number of current disability applicants literally is double the number
from the 1990’s Gulf War.
Obviously, the Obama White House did not follow Jim Webb’s
advice to include “practical, proper procedures” for implementing the new rule. Rather, they saw disability benefits as
offering an opportunity for political gamesmanship. Millions of Americans had questioned Obama’s
alliance to America during the 2008 election when he failed to place his hand
over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance.
Belatedly realizing that political blunder, of course, he started
striking the traditional pose—more to court votes than to express heart-felt
patriotism. On Memorial Day 2012, Barack
said, "As long as I'm president, we will make sure you and your loved
ones will receive the benefits you've earned and the respect you
deserve." Given Barack Obama’s
history, should we regard that as a statement of affection or as a video clip
for a re-election commercial? Please
note that Obama tried a similar tactic to rehabilitate his wife’s glaringly
absent patriotism. After being chastised
for saying that she had not been proud of America until after her husband
received the Democratic presidential nomination, Michelle Obama and her
handlers blitzkrieged the media, advertising her as the guardian angel of
military families.
Today, advocating for all manner of governmental benefits
is a preferred Obama campaign strategy for winning votes. But that is nothing new. Barack and other demagoguing Democrats always
have used “benefits” to manipulate the masses.
We sadly remember how their welfare society destroyed the work
motivation and family integrity of poor people, especially of African Americans. At this point in our national history, Obama
is trying to seduce military types by attempting to buy them off, too.
The current economic context also is important. In the midst of the “worst financial crisis
since the Great Depression”—a crisis that Obama ignored while jamming through
his budget-busting pet projects, such as Obamacare—veterans are particularly
vulnerable. According to the Air Force Times, June 1, 2012, “the
Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the unemployment rate for Iraq- and
Afghanistan-era veterans jumped to 12.7 percent in May, up from 9.2 percent the
previous month.” In such dire times,
after all their sacrifices, desperate service men and women cannot be faulted
for viewing disability benefits as something that they need and deserve; the
Obama economy has entrapped them into looking to the benefits in order to survive Obamaland.
Our
Great Leader’s self-serving, manipulative policies illustrate once again that
the character of a president does count.
Barack Hussein Soetoro Obama, a man whose
personality is an amalgam of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism, has
no choice but to do what he has programmed himself to do: target a vulnerable
potential constituency and exploit, exploit, exploit.
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