Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), the Koch brothers’ veterans advocacy front group, just launched a new campaign to “Target the Debt,” which breathlessly frames the national debt as a “very real national security threat.” CVA has always put the Kochs’ interests first, but this time its transparent shilling of the Koch agenda is palpable because the alleged pro-veterans group that works against veterans’ interests’ plan to “target the debt” centers around the longtime Koch obsession of slashing Medicare and Social Security.
The Kochs have for years — specifically since 1980, when David Koch was the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate — sought to cut the programs that millions of American seniors count on. Just last month, Koch “seniors” group 60 Plus Association endorsed a Republican Senate budget that would cut $430 billion from Medicare. And the Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity has for years been a leading advocate of Paul Ryan’s budgets that would cut the Social Security and Medicare and shift them toward privatization. The Wall Street Journal in 2011 said that Ryan’s budget would “essentially end Medicare.”
Unsurprisingly, CVA’s spin is a little different:
Here’s how Washington should target the debt: Reform entitlement and mandatory spending programs like Social Security and Medicare to both preserve them for future generations and reduce their long-term impact on the debt…Any serious plan to reduce our national debt must reform the entitlements and mandatory spending programs in a way that reduces the burden they put on our nation’s finances while preserving the programs for future generations.
In this case, “reform” means “cut.” And if Charles and David get their way: do away with altogether. Concerned Veterans for America calls itself a veterans advocacy group, but like every other Koch group it is first and foremost concerned about Charles and David Koch and their selfish, partisan agenda.
Here’s an excerpt of a white paper from David Koch’s 1980 VP run that outlines his and Ed Clark’s Medicare-cutting platform:
