Sen. Tommy Tuberville earned bipartisan scorn over his monthslong blockade of military promotions, an anti-abortion crusade that officials said hampered readiness and harmed morale in the armed forces. So the Alabama Republican doesn’t have much credibility when it comes to assessing the proper treatment of people who have served in the military.
What he does appear to have is a lot of nerve. Because he took to the airwaves Tuesday to push a debunked claim that some medical centers operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs have been prioritizing care for migrants over vets because of an arrangement by the Biden administration.
And I just couldn’t let it slide.
“A lot of people don’t know this ... [but the] Biden administration is looking for every possible way to take care of these people coming across [the border] that the American taxpayers shouldn’t be responsible for — especially our veterans,” Tuberville claimed on Newsmax.
He said “we just recently found out” that the Biden administration “has decided to use” VA-operated community care systems in rural areas for migrants. “And it’s pushed our veterans to the back of the line,” he added.
You heard that right: The man who forced hundreds of service members to wait — unnecessarily — for promotions they had earned apparently has thoughts on people who have served our country being forced to wait for something.
The reason that a lot of people don’t know about this is because it’s not happening.
Tuberville’s characterization makes it seem like migrants are getting health care at VA facilities by skipping right past vets. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and Tuberville even co-sponsored legislation to capitalize on this falsehood, which has gained traction on the right.
VA officials have tried to set the record straight. According to Military.com:
‘VA does not provide or fund any health care to ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detainees,’ department press secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement responding to the GOP accusations.
Currently, ICE pays VA to help process payments for health care costs for immigrants in their custody. Fewer than 10 employees from VA’s Financial Service Center are tasked with the work as part of their other duties.
Military.com added that the VA provides similar processing services to other agencies, such as the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Indian Health Service, and noted that this arrangement has been in place since 2002 and continued through presidential administrations of different parties.
Given that this is Tommy Tuberville we’re talking about, I’m willing to accept that he didn’t know about this arrangement until recently. But he’s been corrected already. His attempt to keep pushing the baseless claim should be seen for what it is: a cheap way to use vets to malign migrants.