In his second inaugural address, only weeks before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln was as brief, profound and grounded as ever. He ended that magnanimous speech thus:

"With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

“…to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan…”

Arguably, the VA can trace its roots to 1636, where the Plymouth Colony passed a law for the support of disabled soldiers.  In 1776 the Continental Congress provided pensions to disabled veterans. In 1811 the first medical facility was established for vets. Additional benefits followed, and in 1921, Congress created the forerunner of the VA. 

Image: commons.wikimedia.org, US Marines firing M4s in Helmand Province Afghanistan, public domain

As America’s involvement in saving the lives and nations of free people around the world expanded, so did the VA, but sadly, it has a shameful history of failing to uphold Lincoln’s promise. During his administration, Donald Trump made significant efforts, with some success, to reform the VA. However, the democrat/Socialist/Communist media propaganda arm did its best to “fact check” and otherwise obscure his efforts. Just as he destroyed America’s energy independence on his first day in office, Joe Biden has done his best to damage veterans, by working to shut down innumerable facilities and undermining veteran access to private health care. As might be expected, the media has consistently tried to obscure Biden’s actions, portraying him as America’s greatest champion of veterans and military. That recruitment has plummeted because he’s turned the military into a woke, DEI social club, replete with drag queens, trans surgeries, abortion and pronouns is explained away as having nothing to do with failed enlistment rates.

And now, Catherine Salgado at PJ Media explains just how concerned Biden’s handlers are for our veterans:

A recent report says that Biden’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is redirecting resources to provide illegal aliens healthcare.

ACT for America reported that U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, introduced the “No VA Resources for Illegal Aliens Act” in response to the report about VA resources going to illegal migrants. ACT for America chair Brigitte Gabriel posted on Twitter/X Dec. 26 that the healthcare for illegals has caused “a severe breakdown in services” for veterans. “While Veteran Affairs can’t figure out how to get our poor homeless veterans off the streets, they are quick to divert critical tax-payer-funded support to illegal aliens! Who authorized this?” Gabriel asked. She urged Congress to act to protect our veterans and to hold officials accountable.

ACT for America blamed the VA resources diversion on the “failed” border policies of Joe Biden and his administration. “Chairman Bost emphasizes that diverting funds from veterans is a betrayal, demanding answers from the administration and vowing to prioritize veterans' needs,” ACT for America stated.

The legislation, also introduced by U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, seeks to ensure that the VA focuses on meeting the healthcare needs of American veterans, rather than aiding illegal migrants. 

Fortunately my service never sent me to the VA. I served in the USAF, stateside, during the Cold War, and suffered no injuries, no disabilities. Not everyone was so fortunate, then and now.

Truly, we live in a time of outrage fatigue. Un-American, unconstitutional horrors that not so long ago would have ended congressional careers and turned d/S/Cs into pariahs, no longer garner much interest and scant outrage. The aphorism that one death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic applies.

With between eight and ten million uneducated, entitled, and many criminal, even terrorist, illegals set to pour over our borders before the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration might end, we’re well into the realm of statistics.

We are now, as Mark Steyn has long written, the brokest nation in history, some 34 trillion dollars in debt, even more as I write these words. We can’t afford American’s needs, not for health care, not for infrastructure, not for national security, let alone the security of our allies. Yet the MMPA continues to import millions we can’t possibly afford to support, as our d/S/C sanctuary cities are discovering to their horror.  Their only response?  Send more taxpayer bucks; never shut down the border.

An honorable nation, a nation that has a future, would put its people first, and particularly “him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.”

Mike McDaniel is a classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor and retired police officer and high school and college English teacher.  His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.