Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Sun editorial:

Heller’s dilemma: Side with Trump or veterans on VA pick

Assuming Donald Trump follows through in nominating Dr. Ronny Jackson to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, Sen. Dean Heller will soon face an ugly consequence for becoming a team player for the president.

For Heller, Jackson’s confirmation offers a lose-lose proposition. Either he votes against Jackson and runs the risk of getting dinged by Trump before the midterm elections, or he votes for Jackson and alienates veterans groups that have raised concerned about the White House doctor’s qualifications for the position.

Granted, Jackson deserves a fair confirmation hearing, and maybe during his testimony he’ll be able to convince Americans that he’s the perfect person for the job.

But that’s an enormous maybe, given Jackson’s razor-thin resume for the job.

The biggest organization Jackson has overseen numbers in the several dozen. The VA employs 360,000 people, has a $186 billion budget and is the second-largest entity in the federal government, ranking only behind the Pentagon.

This is an organization that was once led by the former CEO of Procter & Gamble, a former member of the U.S. House and a former high-ranking official with the Disabled Veterans of America, among others.

Jackson’s qualifications appear to be that he served in the Navy and is apparently a fine doctor. Trump reportedly also likes how Jackson looks and thought he did a nice job in handling the January news conference in which he reported the results of Trump’s physical examination.

But where Trump saw greatness, others saw a toady whose glowing remarks about Trump seemed like they could have been copied from Kim Jong Un’s physician.

Jackson described a man who is noticeably overweight, disdains vigorous exercise and regularly gorges on fast food as being in “excellent” health, and went as far as to say that if Trump had eaten more healthily during the last several years he might “live to be 200.” He predicted that Trump would be fine throughout this term and even through a second term. “It’s just the way God made him,” Jackson said.

This may sound like satire, but for veterans groups it’s no joke. It’s potentially a life-and-death matter, as advocates have raised concerns that the Trump administration is angling toward privatizing the VA’s health services. Privatization, they believe, would erode the quality of care and lead to higher costs.

The outgoing VA secretary, David Shulkin, fueled advocates’ concerns in saying the Trump administration saw him as “an obstacle to privatization who had to be removed.” The White House responded by saying Shulkin’s ouster was not an indication that the administration was moving toward privatization.

But considering that conservatives like the Koch brothers are pushing for the change, veterans advocates are justifiably uneasy.

For Heller, the nomination process comes at an inopportune time politically. Although Trump cleared a path for Heller to the general election by encouraging Danny Tarkanian to seek a House seat instead of opposing Heller, Heller will be heavily targeted by Democrats in the general election and can scarcely risk alienating Trump’s base.

Heller has already faced Trump’s wrath. After he initially voted not to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Trump “joked” that Heller would come around if he wanted to “remain a senator.” Heller did so, and he has been subjugating himself to Trump ever since.

If the Jackson nomination plays out as expected and the doctor proves to be as bad as a nominee as he looks on paper, Nevada’s veterans will be watching him closely to see who he cares more about — the nation’s 21 million veterans or Trump.