Next SECDEF denigrates disabled vets for earned benefits.
Next SECDEF denigrates disabled vets for earned benefits... Hegseth tars veterans using
all their government benefits as “dependent” while Kilmeade suggests they lack “personal
integrity”
(Hegseth served... Kilmeade never served)
https://www.mediamatters.org/brian-kilmeade/foxs-pete-hegseth-brian-kilmeade-criticize-ame
rican-veterans-who-apply-every
Fox's Pete Hegseth, Brian Kilmeade criticize American veterans who apply for every
government benefit they qualify for
Hegseth tars veterans using all their government benefits as “dependent” while Kilmeade
suggests they lack “personal integrity”
Published 04/05/19 9:29 AM EDT --- video.
PETE HEGSETH (FOX NEWS HOST): This is a really complicated discussion. This is about
disability ratings, which isn't always necessarily tied to health care but the idea that
this -- the health care you get is about service-connected disabilities. If you go to
war, and you get injured, we'll take care of you. So when you come home, they try to rate
how disabled you are and that's how much care you get. Well, I could be rated for 50%
right now if I wanted to be. I mean, just to have a totally -- and vets know this out
there, I could do ear, and ankle, and knee, and back.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Because it's proportional, right?
HEGSETH: Because it's proportional for different injuries that you have. Groups out there
-- vets groups, mostly -- encourage vets to apply for every government benefit they can
ever get after they leave the service.
DOOCY: Why not?
HEGSETH: Because -- well, why not, right, if government's giving it out. To me, the ethos
of service is I served my country because I love my country and I'm going to come home
and start the next chapter of my life. And if I've got a chronic condition, mental,
physical, otherwise, the government better be there for me. But otherwise, I don't want
to be dependent if I don't have to be.
KILMEADE: You got to have integrity. You got to have personal integrity.
HEGSETH: Well and right now a lot of groups are convincing vets to give -- get, take more
from the system as opposed to just what you need for the service you gave.