The widening scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs signals that the government is incapable of managing the nation’s vast health care system, retired neurosurgeon-turned-GOP icon Ben Carson told Fox News Saturday.
Carson, a Fox News contributor, joins a growing chorus of critics of the Obama administration over recently surfaced problems at veterans hospitals, including delays for treatment and preventable deaths. He called the revelations “a gift from God” designed to highlight potential pitfalls of Obamacare.
“I think what’s happening with the veterans is a gift from God to show us what happens when you take layers and layers of bureaucracy and place them between the patients and the health care provider,” he told Fox. “And if we can’t get it right, with the relatively small number of veterans, how in the world with are you going to do it with the entire population? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.”
He called on both parties to ditch political showmanship and begin thinking “about the people.”
“We need seriousness here rather than just political speak," he told Fox. “‘How can I look better? How can my party look better?’ And I’m saying this to both Democrats and Republicans: Stop, and think about the people. You guys are servants. You are not rulers. So first of all, get that out of your mind. And think about some of the problems we have to solve in this nation, which are substantial—some of which threaten to actually destroy our nation.”
Watch the video here: