RNC Chairman Michael Steele Says Veterans Affairs Manual, "Death Book" is Encouraging Veterans to Commit Suicide

RNC chairman Michael Steele is at it again. This time he jumped on the-government-will-kill-you bandwagon saying that a Veterans Affairs manual is "encouraging them [veterans] to commit suicide." "I mean, this is crazy coming from the government, and this is exactly what concerns people and puts them in fear of what the government control of health care will look like," Steele said. Wow, Michael Steele, you thought of that all by yourself? This ridiculous drivel about a so-called "death book," stems from a VA pamphlet on setting up advance directives such as living wills. It started with an op-ed last Tuesday written by George W. Bush's "faith czar," Jim Towey, conservative media has been swarming over claims that the pamphlet encourages disabled veterans to evaluate whether they're a "burden" to their families, in effect telling them to commit suicide. Of course, the pamphlet does nothing of the sort and it's just typical right wing smear tactics.

The White House has released a fact sheet says it was pulled for revision in 2007, when a panel found it "to be too negative in tone and not sufficiently sensitive to the perspectives of veterans with pro-life perspectives and veterans living with life-long disabling conditions."

Sorry, but if Michael Steele is the best African American the Republican National Committee could find to be a trailblazer and a voice for the party, then they have made the mother of all blunders. The guy has no substance and when he tries to criticize President Obama, he comes off looking like a complete moron. He has insulted millions of veterans in this country by claiming that they are being driven to commit suicide by reading a pamphlet.