Obama Abandoned Veterans
Shinseki Takes Point
Seems like Bush all over again.
"VA issues a symptom of demilitarized political system" by Kevin Cullen | Globe staff June 03, 2014
Oh, is that what he thinks the problem is?
Oh, is that what he thinks the problem is?
Eric Shinseki is gone, and the vast majority of Americans couldn’t care less, just as they don’t care, really care, about their fellow citizens who just spent the last decade in combat.
Speak for yourself, you warmongering jerk!
Shinseki, the soldier, gave a good chunk of his foot to his country when he stepped on a land mine in Vietnam.
Shinseki, the Cabinet secretary, inherited an absolute mess in the Department of Veterans Affairs and wasn’t able to change it.
Yeah, why was this a mess for so long when you war-promoting jerks care so much about the troops?
When it came out that the VA in Phoenix, and who knows how many other places, was cooking the waiting lists, someone had to take it in the neck, and it turned out to be Ric Shinseki.
The funny thing — not funny ha ha, but funny sad — is that there are many people in the VA who should have been fired for the scandal of so many vets being turned away or made to linger ridiculous amounts of times on waiting lists that never move. Except, they’re protected.
Ric Shinseki was not, and so he had to go. Being a soldier, he probably gets this better than anyone.
But the suggestion that Shinseki, a decorated combat veteran, was somehow cold and callous when it comes to taking care of the very people who he once was is ridiculous.
Just as ridiculous as the suggestion that this is a manifestation of Barack Obama not caring about veterans. Obama’s people have been no better and no worse than previous administrations, going all the way back to the Vietnam War, when it comes to taking care of veterans.
What a failure and betrayal of the troops -- and it wasn't by the antiwar side!
The apathetic attitude toward vets today on both sides of the aisle in Washington reflects a wider societal indifference that has been there for decades. When Republicans insist they are better than Democrats at taking care of vets, they must be forgetting that all those Senate Republicans who were calling for Shinseki’s head voted against an appropriation in February that would have given the VA much-needed resources. They must be forgetting the appalling conditions some soldiers endured in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center under the Bush administration.
Don't worry, guy, I blame both parties. I'm not into the false paradigm of left-right, conservative-liberal, Republican-Democrat, names that really mean nothing.
The choice is between freedom and fa$ci$m now, and freedom just won one.
Look, we have just endured a decade of war — wars, actually, because Iraq and Afghanistan were two very different places and two very different wars. We have asked more of our armed forces, over a longer period of time, than any previous generation. Never before has such a high percentage of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines chosen or been compelled to serve so many multiple combat deployments.
Who is "we?"
And, yet, look what they’ve come home to. A general populace that has paid more attention to “American Idol’’ than men and women who are the American ideal, those who put themselves in harm’s way for their fellow citizens.
Who$e fault is that, ma$$ media $hit-$hoveler?
We elect politicians who decide whether to send our armed forces into harm’s way, and the entire political establishment, with few exceptions, chose to launch two wars without taking nearly enough steps to prepare for the collateral damage that was going to come home from those wars.
And they had a LOT of HELP from newspapers like the Boston Globe that blared Iraq has WMDs on its front pages along with all the other war lies.
The Department of Veterans Affairs was an underfunded, unwieldy, unfocused bureaucracy long before Afghanistan and Iraq. The suggestion that this is solely the fault of the incumbent administration is partisan nonsense.
And no one gave a shit until now?
And WE DON'T CARE about the PAST so much right now; the fact is THIS A**HOLE has been in power for SIX YEARS and PROMISED he would GIVE VETERANS the CARE they deserved, blah, blah, blah.
But hey, what is one more broken promise from Obummer?
The sad state of the VA is instead a symptom of a political system that has been demilitarized, in the sense that too few of our politicians, especially in Washington, are veterans.
Meanwhile, the rest of the society has been completely militarized by these non-military man.
The vast majority of politicians who committed the nation to war had no skin in the game. It wasn’t their sons or daughters who were driving into IEDs or the crosshairs of the enemy. It was somebody else’s kid.
I think WAR-MONGERING POLITICIANS should have to FIGHT THEMSELVES and leave the REST OF US OUT OF IT!
Now all those kids are coming home, many with wounds of war, seen and unseen, that are desperately undertreated. Just as the hawks in Washington started wars without having enough Humvees armored up, the VA is not armored up for what has come home....
Most of them dual national Israeli neo-cons.
I can’t think of a bigger scandal. It is beyond scandalous that politicians who hold the power to fix this spend so much time pointing fingers instead of looking in the mirror.
That's high hypocrisy coming from the AmeriKan media.
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I didn't like my roommate. He never mentioned that the secret lists were created to protect promotions and bonuses!
Yeah, let's get those dollars and donations to the vets:
"Bookkeeper accused of stealing from veterans group" Associated Press June 03, 2014
DARIEN, Conn. — A bookkeeper for the National Veteran Services Fund was arrested Monday, accused of embezzling more than $830,000 from that charity.
That's almost $1 million.
Cynthia Tanner, 52, of Darien was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail while awaiting arraignment on a charge of first-degree larceny. It was not immediately clear whether she had hired an attorney.
A woman raped the veterans? That's a switch.
Officials went to police after an internal audit found some ‘‘questionable entries’’ on financial statements, said Phillip Kraft, the executive director of the charity.
The National Veteran Services Fund, which was previously known as the Vietnam Veterans Agent Orange Victims Inc., provides social services and medical assistance to Vietnam and Persian Gulf War veterans and their families, especially those with disabled children, according to its website.
$upport the troops!
It says donated funds are used to pay for such things as utilities, temporary housing, car repairs, or to provide veterans with items such as wheelchairs and ramps.
The organization includes two full-time and two part-time employees, according to its website.
Police said they discovered that Tanner, who handled the payroll and financial disbursements for the organization since 2008, had been writing unauthorized checks to herself and family members while reporting in a fabricated financial ledger that the money was going to veterans.
Looks like a PATTERN with the VETS SERVICES!
And WHAT was the NSA doing all this time? They would have collected all those records!
She also made electronic payments for her car loans and was using the company credit cards for personal expenses such as airfare, vacations and Internet purchases, police said.
The charges involved 135 unauthorized checks for more than $185,000 that were written to Tanner and family members in 2013, police said. But, police said they estimate she took more than $830,000 over five years from the organization’s checking account alone.
Kraft said he wanted to assure donors that the organization is cooperating with police, would continue its work, and is still accepting donations.
I think I will find somewhere else to give.
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Scum is as bad as the bankers.
Time to make a move:
"Ex-Blue Angels commander found guilty of allowing sexual harassment; Captain Gregory McWherter to be given a letter of reprimand, Navy says" by Julie Watson | Associated Press June 04, 2014
Better pray.
SAN DIEGO — A former Blue Angels commander tolerated inappropriate sexual comments and pornographic images in the workplace during his time as leader of the famed precision flying team and will be given a letter of reprimand, the Navy said Tuesday.
That's all?
Captain Gregory McWherter was found guilty of violating two articles under the military’s code of justice during nonjudicial proceedings convened Monday in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The articles were failure to obey an order or regulation and conduct unbecoming of an officer by fostering a hostile command climate and failing to stop ‘‘obvious and repeated instances of sexual harassment, condoning widespread lewd practices within the squadron, and engaging in inappropriate and unprofessional discussions with his junior officers,’’ the Navy said in a statement.
The punitive letter will go in McWherter’s permanent file and is seen as a career-ender in the service. McWherter told Navy officials he did not want to speak to the media, said Commander Kevin Stephens, a spokesman at Naval Air Forces.
McWherter was relieved in April from his duty as executive officer of Naval Base Coronado in California amid the allegations during his second stint as the Blue Angels’ leader from May 2011 to November 2012. The Navy said it did not find problems during his first stint as the flying team’s commanding officer from 2008 to 2010.
‘‘The investigation concluded that McWherter witnessed, condoned, and encouraged behavior that, while juvenile and sophomoric in the beginning, ultimately and in the aggregate, became destructive, toxic, and hostile,’’ the Navy said in a statement.
The Navy said investigators found no evidence the behavior led to sexual assault.
Harry Harris Jr., commander of the US Pacific Fleet, ordered the investigation after a service member filed an official complaint with the Navy on March 24 that alleged ‘‘lewd speech, inappropriate comments, and sexually explicit humor were allowed in the workplace’’ and in some cases ‘‘encouraged’’ by the commanding officer, and ‘‘pornographic images were displayed in the workplace and shared in electronic communications.’’
‘‘Commanding officers have an enduring obligation to maintain a proper work environment at all times and in all places and spaces, and they will be held accountable as appropriate when they fail,’’ Harris said.
Several junior personnel who served under McWherter received formal written counseling for their behavior, but McWherter was held accountable for the actions of those in his command, the Navy said.
The Blue Angels are reviewing procedures, said Vice Admiral David Buss, commander, Naval Air Force Pacific, who added that he expects the next command to uphold the Navy’s high standards. He called the environment McWherter fostered ‘‘totally inappropriate.’’
‘‘I will not accept the encouragement of such behavior on the part of a leader entrusted with the responsibility of command,’’ said Buss.
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And off we go....
Boehner calls for more action on veterans affairs scandal
What have you been doing all these years? Oversight is YOUR JOB, jerk!!!
"Key senators outline bipartisan VA measure" by Matthew Daly | Associated Press June 06, 2014
WASHINGTON — Senior senators reached agreement Thursday on the framework for a bipartisan bill expanding veterans’ ability to get health care outside the government’s scandal-beset Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics.
Gee, look at how uniformly fast they both move when their political image and illusion is shredded!
The bill would allow veterans who experience waits of 30 days or more for VA appointments or who live at least 40 miles from a VA hospital or clinic to use private doctors enrolled as providers for Medicare, military TRICARE, or other government health care programs.
It also would let the VA immediately fire as many as 450 senior regional executives and hospital administrators for poor performance. The bill resembles a measure passed last month by the House, but includes a 28-day appeal process omitted by the House legislation.
The Senate deal came as acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson announced that 18 veterans who were kept off official VA waiting lists in the Phoenix area have died.
Then it is MURDER!
Gibson said he does not know whether the deaths were related to long waiting times to see a VA doctor.
The 18 veterans who died were among 1,700 veterans identified in a federal report as being kept off an electronic waiting list of scheduled appointments, Gibson said. Taking care of those 1,700 veterans is his top priority as VA chief, Gibson said during a tour of VA facilities in Phoenix, where the furor started.
Related: Salaries of VA employees in Phoenix
All those six-figure salaries are only in Phoenix, folks!
Even the VA is staffed with GREEDY MONEY JUNKIES!
The Senate bill is a response to a building national uproar about veterans’ health care following allegations that surfaced in April that as many as 40 veterans may have died while waiting an average 115 days for appointments at the Phoenix VA hospital or its walk-in clinics.
Since then, investigators have found long wait times and falsified data covering them up at VA facilities nationwide.
‘‘Right now we have a crisis on our hands and it’s imperative that we deal with that crisis,’’ said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who leads the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
********
Meanwhile, President Obama’s choice as top health official at the Veterans Affairs Department withdrew his nomination Thursday, saying he feared his confirmation could spark a long political battle.
Jeffrey Murawsky, health care chief for the VA’s Chicago-based regional office, was nominated last month as the department’s new undersecretary for health care, replacing Robert Petzel, who resigned under pressure. Petzel had been scheduled to retire later this year but was asked to leave early amid a firestorm over delays in patient care and preventable deaths at veterans hospitals.
Murawsky now oversees seven VA hospitals and 30 clinics in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan, including one in suburban Chicago where there are allegations that its staff used secret lists to conceal long patient wait times for appointments. Murawsky was a doctor at the Hines, Ill., hospital and remains on staff.
Looking like it happened EVERYWHERE, folks!
In a statement, Murawsky said his withdrawal was ‘‘in consideration of recent events, but most importantly in the best interests of serving our nations’ veterans.’’
The White House said in a statement that Murawsky feared a prolonged fight on his confirmation, adding that he believed the role was too important not to be filled quickly.
Does anyone believe the bullshit coming from this White House anymore?
Obama accepted Murawsky’s withdrawal and will move quickly to find a replacement, the White House statement said....
When can we replace him?
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At least the VA hospitals in Massachusetts are fine:
"Mass. a model for veterans’ health care; Private insurance use, treatment outside of VA system rank high" by Bryan Bender | Globe Staff June 09, 2014
WASHINGTON — As the Obama administration and Congress wrestle with how to fix the veterans health care system, lessons are being drawn once again from an incubator of health care ideas: Massachusetts.
Judging by the disaster of Obummercare's healthcare.gov and it's related destruction of our state's web site, maybe this model shouldn't be followed.
The state boasts three of the nation’s highest-rated VA hospitals and spends more per capita on veterans than any other, which has helped it avoid the long waiting lists plaguing some veterans hospitals, officials say....
So what? Just because it is spent doesn't mean it went where it was supposed to. Look at all the defective products our military overpays for.
Now a similar set of initiatives to enable veterans to seek care outside the Department of Veterans Affairs is being rolled out by the Obama administration....
More executive orders? What took him so long?
State officials cite statistics showing that a higher percentage of veterans in Massachusetts compared to the national average use private insurance. For example, of the three largest veterans health care regions in the state — Boston, Bedford, and Northampton — only 26 percent of eligible veterans used the VA system on average last year, according to VA statistics. (The Cape, South Coast, and The Islands are included in the VA’s Providence region.) The rest used other resources.
That compares with up to 40 percent nationally, according to Department of Veterans Affairs statistics. As a result, in something of a reprise of what happened with the state’s health care plan, the Massachusetts model increasingly is drawing national attention.
Meaning costs should soar!
Related: Why the Nation Doesn't Need Massachusetts Health Care
And we knew that over six years ago!
Also see: State Scraps Health Website
Thank you, Obummer!
“The VA can’t do it alone,” said Paul Reickhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, the largest group representing post-911 veterans, noting that community health clinics and private providers have a greater role to play. “Massachusetts is clearly doing a lot right and getting the job done. . . . They are being creative and innovative.”
Recent analyses have shown that Massachusetts spends more per capita on veterans than any other state. A 2012 study by the Massachusetts Legislature said the state was spending about $173 per veteran, more than double what is spent by each of the two next highest states, Illinois and Iowa. That is in part because Massachusetts also offers the most veterans services and programs of any state, totaling 67, according to the study.
The recent allegations that VA hospital officials covered up long wait times at a Phoenix facility led to the recent resignation of Eric Shinseki as veterans affairs secretary. It also sparked calls to leverage the private health care system to fill any gaps.
Already the Department of Veterans Affairs has announced it will begin paying for veterans experiencing wait times of 30 days or more to see a private provider.
A quartet of Republican senators has proposed the Veterans Choice Act, which would enable veterans enrolled in the VA to receive a “choice card” permitting them to seek care from a private provider. In addition, veterans who cannot get a VA appointment within two weeks, or who live more than 40 miles away from a VA medical center or outpatient clinic, could get care from the provider of their choice. The law would expire in two years, giving the VA time to repair its current shortcomings.
This will “empower our veterans as it relates to their health care,” said Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the ranking GOP member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.
Such an approach has a long history in Massachusetts.
The state’s health insurance mandate ensures that all eligible residents are enrolled in MassHealth, giving them access to affordable private care, including many veterans. According to the state, roughly 10,000 of the state’s 370,000 veterans and their families are receiving benefits through MassHealth.
When needed, the state’s Department of Veterans Services supplements their medical expenses, allowing more of them to stay on private insurance.
The state annually spends $75 million to help reimburse eligible veterans who seek private health care, according to Nee, including their dependents.
One person who takes advantage of both the private health care system and the VA is Wakefield resident Harold “Butch” McKenna, 68, a veteran of both Vietnam and the first Iraq war. He has long used the VA and, through Medicare, the private system.
For example...
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I'm so full of myself! I'm from Massachusetts and we care for our veterans better than you!
"Audit says more than 57,000 await first VA appointment" by Matthew Daly | Associated Press June 10, 2014
WASHINGTON — About 57,000 US military veterans have been waiting 90 days or more for their first VA medical appointments and an additional 64,000 appear to have fallen through the cracks, never getting appointments after enrolling and requesting them, the Veterans Affairs Department said Monday.
It’s not just a backlog problem, the wide-ranging review indicated.
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The audit is the first nationwide look at the VA network in the uproar that began with reports two months ago of patients dying while awaiting appointments and of coverups at the Phoenix VA center.
For a problem that has been going on for DECADES!!! That's called NEGLECT!
A preliminary review last month found that long patient waits and falsified records were ‘‘systemic’’ throughout the VA medical network, the nation’s largest single health care provider, which serves nearly 9 million veterans.
‘‘This behavior runs counter to our core values,’’ the report said. ‘‘The overarching environment and culture that allowed this state of practice to take root must be confronted head-on.’’
BONUSES and PROMOTIONS were the reasons behind it, but that gets no mention now.
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While Massachusetts fared better than many other states, one negative statistic stood out. The VA’s Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System had one of the top 10 longest wait times — 67 days — for new patients trying to see a specialist.
OH NOOOOOOOOO!
The national controversy forced VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign May 30. Shinseki took the blame for what he decried as a ‘‘lack of integrity’’ through the network.
Legislation is being written in both the House and Senate to allow more veterans, including those enrolled in Medicare or the military’s Tricare program, to get treatment from outside providers if they can’t get timely VA appointments.
House Speaker John Boehner said the report demonstrated that Congress must act immediately. ‘‘The fact that more than 57,000 veterans are still waiting for their first doctor appointment from the VA is a national disgrace,’’ said Boehner.
Where have you been, Boehner -- other than at the local watering hole?
"The report came as the VA's Office of Inspector General said it is investigating 56 VA medical facilities nationwide for possible wrongdoing, up from 42 two weeks ago. Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said the department is hiring new workers at overburdened clinics and other health care facilities across the nation and is deploying mobile medical units to treat additional veterans."
Why cut that, Globe?
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Now I am told it's up to 69.
More upside down public relations propaganda:
"Congress moving to ensure speedier care for vets" by MATTHEW DALY and ALAN FRAM | Associated Press June 11, 2014
WASHINGTON — United in response to a national uproar, Congress is suddenly moving quickly to address military veterans’ long waits for care at VA hospitals....
Almost as fast as they move for Israel!
Yeah, anything that makes their political image look bad must be responded to right away, even if it is meaningless, tardy, and pathetic.
The legislation comes close on the heels of a Veterans Affairs Department audit showing that more than 57,000 new applicants for care have had to wait at least three months for initial appointments and an additional 64,000 newly enrolled vets who requested appointments never got them....
Representative Mike Michaud of Maine, the top Democrat on the Veteran Affairs Committee, said the care that veterans receive at VA facilities is ‘‘second to none.’’
I guess this is only reason he is bailing out of Congre$$. If VA care is second to none, then the whole health care and medical $y$tem is $hot to $hit!
The House bill and a similar version in the Senate would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to hire more doctors and nurses, but that may be easier said than done given a nationwide shortage of primary care physicians.
That's all? I wasn't expecting trillions like what the banks get, nor even tens or hundreds of billions like the military; however, I thought a few token billion would be thrown at it. Instead we get chump change.
Primary care physicians are expected to become increasingly in demand as millions of people newly insured under the federal health care law start looking for regular doctors....
How can that be after they had FIVE YEARS to PREPARE and TRAIN SOME?
So there are NOT ENOUGH DOCTORS to care for all the WAR WOUNDED, huh?
Shortages tend to be worse in both rural and inner-city areas.
The American Medical Association added its voice, in Chicago, as the House was voting. At its annual policy meeting, the AMA approved a resolution urging President Obama to take immediate action to enable veterans to get timely access to care from outside the VA system. The doctors group also recommended that state medical societies create and make available registries of outside physicians willing to treat vets.
Yeah, why didn't he fire off an executive diktat?
Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, a chief author of the Senate measure, said he believed the Senate would approve the bill in the next day or two, adding that it shouldn’t be hard for the two chambers to craft a compromise version....
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