As the VA scandal rolls along, with much of the major media wanting to ignore it or bury the coverage deep in the website/newspaper, many are trying to use distraction-blame. Obviously, Democrats are trying to Blame Bush. He certainly does bare some blame. But, as the liberal talking point regarding 9/11 went, “who’s president now?”, despite much of the planning, training and entry of the al Qaeda terrorists occurred during the Clinton years.
Then you have the one about too many wounded vets from two unnecessary wars. The unnecessary wars one has been growing over the last 6 years, and is absurd. We can quibble on Operation Iraqi Freedom, but these wacko leftists forget, or don’t care, why we went to war in Afghanistan. But, then, a huge chunk of Dems think it was a false flag attack, along with Blaming America.
Another is about money and Blaming Congress (forgetting that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate from 2007-2010. And still controls the Senate). That one gets beat down, too
(KESQ) As politicians, pundits and the American people are focused on the escalating national crisis at the Department of Veterans Affairs, one excuse for the VA’s woes keeps surfacing. Money.
The VA, some say, needs more money to do its job and care for veterans properly. But looking at the facts, that math just does not add up.
Since 2009, Congress has given Secretary Eric Shinseki every penny he has said he needed to fund the VA fully, resulting in an astonishing 50% increase in the agency’s overall budget at a time when budgets everywhere else across the federal government have been squeezed, strained and slashed. Congress even exempted the VA from sequestration, a win that not even the Pentagon managed to score while still engaged in a war overseas.
Congress also agreed to take the extraordinary step of giving the VA the annual funding it needs to cover veterans’ health care a year in advance so that the agency’s hospitals and clinics never run out of money. It is the reason the VA’s health care system continued to operate without interruption during last fall’s government shutdown, even as parks, federal buildings and congressional offices were forced to close or curtail operations for weeks.
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in both the House and the Senate, with the strong support of virtually all veteran and military service organizations, has pushed for years to give the VA the rest of its budget a year in advance, too, but the secretary and the Obama administration thus far have refused to endorse publicly the wisdom of protecting the entire VA budget with an advance appropriation.
So, Congress is doing everything possible to make sure the VA is funded in a bipartisan manner. Even prefunding it. Team Obama can’t be bothered to get involved.
Far from being underfunded, the VA is facing woes that are clearly due to a failure of planning and leadership. The VA knew or should have known that demand for its services would swell as more troops survived the wars with more severe and chronic injuries, especially mental injuries. And with troop surges and drawdowns debated and planned well in advance, corresponding future demands on the VA system could — and should — have been anticipated.
One important point is that a big influx of patients are Vietnam vets, not just our current wounded warriors.
Since reports first emerged of veteran deaths during long waits and alleged mismanagement in Phoenix, there continues to be a profound and worrisome lack of thoughtful and proactive leadership coming out of the VA. Instead, the VA has been addressing problems in a predictable manner, first denying their existence, then downplaying the scale, then hunkering down in crisis mode and finally — and belatedly — coming forward with a tepid and weak public response.
The passive, insular and arms-length management style has proven ill-suited for staying ahead of the pervasive problems of the nation’s second-largest bureaucracy. But more importantly, the fear is that such detached leadership from the top may have caused the VA’s bureaucratic and administrative pathologies to metastasize.
It’s not just the VA leaders, but Team Obama and Mr. Obama. Obama has yammered on about problems at the VA since 2007. I think we can assume, thanks to the ability to look back in time, that this was simply campaign rhetoric, not any serious policy prescription. Leadership starts from the top down. Obama has none. Words are rarely followed up with action. They’re throwaway lines at campaign events and fundraisers. The incompetence, malfeasance, lack of care, inability to “inspect what you expect”, detached leadership, etc, are hallmarks of this administration, and, sadly, when all is said and done, nothing will get fixed or even put in place to more towards fixing the problems.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
What’s The Real Reason For The VA Scandal?
By William Teach May 27, 2014 – 7:01 am
Let’s see… could it be… Obama?
Teach, you may have Obama Derangement Syndrome or ODS. It’s believed to be primarily a genetic syndrome afflicting Caucasians and may be linked to the Y-chromosome (Manly et al, 2010). ODS is particularly prevalent south of the Mason-Dixon line where a high fat diet, poor sanitation, the effects of global warming or a lack of exercise may contribute to its severity (Deen et al, 2010).
The presence of a communicable component to the malady cannot be ruled out since a recent study demonstrated that attendees at Tea Party rallies show a nearly a 9 fold greater incidence of ODS than normal control populations (97% vs 11%, p = 0.001), where unprotected male-male oro-genital contact may be a contributing factor (Hoft et al, 2011).
In addition, a recent study (Bush et al, 2014) revealed that familial ODS sufferer’s mitochondrial (mtDNA) showed only 6 bp substitutions from Neanderthal mtDNA. Normal humans differ from Neanderthal mtDNA by 27 substitutions. Surprisingly, the researchers also discovered traces of Ovis (sheep) mtDNA in ODS sufferers. This disturbing finding has yet to be explained.
To answer your question-yes.
So, who would you blame there J? Who in all of this administration could you consider worthy of blame?
Teach there is no one REAL REASON. This has been building for years and only gotten worse with the huge influx of vets from Afghanistan and Iraq. The GOP controlled the Congress and the White House and did not budget for this increase in services required.
Now 45% of all recently deployed vets are claiming permanent disability. NO ONE thought it was going to be that high.
Maybe the next time people want to rush off to war they will understand the FULL COSTS of war. We are going to be paying for this until the last of the vet’s dependents die in 70 years.
J once again does not read the posts and only spews his nonsense.
Claiming a disability is not the same as needing VA care. I know a few vets that never saw combat, but were recently diagnosed at >75% disability due to stiff knees from sitting in planes for long periods. I know a guy who was snipered in the leg in Iraq, his leg is now shorter than the other, tons of knee and back problems, but only has a 30% disability.
And j, we agree that this issue has been going on for a very very long time. Since the Vietnam days at least. But, who is the guy in charge now who has known and claimed to be a champion of fixing the VA?
Can we blame bush for not fixing it? yes.
Can we blame Clinton for not fixing it? Yes
Can we blame Reagan for not fixing it? yes
Can we blame Nixon for not fixing it? Yes.
But what good is that when half of those guys are now dead? And the other half are out of office?
When you accept the mantle of leader, chief, president, “man in charge”, “buck stops with me”, then you must accept the responsibility when things go wrong. And get them fixed.
But, he’s too busy breaking laws, making up laws, ignoring laws, paying off his unions, and playing golf to be bothered with murdered ambassadors and dying veterans.
John,
The fallout is not due to backlog or lack of care. It is that never before were our vets put on some secret list and allowed to die so some civil service puke could get a bonus. If this were a private nursing home Libtards would be screaming for blood.
I think the state AG’s and the local DAs should start investigating the deaths due to fraud and if enough evidence exist they should indict these clowns. frog walk a few a-holes and maybe we’ll start seeing change.
Jeff,
All that blather just to tell us you don’t have a “Y” chromosome, too bad. Maybe you should get an addadicktome, you might feel better about yourself.
Care to see how the the Veterans Groups look at this problem http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/25/richard-burr-veterans_n_5389296.html
This is stillone more reason why NC is turning purple. It is not just all those “smart” people that are moving to Chapel Hill it is the new vets who also no longer support the GOP
and your point means??? That some political groups are more interested in political access than in helping their members?? Much like unions?
color us shocked.
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