Shinseki on CNN

| March 24, 2013

So Ric showed up on CNN today. CNN made a big deal that this is the first time Shinseki has sat for an interview in four years and here he is. You really don’t have to watch, because it’s the same old bullshit about how he doesn’t think veterans should have to wait hundreds of days for their claims to get approved, that the backlog will magically disappear in 2015, that the president has increased his funding by 40% and there’s no excuse for his people to be incompetent boobs who can’t get through the backlog.

Candy Crowley asks Shinseki what the President can do to help Shinseki reduce the backlog of claims and Shinseki says that there’s nothing he can do – so obviously, the VA is so broken there’s nothing anyone can do. Shinseki doesn’t even seem embarrassed that the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs can’t even transfer digital files between the agencies, despite the fact that the two agencies have tossed millions of dollars down a black hole trying to solve it.

In other words, no one at the VA is interested in solving any of their problems – but they’re willing to talk about what a big problem it is. It’s no wonder that Ric hasn’t been on any of the news shows – he has nothing new to say.

Oh, and he tells us that the problem is Bush’s fault because it’s a decades-old problem, and if we hadn’t been fighting those damned Bush wars, he wouldn’t be saddled with the growing number of veterans. Any half-way competent manager could solve the problem at the VA in less than two years. But Eric Shinseki isn’t half-way competent.

Category: Veterans' Affairs Department

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DaveO

#51 GT: back in the 80s, the Army figured out that they enlist the soldier, but they reenlist the family. So they Army recruited a lot of OB/GYN MDs. Other specialties were not recruited. The culture of the pre-9/11 Army was one does not go to sick call. One gets carried to sick call, usually with a medic saying “oh shit oh shit oh shit.” Or words to that effect.

Most joes don’t need a pap smear, even the Queens of Battle, but do need sports medicine, bone MD, and even epidemiologists and endocrinologists, among others. Malpractice starts in the service, and continues after service.

M. Oleman

Please give the guy a break. Maybe he’s working on a new headgear idea to submit to the Joint Chiefs. I’ve heard rumors of a Bearskin like the guards of the wicked witch are outfitted with.

Flagwaver

This is complete bullshit. I am on another waiting list and probably won’t be getting any benefits because the VA cannot find my medical jacket in the Records Management Center, National Guard State Surgeon’s Office, DPRIS, or the records interface. That MUST mean I am a phony.

The last time I physically saw my records were at the Walter Reed Veterinarian Center after Iraq. But, now, someone had lost them. It’s bullshit! They have my DD-214, they have my service jacket, but I am probably going to be denied because some pencil pusher at Walter Reed lost my med jacket. However, every day you have Marine SEALs in a Ranger Squadrons is getting benefits and being outed AFTER THE FACT.

Green Thumb

@52.

There are legal implications to what they are doing but they assume that most do not know any better.

Big mistake.

DaveO

#55 GT: for the longest time, neither soldiers nor their families could sue the government. It took a couple of kids dying at the hands of Army doctors (unlicensed, but still graduates of medical school) to start to change that.

I don’t have empirical proof, but willing to bet the extremely poor level of military medicine boosted the costs of medical and psychiatric/psychological care to veterans – costs passed on to the taxpayer.

tj87@aol.com

go to hell VA eat shit and die. I’m tired of waiting on my VA benefits.

When are they going to do away with the VA and these idiots that run VA>

son of bitches every one of them!! Skuzz bags!!!!

shinseki your nuthin but garbage you speak lies.

rekener

america and the VA is a complete cluster fuck while obama travels around doing nothing!! america is headed for a complete fuckin melt down!! VA is just the beginning of the end!! Everyones constantly on vacation in congress and the white house AMERICA eat drink and be merry and veterans dont care!!! why?? becuz they got dav vfw amvets well thats what you wanted and paid dues 4 right?? obama stop partying and spending money that deserves to go to veterans you louse!!!!century after century year after year one dirt bag VA HACK administrator after the other!!! no one cares why should you this is what you voted 4 aint it????how come veterans cant get food stamps!! coffee blankets tea or hot cocoa!! becuz congress has it!! SOB bums everyone gets food stamps in america?? right? well thats what you wanted right???? how come VA always bills medicaid then demands co pay from veterans???? no work no nuthin just welfare unemployment the veterans administration shinseki sayin were open for nothin and jail!!jails getting bigger and bigger and bigger hey that good medical care in prison dont they??its going to get worse and worse and worse and worse veterans youll learn to love food stamps and adore enfa milk and learn how to barter for baby diaper candy bars baggged pretzels tato chips and dorito powdered eggs bread butter in front of welfare clinic va sez they comin out with taco bell mike d and kfc debit card no cash ebt for vets on the street or gettin out of jail??? while congress and the fed enjoy caviar lavish cruises first accomadation with gourmet meals to austrailia asia europe to shack up party while veterans suffer and die in the streets of us of a and america you will always give your seat on an airliner bus or train to a politician yes you will and you will enjoy it along with government cheezes /////welfare checks handed to a grocery cashier while your whole familys in jail hey just so ya know i checked!va is back loggered at over ——- one… Read more »

BREEVE

SHINSEKI FUCK YOU YOU LOOSER YOU ARE NUTHIN BUT A PIECE OF SHIT
YOU FEDERAL HACK LYIN LITTLE MOTHER FUCKER EVERYONE HATES YOU FUCKIN SHITTY LITTLE FUCKIN DIRT BAG HEY LOOK YOU MEAT HEADED FUCKIN SHIT SAC I DONT GIVE A TIMPEENY FUCK BOUT YOUR LEGAL CONUNDRUMS AT THE FUCKIN VA YOU LITTLE BITCH MOTHER FUCKER

YOU BETTER GET ME PAID YOU LITTLE SHIT FUCKIN PUNK BITCH MOTHER FUCKER

YOU ARE SHIT