Hagel: Administration missed warning signs in VA
According to the Washington Times, on ABC’s This Week, Sunday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel admitted that the Obama Administration (and preceding administrations) missed warning signs of the impending malfeasance at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs – probably the closest any member of that cabinet has come to admitting that there’s a problem. But, you know, its Bush’s fault, too.
“I do support General Shinseki, but there’s no margin here. If this, in fact, or any variation of this occurred, all the way along the chain, accountability is going to have to be upheld here because we can never let this kind of outrage — if all of this is true — stand in this country,” Mr. Hagel said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “I don’t think it just started with General Shinseki’s term at the VA. This is something that should have been looked at years and years ago. So, yes, we missed it.”
Yeah, well, there’s no evidence that the gross malfeasance we’ve seen splashed across headlines over the last five years happened before Shinseki began his reign of terror against veterans and the taxpayers. But, you know, Hagel has waged a war against Republicans since he found the political value in it, so….
However this is still a good sign. Presidents always send a canary into the coalmine to test the political atmosphere. If there is no uproar from the Left about Hagel’s remarks, they may end up ridding themselves of Shinseki. The problem, then, is what nincompoop will they bring in to replace him?
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
Sheila Jackson Lee???
OUCH!
Please, don’t scare us like that…
The nice thing about her is that she is so freakin’ stupid, so bereft of basic intellectual skills, that she can’t be anything but what she is. That’s in contrast to Reid, Pelosi, The Emperor and Queen, Bonehead, and many, many others who are devious, conniving weasels.
Hank Johnson?
I hear old Hank is going to propose a bill to keep Guam afloat with helium-filled balloons. Genius. Both of them. Sheila and Hank. Intellectual giants. Can you just imagine how many morons it took to elect them?
Bring in another general officer that’s intelligent, respected and not a political hack. Someone like Wesley Clark (just kidding) or Colin Powell (never mind). Give Mattis a chain saw and let him go to work……
Perfect. Who better to tame the chaos at DVA than Chaos himself. He better hurry up though he only has about two years to fix that before the election.
Mattis 2016!
Mattis! 🙂
At the risk of overstating the obvious here, isn’t everything someone else’s fault? Here’s a news flash:
We just don’t care who started it and how long it has been going on – WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO FIX IT? Anything? No, you have only exacerbated the problem, exponentially.
Can we have some adults, please? These children blaming everyone else as they flush the country down the drain is beyond tiresome.
Give him a break. Hagel’s been too busy pouring over studies about LBGTs in the military to notice the problem at the VA.
Fsckity-Fsck: I’ll give him a break for a different reason: not his problem.
Last time I checked, Hagel was SECDEF; he’s not running the DVA. IMO he has quite enough to do already without trying to figure out how to fix the VA.
If he’s worrying about how the problems at the VA started – and speaking out about them – one has to question whether or not he understands what he’s supposed to be doing in his “day job”.
In 1995 when I first came to the VA I was accustomed to 6 month or longer waits for initial appointments. When I arrived for appointments they were generally overbooked and well behind schedule. My claims however flew through (though typically came back denied or low balled).
Under Clinton the VA was opened to all veterans and the shit hit the fan because they never hired the staff to deal with such an increase. It was a freaking horror show.
Things began to get better, even in the early days post 9/11 with the increase of returning Vets. (oops that was under Bush). My appointment times were far more reasonable, my quality of care far greater….
Now in the past several years the claims process at my Regional Office has hit grid lock. Care while still high quality I have noticed a very distinct resistance to doing test like MRI’s due to “cost”. Who cares why I have sever nerve pain in my left hand for example, an MRI of my spine would likely find the cause but… who cares why, let’s just prescribe meds that don’t do shit for it.
Boston Regional Office is 2 years or more behind on Claims, this did not happen overnight but it was not this bad before the current Leadership took over.
Let’s talk about their inability to get a health care computer system that can communicate between DoD and VA. How many millions did that cost us, only to have them give up on even trying?
How about Homelessness amongst veterans that has actually increased in the last several years, despite all the feel good money thrown at it by the VA…
Right though, all Bush’s fault for sure man.
As I’ve said elsewhere: medically, the few times I’ve used the VA they were good.
Administratively? The phrase “sucks azz” comes to mind. IMO SNAFU isn’t really even close any more.
Ya know; when problems at WRAMC were brought up under Bush, they were taken care of by bringing solutions to the fore, including those submitted by the VSOs. That’s why the AL has a permanent presence there to help ensure no wounded warriors fall through the cracks, anymore, while at WRAMC. This administration, however, shows its lack of leadership by doing what it always does; try to focus blame anywhere and everywhere, except themselves, and try to stick it on the previous administration.
There are no adults in this administration, just a bunch of college partiers that never grew up. Hagel; you’re embarrassing yourself.
Missed the warning signs? Yeah, the Japanese missed a warning sign too. It was called Hiroshima. But they missed the sign and Nagasaki had to be obliterated before some of them got the message. Some folks aren’t too swift on the uptake; others are in denial.
You would have to have your head in the ground to miss the “warning signs”. Bureaucratic is the only way to describe VA and there lies the problem. They equal the Post Office and our open borders in not being fixed by these f’in politicians – of both parties. I don’t use VA medical because I am blessed with TRICARE now Medicare and there are Vets who need there services who don’t have them. I had to use a clinic to obtain a Cholesterol blood test only covered by Medicare once every five years. They would not just give me the blood test. I had to take a doc’s time for a full physical and they insisted on keeping me as a patient for an annual although I had a fully covered Medicare physician. I balked on principal and now get a prescription from my doctor and take it to the air base. While the military medical facilities don’t want to see those of us over 65, they will do tests, etc.
Now if it were say, welfare flunkies or illegal aliens having problems getting access to healthcare, wanna bet that B. Hussein 0bama & Co. as well as the liberal media would be all over that like stink on roadkill?
Shorter Hagel: Yeah, we missed the signs, but Bush did first. So it’s still Bush’s fault.
They did not miss warning signs.
Senior administration within the political realm and VA (not mutually exclusive) knowingly chose to overlook warning signs and hope they went away.
Accountability in the Obummer administration?
Not. Even. Once.
And where was Fcuk Nut Chuck when he was a Senator… were the VA’s issue then “concerning” to him at that time?
Screw him and the stick pony he rode in on…
How about not appointing career politicians or ex-career officers. Get a Master/Senior Chief as head of VA and let him/her clean house. After all, who is considered the backbone of the Navy.
I have served at stations where the CO was a LT or LCDR. An experiment with Chief Petty Officers worked out extremely well for a time, but the local politicians had a difficult time mingling with enlisted. Too bad. BZ