Shinseki vows not to resign
Yeah, I’m still watching this thing on CSPAN of Shinseki answering what the Washington Post calls “tough questions”. So he was asked by Senator Dean Heller, Nevada Republican, why he shouldn’t resign from the position at which he’s been such a miserable failure. I’m sure that the definition of “Peter Principle” will be edited to include his photo.
So Shinseki’s response was recorded by the Post;
[T]he retired Army general said he took the job “to make things better for veterans” and to “provide as much care and benefits for the people I went to war with” and other veterans as he could. “This is not a job,” he said. “I’m here to accomplish a mission that I think they critically deserve and need.”
Shinseki vowed to remain in office until he meets his goals for improving the department’s performance or until President Obama tells him it is time to go.
“Any allegation like this .?.?. makes me mad as hell,” Shinseki said in an opening statement. “But at the same time, it also saddens me.”
The short answer would have been “I haven’t killed enough veterans yet” apparently. Things under Shinseki haven’t improved even marginally, in all areas of the Veterans’ Affairs Department conditions have deteriorated substantially, so, I’m thinking that Ric is delusional if he thinks that he can improve conditions at the Veterans’ Affairs Department. He even admitted during testimony, that some of the things that need improvement are outside of his abilities. So, WTF is he still doing there?
{Vermont Senator Bernie] Sanders noted that the VA health system generally receives high marks from patients who use it. The American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that the network, which serves more than 8 million veterans, achieved scores equal to or better than those in the private sector last year.
I agree with part of that statement. The actual medical treatment at the VA is superb, some of the best doctors and nurses in the country work there, but it’s the bureaucracy that stands between the care and the patients that sucks major ass. And that’s the part that would seem the easiest to fix. All of the complaints about the VA have been about the bureaucracy, since the beginning of time. Fixing that would require some leadership, though, and the VA execs aren’t interested in using any leadership, and Shinseki has never displayed a measure of leadership since he came to my attention more than a decade ago.
I just don’t know how anyone, including Shinseki, can think that his continued occupation of that position can ever benefit veterans in any way shape or form.
Category: Veteran Health Care, Veterans' Affairs Department
Asked someone who knew him while he was SFOR commander in Bosnia once: “Risk-averse, took no initiative, stuck his neck out not at all.”
That is exactly how he strikes me.
He looked like a deer in the headlights while before congress. Of course he looks like that every time I’ve ever seen him. There was a segment tonight on Bill O’Reilly discussing his testimony and the calls for his ouster. Bill, who never served, stated that Shinseki was highly respected by veterans. Huh? WTF? This Eric Shinseki? The VA guy? I’ll have some of what O’Reilly is smoking!
Talk about doubling down on the stupid. What does his staying accomplish?
As my USAF TI said….
(edited for relevance)
“Shinseki!! Did you wake up this morning JUST TO PISS ME OFF?!?!?!”
His staying keeps his paycheck coming, NHSparky.
He’s providing his own perpetual job security, where else can you get away with this??
“You can’t fire me, I have so much to do”
“But you haven’t fixed anything”
“That’s right!!”
I suspect this is the real issue.
Not sure where you’re located, but, I’ve not received any care that would be described as ‘superb.’ The best doctors and nurses in the country comment made me laugh, seriously, laugh out loud. Nothing but young, fresh out of college kids, doing a residency is what I’ve dealt with. I’ve had misdiagnosis, I’ve been told ‘there is nothing we can do’ (just to give the doctor the finger, get in my car, and get admitted to a local hospital where I spent 3 days recovering from a serious heart infection, now I’m fighting the VA to pay for their incompetence, because heaven knows I’m not paying for something they should’ve taken care of), I could go on. The VA is horrible, in every aspect. I personally think if someone was honorably discharged, they should be able to go wherever they want, no questions asked. I could take my VA Card, show someone at Johns Hopkins, get my services, and have them bill the VA, and not worry about a damn thing. I don’t think the world or country needs to bow at my feet, and I don’t think we as veterans are owed a lot, but, we should be able to receive the BEST medical care, no questions asked.
I like this – dismantle the VA Hospitals and just make it like a Health Insurance that doesnt say no.
If he allows enough Veterans to languish and die, so be it. Clearing the backlog is clearing the backlog to Shinseki, by whatever means necessary.
If by some small chance Eric Shinseki will read this:
“The leader is responsible FOR EVRYTHING the unit does or fails to do.” (Emphasis mine.)
Shinseki is a failure by any definition of the word.
Yep.
Even better, by allowing Veterans to die, they reduce the number of potential Conservative voters… at least to a higher degree. I wouldnt be surprised if this was intentional for the votes – But yes, I am a conspiracy theory guy
And this is apparently the system that will be implemented for all who reside within the borders. Anyone expect it to magically be better than what is currently happening to veterans?
If some sort of magic wand or voodoo or regulation will make it a great system when applied to all, why can’t that magic be applied right now to the VA?
Your point is interesting, OWB, as one of the witnesses was Philip Longman, author of the book “Best Care Anywhere, 3rd Edition: Why VA Health Care Would Work Better For Everyone.”
In his statement, Longman said that much had been made about the VA gaming the metric on appointments and wait times, but it was wonderful that the VA had the metric unlike other hospitals and doctors.
Hospitals and doctors in the private sector don’t need such a metric because until recently, for the most part patients could go elsewhere, taking their money for care with them.
In essence, it seemed that Longman was defending the metric that exists only in the governmental sector because the metric – not whether the metric is useful, gamed, lied about, distorted, etc – is what matters.
That governmentally mandated metric only exists in government run health care. According to Longhorn, the existence of the metric is another reason to move to government run and funded healthcare along the lines of the VA.
His testimony made no sense at all. It sounded something like: “Yeah, it doesn’t work very well, but that just proves how much we need to make it bigger, and worse. No, no, no, don’t look at the details like if they can provide care. Not important. We’re talking about it, so it must all be good.”
“This is not a job,” he said. Stop right there. Maybe that’s the problem. It is a job! It’s a fulltime job requiring keen administrative and managerial skills. He has been there long enough to effect operations and outcomes, were he in possession of those skills. He evidently isn’t. He sounds just like some sorry ass politician who, after years of doing little, says that he is running for re-election because there is still much more work to be done. No shit. That’s always the result when one has done little or nothing to date.
I still think everything would improve if General Ric would just give all of us new hats.
Issue a Shinseki beret
The kind that you find
In a Chinese hat store
A Shinseki beret
And when it worn, they won’t do any more
A Shinskek beret
Yea that will fix things . . .
I hung up my green shirt shortly before Shinseki’s berets were issued. Never had to wear one.
It showed Shinseki’s priorities.
Listening to this testimony is maddening. They say crap like, “We have found no one whose wait time is the cause of their death.”
Did anyone say that it was? And that is rather the point. They died awaiting treatment. We have no idea if treatment would have prolonged their lives or simply made their final days more comfortable. No medical assessment was made – and that is the point. At least knowing that the VA had not abandoned them in their final days would have alleviated some mental pain and God only knows the other possibilities.
And why is this VAIG guy testifying that they are working with the DoJ, while the DoJ is denying that they are involved.
One thing this proves is that there are entirely too many bureaucrats stumbling over each other from the top to the bottom.
Agreed, OWB.
And those folks tripping over each other need to remember one pertinent fact. In Watergate, it was NOT the break-in that sent most of the folks to jail, or which ended Nixon’s term as POTUS.
It was the cover-up.
It sounds like the right hand knows what the left hand is doing , but for some reason won’t rat it out.
OWB. I agree. If wait time were a cause of death, we wouldn’t have an Army. That’s just someone being clever, in the pejorative sense of that word. If one dies of cancer, he dies of cancer. As you indicate, the issue is whether he would have died of that cancer had it been detected 6, 12, or 18 months sooner. Moreover, when did death/no death become the performance standard for these rascals?
My humble opinion. This saddens me terribly. I do not use the VA (no service connected problems thank God) and I would not go there as a vet for usual healthcare when I have private insurance. I could not walk into the Walla Walla VA and look around at the troops there in DIRE need of help, healthcare and their necessary needs of services. Just to sit and watch them languish in late appointment times, delayed and/or cancelled appointments and then to be told there’s not much we can do or we don’t see any problem as you describe it. I have as much empathy for our veterans forced to be tied, make that locked into, the VA system as I do respect for our veterans who served. The one veteran I know who went there for non-service connected problems was dealt with well and maybe that is unique to the Walla Walla VA. I would just feel shamefaced to show up in the midst of so many who can’t go anywhere else. I agree the doctors and nurses this person described were exemplary in their care. But just like in the private medical sector, I have changed doctors, good doctors because of their front office, billing and admin staffs. They were the ones who made going to the doctor’s visit a trip to hell. I have even talked to the doctors to let them know if things didn’t change I would leave their practice. Their response has always been, “we use a contracted management company for everything here except seeing me”. So the contracted company, wanting to keep themselves as profitable during their contract as possible, cut every corner they could think of. Appointment mistakes, cancelled appointments, billing errors that had to be handled through 800 numbers instead of the local practice. I am blessed though, as I wrote, to be able to go somewhere else. I say again, all that considered, I am blessed to have my own insurance and choose the doctor I want. I cannot say, again, how badly I feel for the veterans who EARNED… Read more »
You have to wonder if he is so into himself he sees nothing wrong to resign for or is he just waiting until he qualifies for that nice civilian pension.
77 11C20: he already qualifies, actually. He’s under the “new” federal civilian system, is over 62 years of age, and has 5+ years of civilian service. Under that set of circumstances, he could retire tomorrow.
Of course, his pension from his civilian service wouldn’t be too much – 5% of his “high-3” average. But he does have his military retirement also.
Frankly, I think Shinseki’s doing this for ego, not money. But if he retired tomorrow, he’d lose a helluva lot of $$$, too – over 94% of his cabinet-secretary salary.
I was taught at Ft Benning that the leader was responsible for everything his troopers do or fail to do. But then, this was the white name tape era Army.
When you have a politician impersonating a soldier for so many years…what do you expect when he retires and gets a politically appointed job? The joke is on us veterans and sadly, when people end up dead…the joke is no more a laughing matter.
Shinseki needs to hold senior administrators accountable.
Personally, I believe the VA has gotten better under him. The VA is HUGE. If there are a few bad apples I am not really surprised. You can’t fire anyone who does shoddy work at the VA until something like this happens. Gov’t way is to promote and move anyone who is involved in shady dealings or sucks at their job. The union wouldn’t have it any other way. Get rid of the union or allow managers to actually fire people who aren’t caring for Vets the way they should and I bet you would see an improvement.
My experiences as both a patient and provider at the VA, for what it is worth.
EdUSMCleg,
What surprised me out of today’s hearing was a report either from the GAO or the IG’s office from 2012 detailing the problems at the VA, including the issues with appointments, reports, etc.
The person testified that 2 years later, they did not find any “meaningful improvements” from what the VA / Shineski knew were problems 2 years ago.
I have no doubt that in your opinion things have gotten better at the VA. I won’t argue or even offer an opinion on the matter.
However, leaders and managers look to keep their charges happy and working as well as addressing problems. The best leaders not only look for problems by listen when they are presented to them.
Here Shineski was presented a package with a nice bow of a massive problem within the VA. Yet it appears that no meaningful or effective changes were made.
I am not a General (retired or otherwise) in the military, but I can tell you that if I had a manager of a department that knew of problems and failed to address them, they wouldn’t be around. They’d be gone.
We can talk about whether the VA is better under his leadership or not, but there is no doubt that he screwed this issue up.
He knew about, and either failed to address the issue or failed to follow up on the issue.
The head is rotten.
Cut it off and start again.
The head should be displayed on the sharp end of a pike, complete with beret.
The VA needs a revamp on all Levels.
Re-evaluate every case, get rid of the fakes and frauds. Re write the rule book. Put the needs of service related illness and injury first.
Hold the services accountable for poor record keeping and incorrect information.
I think all vets should be required to register with the VA within upon discharge a physical given and compared to the physical given before service begins.
any attempt at fraud needs to be treated as a felony and harsh punishment given.
Last but not least patient care needs to be in the hands of the doctors, not the bureaucrats.
Egnima: re: “I think all vets should be required to register with the VA within upon discharge a physical given and compared to the physical given before service begins.
I was lucky. My Army Doc insisted I file for a disability just to create a VA file # for when things later popped up.
Shinseki has had YEARS to change the culture within the VA to make it truly responsive to the needs of veterans and he failed miserably. He is now the face of VA indifference, incompetence and most likely criminal malfeasance. Since he doesn’t have the sense or decency to resign, maybe his boss will can him once these terrible allegations are substantiated.
The man is a former General, and from what I have observed over a long lifetime, most of which was in or working with the military is this: the Generals, Admirals, and career officers as a whole are Self Centered, and Arrogant Water Walkers, utterly lacking in the common qualities required to be pro-active in any endeavor other than self adulation and covering their own Gilded Ass.
The term is “Perfumed Princes.”