David Scott (D-GA) calls for Shinseki’s resignation
Georgia Democrat David Scott took to the floor of the House to call for the resignation of Eric Shinseki yesterday, according to The Blaze;
Scott said he was in his home state of Georgia to discuss a wave of soldiers taking their own lives while in the hospital. He said he and Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) asked if there were any others, and were told no.
“And they told a damn lie!” Scott bellowed in an emotional speech. “The very next day it was exposed there was another soldier that committed suicide, and they covered it up!”
He went on to say “We don’t have time for any more investigations, the reports are in.”
In other news in regards to the House and the VA, Concerned Veterans For America tells us that the House passed the Department of Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act of 2014 (HR 4031) with final vote of 390-33.
This bipartisan bill empowers the VA Secretary to fire and replace failing executives and managers, and is now headed to the Senate for consideration.
[…]
“The VA Management Accountability Act’s overwhelming and bipartisan passage in the House is the first step on the road to accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and is a sign that members on both sides of the aisle understand the urgent need to restore trust in the scandal-plagued VA.
“Kudos to Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida, the chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, who worked to introduce this bill, champion it, and get it passed. And thank you to the The American Legion, AMVETS, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America for their early and vocal support of the bill.
“This is a historic move by the House, but the fight is not over. We will remain vigilant as the bill moves to the Senate, where Sen. Marco Rubio’s companion version awaits action. The VA has proven that reform is not going to come from within, so we’re glad that the House has stepped up to demand accountability – and we look to the Senate to do the same.”
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
There is going to be no reform at VA while the current bunch of hard-left thugs is running the White House. They will provide public lip service and no more, because vets are not one of the demonrat party’s core interest groups/constituencies. Keeping Shitseki on proves that, as nothing else does…
Just watched this on Hot Air via a link from Ace who nailed it yesterday-http://ace.mu.nu/archives/349332.php
“Every organism will reach an equilibrium with the habitat in which it exists. The press loves Government, and particularly big-spending progressive/socialist government, but by refusing to apply the slightest amount of Heat to the bureaucratic organism, they are encouraging it to follow its most self-serving, citizen-harming impulses…Government is not the Washington press corps’ beat; Government is the Washington press corps’ Cause.”
Well, who is surprised that Obama is “not going to stand for any misconduct.”? What? No hands? Come on! He’s only said it about F/F, Black Panthers, Benghazi, the IRS and now the VA…no resolution to anything, no justice.
Clearly, we know that things over the years have gotten worse for veterans, especially in the wake of war and the need for care.
As always, no system is perfect, but I cannot rectify that Shinseki is not gone!! Another example of an epic fail and then waiting two weeks before Obama addresses it at all? Fuck me and fuck me, again.
I absolutely cannot stand that I know this was “hidden” to protect the POS law that was passed.
Political gains was the name of the game. Every.Time.
God Forbid, the people get to see what single payer is really like because England and Canadian examples weren’t enough!! Willful blindness over and over and over.
#FireShinseki
#FireObama
Because hashtags work!
For those who say Ric “Black Beret” Shinseki shouldn’t resign because “the VA’s a huge organization, he can’t know about every little thing going on in every facility, etc, etc, ad nauseum blah blah blah” I would respond with: the head of an organization sets the tone for the conduct of that organization. And also, (from my long ago days as an NCO) you can delegate authority but you can’t delegate responsibilty. Shinseki needs to go. Along with most of the senior staff
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. The political appointees are virtually powerless to effect real change in a bureaucracy. And, please, don’t tell me that they set the tone or that their competence and expectations trickle down. Want reform? You can’t have it. Here, here’s the 2011 Master Agreement between the Dept of Veteran Affairs and the American Federation of Government Employees. It’s only 328 pages long. There’s your reform.
http://www.va.gov/LMR/docs/Agreements/AFGE/Master_Agreement_between_DVA_and_AFGE-fin_March_2011.pdf
But, he said he could do the job when we hired him.
Apparently, he lied at his nomination hearing.
This action is “a sign that members on both sides of the aisle understand the urgent need to restore trust in the scandal-plagued VA.” Um. where has Congress been the past several years? How about they, like Bonehead and the naming of a Benghazi special commiittee, just want to run and get in front of the army of public opinion on this for re-election brochures? Assholes. Every. Last. One. Of. Them.
In a related issue, I was up to the VA hospital for to see my primary care physician recently. While talking to one of the nurses, she let it slip that the “bosses” are leaning on all the primary care teams to cut down/regulate the amount of time a doctor can spend with a patient during an appointment.
Her take was that bonuses for certain folks are linked to the total amount of savings, and that cutting down appointment times lets them put more patients into the system while hiring fewer doctors and staffs.
I asked her if this was just at my local facility and she said she understood it as being system-wide.
Now, this was just a conversation between her and me while having some coffee, but she claimed to have seen the memo and if it’s true, it needs to stop.
With all the damned money this Clown Car Posse Administration dumps on welfare and failing green energy projects, they ought to have enough to hire sufficient doctors to allow patients the time they need with them to adequately address their medical needs and concerns. Lord knows that in my facility there are any number of empty rooms available for doctor offices, etc. It’s not like the facility resource(s) aren’t there.
Anyway, that’s my 2-cent’s worth.
And Obamacare is implementing a similar management system with similar practices for everybody’s healthcare! Isn’t that just peachy?
Here’s why the Secretary of the DVA can’t effect real change: Mostly, they begin with being unqualified for the job and, then, most are gone before they learn what it is they need to know to accomplish anything good–even if they truly want to.
Derwinski: Ed became Secretary during March 1989 and exited Sept 1992. His talent? Professional bullshitter. He was in Congress for 25 years.
Principi: Tony here was Acting Secretary. He took office in Sept 1992 and was out in Jan 1993. His talent? Lobbyist. He also had a few legal problems related to VA contracts after his brief tenure. His company “overcharged the agency [DVA] some $6 million under a long-term contract to conduct physical evaluations on veterans applying for disability benefits.”
Brown: Jesse Was a Marine, VN Veteran, a corporal. He lasted 3.5 years before resigning to establish his own consulting firm.
Gober: Another acting capacity guy. Hershel headed up the agency for six months.
West: Togo was an acting guy Jan – May 1998) who actually got the job (May 1998-July 2000.) He lasted 2.5 years.
Gober: Yep, he came back to serve as acting secretary again. This time he made it nearly six months.
Principi: Yep, Tony came back, too. Lasted four years. See earlier entry for his little problem.
Nicholson: Jim lasted over two years. The fact that he was chairman of the RNC immediately before his appointment had nothing whatsoever to do with it, I’m sure.
Mansfield: A careerist and Veteran (VN), Mansfield was in acting capacity for about eight weeks.
Peake: Jim was a career military man and former US Army Surgeon General. He lasted two years.
Shinseki. You know the story.
I was at the shop getting my car analyzed for how much some needed repairs will cost me.
I watched CNN discussing this very issue while I waited. Larry Sabato (U of Va) said essentially that bodaprez is reluctant (meaning afraid) to fire anyone, which is why shitsucker still has his job.
Since there are combat vets with recent combat-related injuries needing treatment and being forced to wait by Somebody’s idiot directive, whoever Somebody is needs to have his or their ass(es) kicked out.
If this were to happen at a civilian hospital, that facility would be out of business in a heartbeat. I’ve seen that happen to a hospital that refused to treat a teenager who got shot in an alley outside the hospital’s ‘area’ meaning property line and was not brought in by an ambulance, when the ER crew could have gone and picked him up on a gurney.
Welcome to what Obamacare will do for you, those of you who have it. If it happens to the VA and to vets, who earned their keep from the day they signed up, it will happen to you idiots who voted for that asshole in the Oval Office.
SINCE David Scott is my Congress *critter*, I’d be remiss to NOT point out he’s up for re-election and this be the only time those of us to the western part of his CD may have heard anything thats slightly intelligent roll past his lips.
Rest of the time? He, he, he be hanging wiff his homies, in dat der Demoncratic Congressional Caucus (Communists). Yea man, dat be him talking about how whitey be like all ray ciss n chit like dat.
Fo’ relz, brau 😎