McDonald blames Congress for VA’s failures
Department of Veterans’ Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald spoke to the American Legion convention yesterday and according to the Military Times, he blamed Congress for the Department’s dysfunctional operations;
[McDonald] pushed back against the idea that VA’s problems are beyond repair, and also refuted recent suggestions from politicians about dismantling the $160 billion-plus agency.
“Some people in Washington are questioning the need for VA. Others have attempted to squeeze the needs of veterans within a ‘sequester’ budget that artificially constrains the budget,” he said.
“All of this … leads to the same place: A place where the needs of veterans are secondary to ideology, scoring political points, and shortsighted budget policies. A place where VA is set up to fail.”
No one is saying that the VA’s problems can’t be fixed. What we’re saying is that this administration won’t do what needs to be done to fix it. But, that thing that McDonald said about the needs of veterans are subjugated to politics applies more to him and the White House than Congress. For example the Vet Choice program which was designed to alleviate the crush of medical treatment for veterans on the VA system by farming it out to the private sector was defunded by this administration before it even had a chance to begin, and the White House tried to divert funds into other things.
While I don’t believe that completely privatizing the VA is a good idea, Vet Choice was a good stop-gap measure when the VA wasn’t meeting the needs of veterans, and bureaucrats were taking shortcuts that cost vets their health and their lives in some cases. By the way, none of the bureaucrats suffered for those shortcuts – and therein lies the problem. The problem that McDonald won’t address publicly or privately.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
I have heard his speech before.
His act is getting old.
He said 18 months.
The clock is ticking…..
NO..the problem with the VA is the airheaded s.o.b.’s at the top of the stack, the a.h.’s getting big bucks, don’t do shyt and get nice fat bonus’s on top of it! while the people down at our level in the local clinics that do all the work and really are concerned, work short handed, short of doctors, short of people to work the desks and phones…SCREW THAT S.O.B. MacDonald!
Another idiot.
Novel idea how bout he get his house inorder: stamping out false claims, mistreatment of patitents, etc. Before blaimimg Congress because he don’t have enough money. Show you can effectively use what you already have, FIRST!
On a lighter note if anyone will still be in the area tomorrow after the convention, they are welcomed to visit Howard L. Turner AL Post 276 right done the road in Severn, Md. (Near BWI) A few of us there are having an after convention get together.
Jennifer Lawrence says” Ok, sure…”
http://media2.giphy.com/media/Fml0fgAxVx1eM/giphy.gif
I would welcome a non-biased look into privatizing VA. It’s obvious to anybody with a high school education that VA is broken.
Hey… I did my Masters paper on how to fix the VA. Biggest issue that I saw (other than the misuse of funds and the rolling over of MILLIONS of dollars each year that is supposed to be used for health care) is the inability of SES to “clean house” of problem employees due to the way that things are handled between the government and civil service unions. Change that (Congress has to get the balls to do it) and a Secretary that is willing to run with it and it’s a huge first step…
“…inability of SES to “clean house” of problem employees due to the way that things are handled between the government and civil service unions.”
HMCS, I work for another agency and my colleagues are some of the laziest, most incompetent SOBs I’ve ever seen in my life. And they’re retired military! I scratch my head every day at the dysfunction.
But my bosses REFUSE to do anything. They’re terrified of an HR complaint.
I suspect the VA is the same. So, I would change the word “inability” to “refusal.”
For the first three years, I busted my butt to change the environment. Just gave up. My direct boss once told me that our work center was “not the military.” He seems to think making people follow policies is heavyhanded.
I cannot wait for retirement.
It is not just civil service sand crabs.
It is everywhere. It is worse if a company is unionized.
It’s the reason I retired a while back.
I currently work for a local school district… I see it across the board (teachers, administrators, maintenance, custodial and other support staff) every flippin’ day. The unions do everything in their power to keep the shitbirds employed and driving out those that want to make things better, and tell the the local community (who they have told to go to Hell when it comes to change) that “we need more $$$ to run the schools and keep employees”.
Public employee unions + government = cluster fuck
That presumes that the SES employees are both (1) competent and (2) not the worst offenders. Recent evidence casts doubt on both assumptions.
Gee, I don’t know. To me, their refusal to address issues staring them in the face confirms their incompetence.
I can’t speak to them being the worst offenders. They won’t let me see past that curtain.
This would not be that bad of a problem if the current GOVT would not have repealed the NSPS the civil servant appraisal program (POTUS G.W.BUSH) that did away with the high year tenure program that we still have now.
I remember because I was trained on the program and was going to have to do appraisal’s of the civil servant’s that worked for me.
They did not like the fact that a CPO was going to have the say if they sucked or not. Yes a majority of them were VET’s and Retired Military. I believe that this would have helped.
I remember that program quite well.
Just as higher level people were getting the bugs out and getting things working the right way, they canked it. Too bad too, because it would’ve been a much better system for showing who the dirtbags are.
It is absolutely ridiculous that there are “unions” for any gummint worker with all the other protections, rules and regulations they have in place now. Especially when uniformed service members, who often need a union rep more than a civil servant, cannot have unions.
(Oh, I’m the changing my name here Eric)
Ya, I was waiting to be able to use it to get read of some dead wait and then boom 2009 came around and that guy repealed it. Let me tell you when we were getting ready to start it up every ones performance skyrocketed.
In the agency I work for, the corruption is overwhelmingly at the middle and senior management levels. Falsification of records and metrics (on things like the VA’s faking the wait times for bigger management bonuses) is driven by the SES top brass and the echelon directly below. Further down is where you find the sexcapades, morbid incompetence, cronyism, and more mundane sleazy behavior.
He has some very valid points about the politics that have directly impacted the VA. He has also made it abundantly clear that there are issues within the VA itself that have to be fixed.
Anyone who doesn’t believe that things don’t get get done, right or wrong because congress wants to look like they are doing something…happens all the time, and how many success stories do we see? In any agency…
OT:
As a Marylander, I’m “proud” to announce that my Senator Mikulski has announced she will vote for the Iran deal, making her the 34th vote and ensuring that it will pass.
Good job, Barb!
I’ve already written her, but she won’t give a shit.
This country is so screwed up.
Babs Mikulski, forever redefining politics’ lowest common denominator
Our other Senator, Maria Cantwell, has not declared either way. She will vote for it but I think she was trying to get a better bribe from the administration for her vote. She may have waited too long and now her vote is not needed she will get nothing. Just like we get as long as she is in office. The senior senator from Washington, Patty Murray, has been voted “Dumbest Member” by senate staffers for the last decade or more. Maria has never cast a vote in opposition to MS Murray.
Guess its her semi final FU to the rest of us before she retires. Maybe, hopefully, though not going to hold my breath we can get a non-Democrat candidate during the replacement election. MD elected Hogan after all so hope is not completely lost.
It was never in doubt regarding which way that old midget would go. Never. I’d just like to know what she got out of it. Selling one’s country out doesn’t come cheap. I guess she, Reid, and the other progressive commie bastards figure they’ll all be dead by the time Iran has a bomb so what the heck.
Well, since Congress funds the government, they certainly should share at least some part of any problem which continues to exist. However, the bulk of the blame continues to lie squarely on the shoulders of the administrators who created the problem and continue to allow it to fester. In that regard it really doesn’t matter which bureaucracy is under discussion.
“…it really doesn’t matter which bureaucracy is under discussion.” I agree. Changing an institution’s culture is what is needed. Too bad oBaMa didn’t set his sights on that instead of changing America.
“The ship is a rust bucket and full of holes. It floats but is inefficient and, in its current state, is unable to fulfill its mission. Questions?”
“Yes. I have one.”
“Go ahead Penelope.”
“Why don’t we change captains?”
“Excellent. Penelope! Excellent. Cut the orders today!”
McDonald, huh?
Does he serve fries with his cheesy shit?
As a VA Volunteer, I wouldn’t say the VA was beyond hope. Our nurses are the greatest. (SCIC, CLC) Management is the problem. How to fix it? Don’t have a clue.
I do! Hang a couple of hundred, and the rest will get the message. Line them all up and have them count by tens. Hang each tenth man. If it worked in the Roman Army, it ought to work for government managers.
That is a common determination of VA’s across the country.
Medical professionals are usually superb. the problem is “getting” to the doctors through the administrators. Even at my VA, which is a fairly good one, there are some admin types who are the issue. I can tell just looking at them they have no interest in doing anything more than the absolute minimum to not get fired.
I feel fortunate that my VA isn’t one of the ones reported as shredding claims, using “secret lists”, denying, killing vets with waiting lists, etc.
Speaking of the VA, I haven’t seen much chatter here about Ben Carson’s comments on it. See here: http://m.military.com/daily-news/2015/08/28/gop-candidate-ben-carson-suggests-doing-away-with-the-va.html
Some of his ideas have merit. Privatizing the health care part of the VA is one of them that should be at least explored/studied. (possibly expand the TRICARE US Family Health Care Plans to cover the entire country then add a Veteran category or a comparable Obama care plan).
Moving it all within the DOD may be a bad idea however as its alot like asking the fox to watch the hens. As much as it has messed up the VA has been a decent check and balance vs the DoD when it comes to taking care of Vets. Especially since the DOD is and will always be more interested in their shinny new toys than taking care of people who no longer serve.
I would add that something I’ve noticed about health care on active duty vs through the VA. They have completely juxtapose philosophies on medical care.
DOD’s medical care is often the quickest band-aid to get you back into the battle. Take some motrin, rub some dirt on it, you’ll be fine.
VA medical care has to fix and/or try to help you deal with all the damage done while you were taking motrin and rubbing dirt on it.
That’s because like it or not (not to rehash a topic from last week) the primary job of the military is to break things and blow crap up and/or to support those who do. Which means triage is reversed from what you will see in the civilian world. I.e. getting as many people back in the fight as quick as possible vs fixing the worst cases first. Can’t say I have any faults with this when it comes to battle fields medicine. However it does do a good job to illustrate the differences in philosophies the two organization are supposed to have. I say supposed to have because if those in the VA stayed true to their mandate to help veterans then many of the problems may not have happened or continue to happen on a regular basis.
McDonald is supposed to be leading, so IMHO he needs to be spending less trying to pass the blame (buck) and telling everyone how it isn’t his fault and more time actually leading and cleaning house!
I do not disagree, per se.
However, curious as to your opinion on VHA vs. VBA.
I know they are two separate entities that have two separate missions, but they have a symbiotic relationship with significant overlap in achieving their respective objectives.
Unlike the DoD which has a primary mission, as pointed out above.
As I stated, no argument here. Just curious as to other viewpoints.
I ran out of gas
I had a flat tire
IT WASN’T MY FAULT