Two VA secretary picks bail on Trump
According to the Military Times, Florida businessman Luis Quinonez and Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove have removed themselves from consideration as Trump’s candidate to run the troubled Veterans’ Affairs Department.
Both men had met with the president-elect several times about overseeing the agency, which employs about 365,000 people and has an annual budget nearing $180 billion. Trump announced nominees to lead nearly every other major government department before the end of last year.
The president-elect has described the current department as broken and vowed to massively expand private care options for veterans, root out waste within veterans programs and restore public confidence in a department still reeling from the 2014 wait times scandal.
He also promised to enact many of those changes within his first 100 days in office. Transition teams have been laying the groundwork for those reforms for weeks, but it’s unclear how far that work can progress without a new VA secretary.
Fox News host Pete Hegseth and former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown remain in consideration for the post. Miltary Times also says that “Multiple groups” have endorsed keeping Bob McDonald on the job after the Obama Administration turns out the lights. The only groups that I’ve heard express that opinion are IAVA and VoteVets – two organizations that are more concerned with liberal politics than anything that could help veterans.
I’m pretty sure that the search for a secretary is so difficult is because the agency is not going to change from one that supports it’s employees at the expense of their clientele. No one who expects to be successful will want to wade into that morass.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
Whomever gets the job is going to have their hands full cleaning house and flushing the turds down the toilet.
Hell, I’d do it! If anything, just to clamp down on the massive amounts of fraud going on… and to have a special group set up to look at Stolen Valor ballsack warriors who lie about their service just to get over on the system.
Amen! I worked there for the last two years and had to get out. The combination of stolen valor among claimant AND employees and complete apathy amongst MANY employees was enough for me. My current agency is a 180 difference.
Don’t like the punks at At VV, nor IAVA. Seems like IAVA was how I found TAH. Or was it “Winter Soldier”? Fuck if I know, today is a day filled with push-ups as a coping mechanism.
Ah, the VA. 86+ years of ensuring your tour(s) in a combat zone remains the second most frightening experience in connection with military service.
Who wants to be the topper on a giant shit cake? Who wants to be the figurehead on a diseased, rat-infested ship? There is no one, no one who can fix the VA from the top. The bureaucrats are far too entrenched. Unless there is significant legislation that exempts the VA from the job protections accorded them as permanent civil “servants,” there will be little change. What’s needed is a small army of individuals who will kick ass, take names, and put a few dozen heads on pikes for the rest of the “work” force to see.
Nicely said!!!
“Heads on a pike”…
I like that.
“Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn. [And Lying Liar]) on Tuesday blocked an up-or-down vote on legislation meant to hold VA employees accountable for misconduct.”
That is reference to the “VA Accountability Act of 2015” which passed the House (with all but one Dem voting against it, I believe) and which oBaMa (who would not rest) threatened to veto. This legislation is a start if real change is to occur.
Of course he did. Can’t actually hold government employees accountable, for anything.
Give it to Mad Dog as an additional duty. He’ll clean both places out and not break sweat.
Haha nobody wants to swim in trash.
I doubt that Trump will be able to find an abortion doc good enough to un-screw the VA…
Honestly, I can not blame them either. Who wants to jump into a clusterphuk of that magnitude?
Best I can tell the American Legion and VFW lost their voice or balls or both when a restructuring plan was put forward last time.
People are screaming to get things fixed but will piss and moan like Hillary supporters with morning sickness when anything is done.
I say cut off any payments for PTSD and offer treatment only and see how many bitchy little bastards suddenly find out they are cured.
That might take some of the re-filed, appealed, filed again, appealed again, lawyer-ed up, Congressman agitation, pulp wood wasting masses that want benefits away.
Just give everyone a damn puppy and call it good.
Dave, why would you want to mistreat puppies like that?
Give them all Hillary dolls instead.
You need to go back on your electroshock therapy treatments for that statement…
“Miltary Times also says that “Multiple groups” have endorsed keeping Bob McDonald on the job after the Obama Administration turns out the lights. The only groups that I’ve heard express that opinion are IAVA and VoteVets – two organizations that are more concerned with liberal politics than anything that could help veterans.”
Well, what they actually said was they would prefer to keep him over the current options they knew about at the time. Not that he is their pick to stay.
I’m actually glad that Trump isn’t rushing out to tag someone for this and is taking his time to select someone for the VA Sec.
The Department of Veterans Affairs should be taken away from the civilian bureaucracy…It should be placed under the authority of the Department of Defense. There have already been successful tests of this. Let’s face it, as it exists now, it’s nothing more than a slush fund, that fronts as a medical agency. As a retired disabled veteran, I have attempted to utilize the CHOICE program and to order glasses…The VA screwed it up and LIED to me with a straight face….I say give it to the DOD where there will be accountability.
Problem is, those same bureaucracy challenges in the VA currently, are present in DoD as well. Especially, when you get to higher levels. The Army has “HRC” Human Resources Command, or as I prefer, High Royalty Command.
After dealing with HRC for 15 years, I have yet to have anyone even say “I’m sorry, that was my fault” let alone take blame for anything that went wrong with anything.
The DVA under the DoD would have the same lack of accountability as it currently does, just under military control. Though the civilians and their unions and lobbyists will protect them to the last. Bureaucracies protect themselves more fiercely the larger they are.
Gee, and I always thought that if you worked for the Government in the executive branch, you served at the discretion of the Pres. If this is so, let him utter his tag line…
Only those in the nose-bleed seats enjoy that status. The other 99.99% have personnel protections that the Chief Executive must honor.
I thought “Cambridge, UK’s” trollish comment was BS but then I found several online articles claiming that “20 vets groups” want to retain McDonald. For the love of all that’s holy– WHY? After his 2.5 years of service we still have: the “death list” at the Phoenix VA, patients blowing themselves away in hospital parking lots, calls to the suicide hotline still go unanswered or bump to voicemail, millions misspent on “artwork and landscaping”, zero employee accountability. One article I found says it’s because some vet groups “don’t like Trump’s candidates”. WTF?! Anybody who knows what’s going on here, please respond.