Aa
VA
Guess Obama is too busy raising $ for the DNC.
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/378322/obama-2007-time-end-deplorable-conditions-some-va-hospitals-jim-geraghty
Then-Senator Barack Obama, November 12, 2007: “After seven years of an Administration that has stretched our military to the breaking point, ignored deplorable conditions at some VA hospitals, and neglected the planning and preparation necessary to care for our returning heroes, America’s veterans deserve a President who will fight for them not just when it’s easy or convenient, but every hour of every day for the next four years.”
By 2012, Obama continued to compare the performance of the VA during his administration favorably to his predecessor, declaring, “For the first time ever, we’ve made military families and veterans a top priority not just at DOD, not just at the VA, but across the government.”
Now we know the report of at least 40 U.S. veterans dying waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system is only the tip of the iceberg.
Today:
When Shinseki took office, he vowed that every disability claim would be processed within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy. But the backlogs only got worse.
It took about four months for VA to process a claim for disability compensation claim when Shinseki was sworn in. By 2012, the average wait time was about nine months.
In February 2013, the Examiner published a five-part series, “Making America’s Heroes Wait,” showing more than 1.1 million veterans with disability claims and appeals were trapped in bureaucratic limbo at VA.
About 70 percent of the 900,000 claims for initial benefits were considered backlogged, meaning they were older than 125 days.
The Examiner series also showed how agency statistics were manipulated to hide mistakes that doomed veterans into appeals that could drag on for years.
There were some early signs then that VA’s failures in delivering medical care were having deadly consequences.
An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease was reported in Pittsburgh in November 2012. Subsequent investigations by the inspector general and area media eventually linked a half-dozen patient deaths from the disease to faulty maintenance and poor management.
Reports of other deaths followed.
Four patients under VA’s care in Atlanta died of a drug overdose or suicides.
In Columbia, S.C., at least six patient deaths from colorectal cancers were linked to delays in receiving colonoscopies at veterans’ medical facilities.
VA eventually acknowledged that delays in providing care was linked to the deaths of 23 patients who died of gastrointestinal cancers at veterans’ health facilities. Deaths from other conditions were not disclosed.
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/378322/obama-2007-time-end-deplorable-conditions-some-va-hospitals-jim-geraghty
Then-Senator Barack Obama, November 12, 2007: “After seven years of an Administration that has stretched our military to the breaking point, ignored deplorable conditions at some VA hospitals, and neglected the planning and preparation necessary to care for our returning heroes, America’s veterans deserve a President who will fight for them not just when it’s easy or convenient, but every hour of every day for the next four years.”
By 2012, Obama continued to compare the performance of the VA during his administration favorably to his predecessor, declaring, “For the first time ever, we’ve made military families and veterans a top priority not just at DOD, not just at the VA, but across the government.”
Now we know the report of at least 40 U.S. veterans dying waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system is only the tip of the iceberg.
Today:
When Shinseki took office, he vowed that every disability claim would be processed within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy. But the backlogs only got worse.
It took about four months for VA to process a claim for disability compensation claim when Shinseki was sworn in. By 2012, the average wait time was about nine months.
In February 2013, the Examiner published a five-part series, “Making America’s Heroes Wait,” showing more than 1.1 million veterans with disability claims and appeals were trapped in bureaucratic limbo at VA.
About 70 percent of the 900,000 claims for initial benefits were considered backlogged, meaning they were older than 125 days.
The Examiner series also showed how agency statistics were manipulated to hide mistakes that doomed veterans into appeals that could drag on for years.
There were some early signs then that VA’s failures in delivering medical care were having deadly consequences.
An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease was reported in Pittsburgh in November 2012. Subsequent investigations by the inspector general and area media eventually linked a half-dozen patient deaths from the disease to faulty maintenance and poor management.
Reports of other deaths followed.
Four patients under VA’s care in Atlanta died of a drug overdose or suicides.
In Columbia, S.C., at least six patient deaths from colorectal cancers were linked to delays in receiving colonoscopies at veterans’ medical facilities.
VA eventually acknowledged that delays in providing care was linked to the deaths of 23 patients who died of gastrointestinal cancers at veterans’ health facilities. Deaths from other conditions were not disclosed.
Was your point that Obama was so critical of Bush on the subject of the VA and yet, it doesn't seem to be any better under his tenure? (which is a different topic than the right or wrong of the Iraq war).
dsrt, it wasn't two people that agreed to go to war. In hindsight, the Iraq War was a mistake but many people voted to go and were supportive at the time. I can't imagine anyone doesn't regret it. But at the time, I believe people acted on the intelligence they had--- ALL people including the ones some here absolutely loathe. And once there, it was a miserable mistake that we then couldn't just leave. That region was unstable before and more so today and it is a shame that so many have lost their lives, their loved ones or been hurt by the war (with the financial hurt being minimal compared to that). I'm sure most if not all wish they could go back in time but then I think it would still be just as out of control over there.
I think there are millions of Sunnis who might disagree with you. Saddam tortured and murdered his own people (just like some of our current allies of convenience) and should have been deposed. That took a matter of weeks - months at the most.
But in the years since 'Mission Accomplished' we've done little to use the opportunity to make the Middle East a more stable place. We've run a lot of HumVees over IEDs, brought our servicemen home with irreparable brain damage and PTSD - and for what? So Iraq can be a well-paved superhighway to funnel arms and soldiers from Iran to Syria? We've moved taxpayer money out of our pockets and into the coffers of those who happened to be the cronies of those who initiated the war.
Show me the WMDs. Show me the link between Saddam and Al-Qaida that was used as a justification to spend all those lives and all that treasure.
But in the years since 'Mission Accomplished' we've done little to use the opportunity to make the Middle East a more stable place. We've run a lot of HumVees over IEDs, brought our servicemen home with irreparable brain damage and PTSD - and for what? So Iraq can be a well-paved superhighway to funnel arms and soldiers from Iran to Syria? We've moved taxpayer money out of our pockets and into the coffers of those who happened to be the cronies of those who initiated the war.
Show me the WMDs. Show me the link between Saddam and Al-Qaida that was used as a justification to spend all those lives and all that treasure.
Seems like everyone agrees that more could be done with the VA. Agreeing is good.
I guess what you are saying Vance is that Obama criticized Bush a great deal on this subject and didn't do anything to fix it himself?
I guess what you are saying Vance is that Obama criticized Bush a great deal on this subject and didn't do anything to fix it himself?
Well, tin hats aside (I wear one like every 7 weeks in a process to hi light my hair by the way) . . .
I don't believe the Iraq war was intended to kill brave Americans so that a lot of cowardly profiteers could get rich.
That's a little over the top.
I don't believe the Iraq war was intended to kill brave Americans so that a lot of cowardly profiteers could get rich.
That's a little over the top.
I was talking about the Iraq war in my response, don't know enough about Koch to really comment.
Tell me what is right wing hate media?
The primary result of the Iraq war was giving freedom to millions of people.
Tell me what is right wing hate media?
The primary result of the Iraq war was giving freedom to millions of people.
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