VA Scandal Rocks Obama Administration

[SteelCurtain]

Obama didn't break the VA, its a fucked up system from the get go. The legacy AHLTA system and a lack of funding cripple it. And when the senate tried to push a bill through that expanded the VA budget, got rid of pension cuts, and expanded benefits, it was voted down by senate republicans, even after Mitch McConnell shamelessly tried to pork barrel some Iran sanctions into the bill.

So you can't contribute to the problem, do everything you can to undermine the administration, and then point to how impotent they are. It is patently ridiculous.

[Silver]

Obama didn't break the VA, its a fucked up system from the get go.

The problem was that there was too much compromise in order to ensure the satisfaction of the whining baby republicunts.

[Zen Badger]

I see the republicans almost unanimously voted against Bernie Sanders bill that would've provided improved benefits for veterans.

Where's your outrage over that?

[A Theist]

Obama didn't break the VA, its a fucked up system from the get go. The legacy AHLTA system and a lack of funding cripple it.

So you can't contribute to the problem, do everything you can to undermine the administration, and then point to how impotent they are. It is patently ridiculous.

No. Lack of funding is not the problem with the VA. It's a sorely mismanaged and corrupt bureaucracy that Barack Obama promised to fix in his 2008 presidential campaign. He's done nothing. Bernie Sander's and the democrats throwing money at a corrupt system that is so mismanaged is not the answer, and espcially when bureacratic administrators are giving themselves hefty bonuses and cooking the books on wait times to milk the system of more money. Clean up the corruption and clean up the mismanagement first before considering how much more money is needed....

Report: $8.8 million in taxpayer-funded bonuses at seven accused VA facilities since 2011...

Here’s the report itself.  The list of facilities now under investigation has ballooned to 26 and counting, so these estimates likely do little more than scratch the surface. And they only span two years.  Remember, bonuses aren’t a mere sideshow in this scandal, as several media outlets have reported that some of the VA administrators who cooked the books on wait times were motivated by avarice.  Their maneuvers were, in part, a job- and bonus-protection scheme – which is why Senate Democrats’ endorsement of inaction, as Ed put it earlier, is so galling.

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/05/23/re...ince-2011/

[SteelCurtain]

No. Lack of funding is not the problem with the VA. It's a sorely mismanaged and corrupt bureaucracy that Barack Obama promised to fix in his 2008 presidential campaign. He's done nothing. Bernie Sander's and the democrats throwing money at a corrupt system that is so mismanaged is not the answer, and espcially when bureacratic administrators are giving themselves hefty bonuses and cooking the books on wait times to milk the system of more money. Clean up the corruption and clean up the mismanagement first before considering how much more money is needed....

I agree that Obama hasn't done enough. But your bufoonery in blaming this administration for shit that has been going on for decades is just stupid. Aside from bureaucratic corruption (and name me a government entity that doesn't have corruption), the two biggest issues with the VA, according to people who are looking at the problem, are the AHLTA system not being compatible with the VA hospital patient record system, and funding being cut---making vet's pensions dwindle and future benefits disappear, not to mention cutting staff so these waiting periods get longer, and underpaying doctors and clinicians, so the care is sub-par. I know---I am currently in my 18th month of waiting for my VA benefits.

The fact is that the GOP is doing everything it can to hamstring Obama, while blaming him for being impotent. You cry SCANDAL!! at every turn, and waste government dollars on 'congressional hearings,' going on witch hunts to discredit the other party so you can hopefully win the next election. All while doing nothing to help solve the problem you are calling scandalous.

So who's worse? The guy who didn't do enough to fix it or the guys who are using this shitty situation where people have died for personal gain?

[Whateverist]

No. Lack of funding is not the problem with the VA. It's a sorely mismanaged and corrupt bureaucracy that Barack Obama promised to fix in his 2008 presidential campaign. He's done nothing. Bernie Sander's and the democrats throwing money at a corrupt system that is so mismanaged is not the answer, and espcially when bureacratic administrators are giving themselves hefty bonuses and cooking the books on wait times to milk the system of more money. Clean up the corruption and clean up the mismanagement first before considering how much more money is needed....

You make it sound as if sound management is a slam dunk solution. If it was so easy why didn't Bush (or any other president) do it? Perhaps you could enlighten us with your criteria for distinguishing between mismanaged and underfunded government programs. Can you identify a government program you think is well managed but still underfunded? Otherwise it just seems to be built into the glasses you look at the world through.

[Raeven]

In the black-and-white world of the reflexive Republican/Libertarian, all problems are this, or they are that. Their inability to see and appreciate the complexity in any issue is the basic problem. As liberals, we're able to see those shades of gray -- long-term, systemic problems, not attributable to just this Administration and/or this Congress, problems with understaffing and in some cases, underfunding... but to guys like AF, it's this, or it's that. So if he can't process his way through all these multiple, complicated causes, it must be OBAMA'S FAULT. Because what else, yeah?

[Creed of Heresy]

What about the Republican senators that shot down Bernie Sanders' legislation to provide and extend aid to veterans?

I'm just saying, he said there should be more funding and they said no, now they're trying to say that the VA's inability to provide is because of management issues? Makes sense. I'm sure that finances and the republicans constantly refusing to provide them to our veterans or the VA is totally unrelated to the VA being unable to provide financial aid to veterans. Must be those unpatriotic soldier-hating liberals.

Good thing it isn't a socialist championing the legislation to provide assistance for them, otherwise those supposedly superpatriotic republicans and their fervent, unquestionable support of the soldiers would seem like they're not really putting their words into action.

Oh...

[A Theist]

Okay....

There's a scandal involving the VA that could potentially harm the democrats in the upcoming mid-terms. So the left follows the same familiar pattern of...

1). Deny there's a problem.
2). Dismiss and make light of any scandal that could be potentially harmful to the democrats for upcoming elections.
3). Make use of the Whataboutism deflection.
4). Blame the Republicans.
5). Accuse the Republicans of creating a Conspiracy just to discredit Barack and the democrats.
6). Deflect to other issues that have nothing to do with the scandal at hand.

[Whateverist]

This may play to the republican base of ditto heads but the rest of us see this as the scandal want to be that it is. Same formula as for Benghazi. Just assert what you like in the most suggestive manner possible .. and repeat, on point, over and over and over. Boring.