Does this administration have no shame? How can the GOP support this lip sevice out the front door while hurting disabled vets out the back? Maybe we can get some of those rich young Republicans to donate some organs.
The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco, seeks broad changes in the agency as it struggles to meet growing demands from veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Suing on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, it charges that the VA has failed warriors on numerous fronts. It contends the VA failed to provide prompt disability benefits, failed to add staff to reduce wait times for medical care and failed to boost services for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The lawsuit also accuses the VA of deliberately cheating some veterans by allegedly working with the Pentagon to misclassify PTSD claims as pre-existing personality disorders to avoid paying benefits. The VA and Pentagon have generally denied such charges.
I HATE what lawyers do to medicine. But if the government can’t even help those wounded in its service, what’s vet to do?
As often as I castigate bureaucrats – and you’re right, it surely is easier than ever with the current crop of cronies – there is a significant difference between what most of the world perceives as the breed and the uniquely American flavor.
In most nations, as stiff, stultifying, backwards and bone-thoughtless as a bureaucrat may be, at least they are working for the government – and by extension, the people.
In the United States, bureaucrats are only working their way through phase one of their double-dipping life. They expect the appropriate grease from lobbyists at upper echelons. They count on their second phase of life’s employment to directly derive from insurance companies, medical groups, military-industrial pimps, the whole panoply of sleaze that defines American corporate governance.
0–Do you hate what lawyers do to medicine or the fact that no medicine gets delivered without them?
I wonder if the Chickehawk Republicans would agree to have their taxes raised to provide excellent care to injured vets, or if they would only agree to debt-financing and let our grandchildren pay for it thru inflation, or if they would come out with a new program of “Total Solution Care” that actually would reduce the current funding?
Does this administration have no shame? Is that a serious question?! We’re far beyond that.
Yer doin a heckova job Jimmy!
“I HATE what lawyers do to medicine. But if the government can’t even help those wounded in its service, what’s vet to do?”
Well, they sue.
Yeah, the Young Repukes could DONATE THEIR BRAINS, SINCE THEY DON’T SEEM TO BE USING THEM !!!
#8
And their livers have already been wasted.
I know three Vietnam vets who show no outward signs of their claimed disabilities but collect disability payments. On paper anything can be shown– look at all the phony marriages. I know so many people who have scamed the government into getting welfare, disability, and whatever payments that are out there. Seriously, the only way to make ends meet is to be dishonest. The system is created that way.
I HATE what lawyers do to medicine.
As often as I castigate bureaucrats – and you’re right, it surely is easier than ever with the current crop of cronies
Like the ubiquitous bureaucrat, lawyers are an easy target for the frustrated. So what do lawyers do to medicine that you hate so much?
The bureaucrat only carries out policy as stipulated by those in charge. The “political appointees”. They don’t make the laws. They don’t make the regulations. They don’t make policy. They don’t choose their bosses.
Why not aim your wrath at those who most deserve it, the political appointees. Or even higher, the people who appoint them to their positions.
Shouldn’t there be a website dedicated to pictures of Dubya giving his poltroons that look?
Aren’t there enough of these pictures for that yet?
Simple answer is not to go to war in the first place
I’m a vet (Vietnam), and while I know there are many serious problems with the wounded returnees, all I know is what I’ve experienced at my particular point of service, the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston, SC. I’m a healthy cuss, and what with bouncing around from job to job, some with health insurance, most not, but not really in need, I didn’t enroll in the VA’s program until 2003.
As soon as they pushed the button in the computer that made it official they subjected me to a thorough physical, for no other reason than I’d served in-country Vietnam, and with every passing year more diseases are attributed to the Agent Orange fiasco. After that, they checked me at least once a year, and even raise hell with me if I don’t get down there every once in a while.
I have a team doctor, a very knowledgeable, caring and precise individual, who has treated me with the utmost respect on every occasion I’ve had to see him. The good doctor gently berated me on one occasion, after over a year between appointments, and by way of explanation I asked him how they were coping with the influx of returning veterans in dire need of the VA’s services. His answer was that they saw the less needy a bit less, freeing time for the more serious cases, although he made the point that he could see me a little bit more without stressing the system unduly.
The facility is clean, ultra modern, and if they do have rats they don’t let them come out and play with the Vets.
Way to support the troops, Mr. President…
I agree, for the most part, with Omar. One major exception: By legislative action in 2003, I am now unable to even apply to enroll for the same benefits I earned in the same little Diversion in SEA.
It’s de je-vietnam all over again…
Bless us all. They ought to let Vets from the previous wars run the program. We take care of our own.
>>The facility is clean, ultra modern, and if they do have
>>rats they don’t let them come out and play with the Vets.
Yeah, the VA hospital in San Diego was clean and ultra modern too. But I haven’t been there since Dumbya took over medical care for veterans. It’s probably a shit hole now, just like the former clean, modern, and rat-free Walter Reed.
Amazing what that guy is doing to “support our troops”.
14 – OmarTheAlien – Good comments – thanks for your open-minded, unbiased and relevant observation.
17 – Mister Mustard – Your remarks, on the other hand, say quite a lot about you and absolutely nothing of relevence about the VA system as it actually exists where you are, as, by your own admission, you haven’t been there lately. So it’s, “My mind’s made up – don’t confuse me with the facts.” Chaff.
>>Your remarks, on the other hand, say quite a lot about you
>>and absolutely nothing of relevence about the VA system
>>as it actually exists where you are, as, by your own admission
I haven’t been there recently, but I have friends who have, and I can read. And it ain’t getting any better under Dumbya, I can tell you that, Dawg.
#11 – Why not aim your wrath at those who most deserve it, the political appointees. Or even higher, the people who appoint them to their positions.
I totally agree.
That’s why I aim my scorn at the voters.
I was never more ashamed or angry with this country than the first time I went to the crap hole, piss smelling VA hospital to visit my father. Rude staff, unclean conditions, and apparently part time volunteer doctors. It was a disgrace. After seeing how vets were cared for I knew I would never even consider serving in the military since it seems they just throw you away when you can’t shoot or take a bullet for them anymore.
19 – Mister Mustard – It’s STILL hearsay, and as such, inadmissible, and therefore, still chaff.
It’s your opinion, though, and however you got there, you’re entitled to it. Normally I enjoy your remarks (not that that matters). I guess I’m just being cranky today.
>>It’s STILL hearsay, and as such, inadmissible.
Well, Counselor Dawg, on those grounds 99.999% of everything you see on the internet, hear from friends, or read in the newspaper are inadmissible. I think we’re going to have to declare a mistrial. Clear the courtroom, Bailiff.
republican motto: support the troops until they come home
#24 – Unspoken Republican motto: Enact policies to make sure they all die overseas