There's just nothing funny about the incredible clusterfuck unfolding at the Phoenix Veterans Administration Hospital (autoplay video at link), where as many as 40 vets may have died while waiting to get care, and it also appears that administrators tried to cover up the mess by shredding files and faking records to hide the delays in providing services. You've got some people calling for the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki; the House Committee on Veterans Affairs has subpoenaed communications related to the mess, and Shinseki has ordered an audit of every VA health facility to find out if Phoenix is an outlier or the tip of a very bad iceberg. So instead of trying to find funny, maybe we'll just settle for pissed off?
I think the VA is actually doing some amazing work in that area as well as prosthetics and pain management, especially at Walter Reed. But the level of general care remains on a par with Bulgaria.
I don't think the Secretary should resign; I think he should fire some motherfuckers, then haul them to Washington to answer long and detailed questions, on their dime.
Yet more opportunities for the neuron-deficient to bellow "See, Obama's VA is a mess, which means ObamaCare will KILL YOU because it's the same thing!!!!"
The VA system been a disaster for a long time, and short of bulldozing the place and starting fresh every solution has been a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. It would be helpful if <em>someone</em> hadn&#039;t decided to get involved in situations that created a whole lot more wounded vets who need care, but I digress.
It&#039;s always worked before. If anything, they&#039;ve rallied a highly-enthusiastic base behind the promise not only to do nothing, but to make everything worse.
The Obama administration could be vulnerable on this (as opposed to all that silly shit the GOP keeps whingeing about), since it has utterly failed to do any better than any of the previous 6 or 8 past administrations.
The most I can say in Obama&#039;s favor is that he has not actively sought to exponentially increase the number of people who need a VA hospital, which is nice.
Seriously, why isn&#039;t the VA an international model for top-quality care and research? We have the money, we need to do the research.
Private hospitals and universities get bazillions of federal dollars per year in research grants, and then turn around and patent the products they create or discover with tax dollars. Why are we leaving all of that to the private sector?
<i>We have no doubt that Fox is hard at work converting &ldquo;died while on a waiting list&rdquo; to &ldquo;murdered by Obama.&quot;</i>
I think the VA is actually doing some amazing work in that area as well as prosthetics and pain management, especially at Walter Reed. But the level of general care remains on a par with Bulgaria.
I don&#039;t think the Secretary should resign; I think he should fire some motherfuckers, then haul them to Washington to answer long and detailed questions, on their dime.
Yet more opportunities for the neuron-deficient to bellow &quot;See, Obama&#039;s VA is a mess, which means ObamaCare will KILL YOU because it&#039;s the same thing!!!!&quot;
The VA system been a disaster for a long time, and short of bulldozing the place and starting fresh every solution has been a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. It would be helpful if <em>someone</em> hadn&#039;t decided to get involved in situations that created a whole lot more wounded vets who need care, but I digress.
It&#039;s always worked before. If anything, they&#039;ve rallied a highly-enthusiastic base behind the promise not only to do nothing, but to make everything worse.
A Congressional investigation for something other than scoring political points? Unpossible!
So if West is out, why do we give a shit about him?
And I&#039;m sure she will be shown the same respect as triple amputee veteran Max Cleland was.
The Obama administration could be vulnerable on this (as opposed to all that silly shit the GOP keeps whingeing about), since it has utterly failed to do any better than any of the previous 6 or 8 past administrations.
The most I can say in Obama&#039;s favor is that he has not actively sought to exponentially increase the number of people who need a VA hospital, which is nice.
Seriously, why isn&#039;t the VA an international model for top-quality care and research? We have the money, we need to do the research.
Private hospitals and universities get bazillions of federal dollars per year in research grants, and then turn around and patent the products they create or discover with tax dollars. Why are we leaving all of that to the private sector?
Oh, right.
<i>We have no doubt that Fox is hard at work converting &ldquo;died while on a waiting list&rdquo; to &ldquo;murdered by Obama.&quot;</i>
FIFY
I know, but this would be an executive inquest, which are very slightly more productive. Emphasis on the very.