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2014-05-22 Government
House Democrats break with Obama, call for Shinseki's sacking
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Posted by Fred 2014-05-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ]  Top

#1 Feigned outrage, it provides them much needed cover. Champ isn't facing an election. He can easily take the hits. Shinseki will quietly leave under his own power [health, family issues] after the dust settles a bit, or the entire event is overshadowed by yet another crisis or scandal. When was the last time 'Fast & Furious' was found newsworthy ?
Posted by Besoeker 2014-05-22 05:18||   2014-05-22 05:18|| Front Page Top

#2 Fast & furious was trampled by squirrels. It's back to being a B-movie.
Posted by Bobby 2014-05-22 07:22||   2014-05-22 07:22|| Front Page Top

#3 every article on this subject should be reporting the enormous increase in the funding for the dept of veterans affairs that has taken place since 2006

the budget that year was about $65B
the budget in 2009 was about $88 B
the budget for 2014 is about $148B
Posted by lord garth 2014-05-22 07:58||   2014-05-22 07:58|| Front Page Top

#4 lord garth, and where did all that extra money go?

Does anyone here actually believe that anyone in this regime gives two shits about a few dead old vets?
Posted by AlanC 2014-05-22 08:31||   2014-05-22 08:31|| Front Page Top

#5 Federal bonuses used to be based on surplus personnel dollars. If an command or department was authorized and budgeted for 25 personnel, but had 23 actually employed, at least some of the excess personnel dollars were used as bonuses. Not sure if this practice is still in effect or not.

Cash awards for settlement of union grievances were also funded from the personnel account. Again, not certain if this is still the practice or not.
Posted by Besoeker 2014-05-22 08:37||   2014-05-22 08:37|| Front Page Top

#6 ..where did all that extra money go?

You can ask the same question about education. It didn't really show up in the classroom.

Remember though the Fed-Tres has inflated the currency about 100 percent since 2006. So a lot of money isn't buy as much as it would have back in 2006.
Posted by Procopius2k 2014-05-22 08:47||   2014-05-22 08:47|| Front Page Top

#7 Not sure if this practice is still in effect or not.

Not at the local command level for either. Doesn't mean it's not done; if it occurs, it's at the higher level.

and where did all that extra money go?

Don't know about the rest of the country, but most of the VA facilities in CA and AZ have been enlarged and/or modified. Additionally, there has been a construction program for satellite clinics.

There's also a hella lot of money going into disability payments and prescription medications.

That said, it's also that the VA is too damn big, too bureaucratized, and too damn ancient in organization. Their medical IT structure at the macro level is a mess. Their personnel hiring and retention practices are politicized. So is the locating and administering of facilities.

Some days ago, someone mentioned comparing VA provider performance with the private sector. That's fine, provided one adjusts the patient demographic. A better comparison would be comparing with Medicaid/Medicare, Indian Health, or rural medicine, where the patient populations' average age, economic situation, and average lifestyle are comparable to the average VA patient.
Posted by Pappy 2014-05-22 09:29||   2014-05-22 09:29|| Front Page Top

#8  Not sure if this practice is still in effect or not.

Not at the local command level for either. Doesn't mean it's not done; if it occurs, it's at the higher level. Pappy

Spot on! Exactly where it took place.
Posted by Besoeker 2014-05-22 09:35||   2014-05-22 09:35|| Front Page Top

#9 where did the money go

up until 2009, about half the funding went to medical care about 45% to compensation for personnel

since then a lot more has (as noted by Pappy) has gone to capital projects; in addition there has been a big ramp up in funding for vocational ed and rehab

one of the other numbers to considered is that the population of veterans has been decreasing as the WWII and Korean vets die; the population of veterans was about 24M in 2006, by 2009 it was down to about 23M and in 20013 about 22M

Posted by lord garth 2014-05-22 10:08||   2014-05-22 10:08|| Front Page Top

#10 As Pappy and LG note, much of the money went to provide services and build infrastructure. We have more vets with medical issues due to Iraq and Afghanistan, and we have lots of older Vietnam vets who are now hitting the point where medical costs began to soar.

This is truly an NHS scenario: no matter how much you spend it isn't enough.
Posted by Steve White 2014-05-22 10:15||   2014-05-22 10:15|| Front Page Top

#11 And all those "infrastructure" projects had to be built by whom? How many of those dollars found their way back into campaign "contributions" for corrupt pols from the Kaliphornia mafia on down?
Posted by AlanC 2014-05-22 10:21||   2014-05-22 10:21|| Front Page Top

#12 And all those "infrastructure" projects had to be built by whom? How many of those dollars found their way back into ampaign "contributions" for corrupt pols from the Kaliphornia mafia on down?

Construction contracts aren't let at the local/state level.
Posted by Pappy 2014-05-22 11:34||   2014-05-22 11:34|| Front Page Top

#13 We’ve Proved That Communism Works

“Let me give you an example, the kind of money we’ve poured in,” he said. “So the most dangerous — sorry, the safest city in America is El Paso, Texas. It happens to be across the border from the most dangerous city in the Americas, which is Juarez. Right?”

“And two of the safest cities in America, two of them are on the border with Mexico,” Garcia continued. “And of course, the reason is we’ve proved that Communism works. If you give everybody a good government job, there’s no crime.”


Well Congressman Garcia, the people at the Veterans Administration have good government jobs
and look they have secret waiting lists for treatment of patients.... the delay well, that is murder
Posted by Elmains Flineger6072 2014-05-22 11:57||   2014-05-22 11:57|| Front Page Top

#14 "HARRUMPH! HARRUMPH! We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs, gentlemen!"
Posted by AlmostAnonymous5839 2014-05-22 12:02||   2014-05-22 12:02|| Front Page Top

#15 Maybe we should just roll all the Vets in O'care?

[ducks]

I wonder if Champ has thought of that yet?
Posted by Bobby 2014-05-22 12:29||   2014-05-22 12:29|| Front Page Top

#16 Pappy, I know they're not let at the local level. I was thinking of the Feinstein, Pelosi and Boxer as the mafia just as an example of who gets the cash and where it goes.

Every state that has a VA facility has senators and congresscritters that want a "say" in where the money goes.
Posted by AlanC 2014-05-22 13:07||   2014-05-22 13:07|| Front Page Top

#17 8 People Who Wanted America to Adopt the VA Health Care Model

Posted by Elmains Flineger6072 2014-05-22 14:16||   2014-05-22 14:16|| Front Page Top

#18 "And two of the safest cities in America, two of them are on the border with Mexico,

Cause that is where the cartel stash their families. You think any of the punk locals are going to do anything that just might inadvertently, let alone intentionally, hurt or harm a cartel Don's family, immediate or extended? There is no due process, there is no appeal, there are no delays, and there is, as often noted in the Burg, a long and gruesome execution. Amazing the effect (which eludes the usual Donk).
Posted by Procopius2k 2014-05-22 14:37||   2014-05-22 14:37|| Front Page Top

#19 There was a day when a military leader at the head of such a boondoggle would resign in shame, even if they were free of blame.

I haven't seen anyone resign to make a point in freaking ages. I expected with the bengahzi hold order there would be a number of them, but no.
Posted by rjschwarz 2014-05-22 14:43||   2014-05-22 14:43|| Front Page Top

#20 8 People Who Wanted America to Adopt the VA Health Care Model

A useful link, Elmains Flineger6072. Thank you.
Posted by trailing wife 2014-05-22 14:44||   2014-05-22 14:44|| Front Page Top

#21 As mid-level LE professional in Nevada told me many years ago:

"The dope goes northeast. The money goes southwest."

It's a livelihood for urban America. If those convicted of trafficking and use were forced to kneel in front of an earthen berm and have their frontal lobes blown off by a well placed 7.62x39 round, as happens in the PRC, the traffic might taper a bit.
Posted by Besoeker 2014-05-22 14:50||   2014-05-22 14:50|| Front Page Top

#22 Same thing for that Rocket purchase I was posting about. How the f*** did 4 billion turn into $90 billion? Where is the $$$ going?
Posted by 3dc 2014-05-22 15:03||   2014-05-22 15:03|| Front Page Top

#23 Sorry for the language but I have had enough. of. this. crap.

These sumbitches in DC just don't get the concept of ACCOUNTABILITY. Its not about the money, its about the accountability - someone fucked this up, and the entire chain of command looks to be involved. They need to fire every last one of the people involved in this in any hospital, admin unit, and office of the VA, from the clerk falsifying the record up to Shinseki for being so grossly incompetent and negligent that this happened on his watch.

Ideally the accountability would go all the way up to the President, be we all know that dickweed Obama is never held accountable for ANYTHING by the enabling pricks in the press, and the moronic jackasses who voted for him, nor even the dickless wonders in Congress in the GOP and Dem party.
Posted by OldSpook 2014-05-22 15:09||   2014-05-22 15:09|| Front Page Top

#24 Far, far too charitable OS. I doubt Julius and Ethel Rosenberg caused this much death and destruction.
Posted by Besoeker 2014-05-22 15:14||   2014-05-22 15:14|| Front Page Top

#25 In at least one national parliament, the communists occasionally bedeck their worthless arses appropriately in RED !
Posted by Besoeker 2014-05-22 15:38||   2014-05-22 15:38|| Front Page Top

#26 "HARRUMPH! HARRUMPH! We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs, gentlemen!"

Maybe it's a pet peeve - but every time that friggin' over-used superannuated cliché of a quote gets thrown on the Burg, the poster should be flogged with a vinegar-soaked wolverine and sentenced to Roadside America for a month.
Posted by Pappy 2014-05-22 16:58||   2014-05-22 16:58|| Front Page Top

#27 Having a bad day, Pappy?
Posted by Barbara 2014-05-22 21:55||   2014-05-22 21:55|| Front Page Top

23:57 Zenobia Floger6220
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