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Don't know if it was or not, nor do you
You are right but I didn't post that it has been going on for a long time either like you did.
Don't know if it was or not, nor do you
I really doubt that simply changing up the guy in charge is going to solve the problem. Failing to care for our vets has been the status quo for more than a decade. It's something congress needs to address. It needs to alter the priorities and structure of the program, and make sure it's properly funded. If it takes 10 months for someone to get an appointment, then there needs to be more doctors for them to see.
I really doubt that simply changing up the guy in charge is going to solve the problem. Failing to care for our vets has been the status quo for more than a decade. It's something congress needs to address. It needs to alter the priorities and structure of the program, and make sure it's properly funded. If it takes 10 months for someone to get an appointment, then there needs to be more doctors for them to see.
The VA belongs to the Executive Branch. Why do you people always throw everything off on Congress?
I just hope this isn't the end of this. The media and public need to keep pressure on the Administration to follow through on this.
Of course this is the end. Everything that's going to be done, has ben done. No more resignations, or firings and sure as hell no criminal investigations.
Investigations take time to build.
The problems pre-date Bush by a far margin. To try to blame this on one man or party is nothing more then childish partisanship at it's worst.
Shinseki's basically taking the fall for years of mismanagement. Crappy way to end an outstanding career.
Of course this is the end. Everything that's going to be done, has ben done. No more resignations, or firings and sure as hell no criminal investigations.
Shinseki's basically taking the fall for years of mismanagement. Crappy way to end an outstanding career.
Shinseki was a part of that mismanagement.
The last part, yes. He's been held to account, so...
Personally, I think the whole VA system is probably a bad idea. Run it like medicare - go to private doctors and pay them. It's part of why completely socialized medicine is a bad idea.
He hasn't been held to account. He resigned, no doubt with full benefits, which means he's collecting two fat taxpayer funded retirements.
Shinseki was a part of that mismanagement.
That's how it works. Nobody gets fired because Presidents end up in trouble for that. Marbury v. Madison was about that and Andrew Johnson's impeachment was about that in part as well.
He hasn't been held to account. He resigned, no doubt with full benefits, which means he's collecting two fat taxpayer funded retirements.
Andrew Johnson was impeached under a law that was appealed in 1887.
The VA apparently has had problems for a long time. Bureaucracies have lots of inertia so it's probably unrealistic to expect that any could fix it in the short term.
More generally, and I don't know how much of this applies in this specific case, we vest too much in the man at the top. We seem to think that the guy charge knows everything that goes on and is personally accountable for all the bad things that go on. We expect them to be omniscient and that just isn't how the real world of large organizations works. We need to throw someone under the bus and the guy at the top is probably as good as anyone else but if it stops there nothing changes.
I think the lesson is still there though.
On Shinseki's watch there wasn't even improvement, much less a fix. It might have even gotten worse. Those two things mean that Shinseki was part of the problem.
Not really. An appointee should be able to be fired as quick as he got hired.
I mean, let's face it: nobody would have bitched if Obama fired Shinseki.
Not really. An appointee should be able to be fired as quick as he got hired.
I mean, let's face it: nobody would have bitched if Obama fired Shinseki.
It's the same reason a CEO that fails isn't typically fired and is instead given a golden parachute. It is simple the way things are. I don't exactly see you wanting the heads of every other VA head before Shinseki on a pike.
It was a problem that has been compounded for decades. It wasn't Shinseki's SOLE fault. If you want to hold him accountable, you would first have to go back to every other VA head and do the same less you want this just to be partisan hackery.
I won't stand silently by why a person ****s over American veterans in my name.