This is Memorial Day weekend, a time when we pause to pay our respects to veterans who gave their all, made the ultimate sacrifice, laying down their lives in the service of our nation whether standing guard over our freedom or striving to liberate others.
We salute them with our hands and with our hearts but what of those who gave their best? The veterans who DID make it home?
Yes, we have Veterans Day but couldn’t we do better than that?
SHOULDN’T we do better than that?
This weekend, amid the parades and picnics, between the salutes and fly overs, our living veterans are suffering needlessly at the hand of those who promised them they would be taken care of and it is beneath contempt.
The VA scandal is the ultimate insult to those who have given so very much. They fought for us, they watched their friends, brothers and sisters in uniform die for us and many, too many, came back scared. Some of those scars are visible, some make people look away and some, some scars, neither you nor I can see but they ARE there and regardless the nature of the injury, those veterans deserve far, FAR better than they are getting today.
At the end of the last administration, backlogs began at veterans hospitals. Too many coming home too quickly. Too many in need from two theaters of war. They had been promised the help they would need for the scars we can see and from those we can’t but…they had our nation’s word that they WOULD be taken care of.
Obama, during the 2008 campaign was aware of the problem and he vowed, promised and campaigned on making it right.
He appointed Eric Shinseki to the post. To direct the VA and to make whatever was wrong, right again and since then, over nearly 6 years, what happened?
Rather than the problem being fixed…it got worse and rather than our veterans receiving the help they need…they became the victims of bureaucracy. Rather than living a better life, they are dying. The government under the leadership of a community organizer who only leads from behind if he leads at all, has let them die.
It makes me sick to my stomach.
The VA is as close to Obamacare as anything that has ever existed in this country and it is now in shambles. It’s a wreck and people are dying because of it. The VA…a single payer system that is controlled top to bottom by the government. Isn’t that what Obama and his ilk want…desperately want for the rest of us?
Should we expect any different outcome than our heroes?
The problem with the VA is not limited to the hospital in Phoenix. It’s being exposed across the country. The problem is systemic. It’s built into the system. It is inevitable.
Years ago, a friend, Jon Mathews discovered he was on a months long waiting list at the VA and not being one to take such things in stride, Jon pressed and threatened until he got answers. It was decades ago and what he discovered then could well be part of the problem today. Jon discovered that the executives at the VA got bonus pay based on how much money they saved every year. If a veteran came in and was told to wait a few months for treatment…it was to pad the bottom line of that year’s expenditures. The more they DIDN’T spend, the bigger their bonuses.
That’s government for you. Saving taxpayer dollars rather than treating our veterans and putting those savings into their pockets at the end of the year.
Now, whistle-blower after whistle-blower is coming forward to expose the truth. Secret waiting lists. Cooked books. Taxpayer dollars, budgeted and then rationed, divided by the number of veterans seeking treatment.
What was it again that Sebelius said of Obamacare?
Oh yes…”Some people live, some people die.”
And so it is with the VA as our veterans wait on lists that were never meant to see the light of day. They wait at home. They wait in the VA hospitals. They wait and they wait until they can wait no longer.
That’s when they die.
Some die from a direct lack of treatment from injuries we can plainly see. Some die of complication…a combination of the injury or desease and age but, with treatment, they would have lived longer, had a better quality of life while others, from injuries we can NOT see and treatment NOT rendered, make the ultimate choice. A final choice to live no more.
So far, more than 100 of our veterans, our heroes…national treasures…have died due to this systemic horror show.
Right now, there is one doctor per 1.5 inmates at Gitmo. When a terrorist at Gitmo complains of a hangnail, they are seen immediately and receive the best care anywhere. 1 doctor per 1.5 terrorist inmates.
Compare that to the situation in the VA.
Currently there are 21.2 million military veterans living in the United States and 14,000 doctors to treat them. That’s 1 doctor per 1514 potential patients and our veterans are being put on secret waiting lists and dying there to pad the numbers so this regime can claim they’ve made things better.
Under this regime, terrorists are receiving better and faster medical treatment than our own veterans.
Our vets weren’t dying on secret waiting lists in 2008. They are today, five years after Obama promised to fix the problem…five years after this regime took control of veteran’s healthcare needs.
There’s your government healthcare system. There’s Obamacare in action.
In January of 2009, when Obama moved into the oval office, the VA backlog stood at just below 100,000. Remember, Obama and his team were briefed on that backlog and in the closing months of 2008, during the campaign, Obama said he would fix the problem.
“NO MORE RED TAPE, NO MORE SHORTFALLS…NO MORE DELAYS…”
The backlog of veterans awaiting treatment has risen from less than 100,000 when Obama took office in January of 2009 to more than 3/4 of a MILLION today. “NO MORE RED TAPE, NO MORE SHORTFALLS…NO MORE DELAYS…” my ass.
The “official” number now stands at just below 600,000 veterans backlogged but we now know we can NOT believe that
number. They’ve been cooking the books. Fabricating “official” lists of veterans waiting in line that are intentionally much lower than the REAL figures so Obama and his regime can claim…‘Look…We’re fixing the problem…Aren’t we grand?’
If you still believe that 8 million Americans have signed up for Obamacare you need to get a checkup from the neck up but, if you’re a veteran, don’t hold your breath waiting for treatment.
This regime can’t care for 21 million veterans in their government controlled system and they expect us all to believe that Obamacare, their SIGNATURE health insurance system can meet the needs of 311 million Americans?
They can’t even build a damned website. Who do they think they’re kidding?
While propagandizing Obamacare on Obama’s behalf in 2009…New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, penned, “Take the hospital system run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the largest integrated health system in the United States. It is fully government run, much more ‘socialized medicine’ than is Canadian health care with its private doctors and hospitals. And the system for veterans is by all accounts one of the best-performing and most-cost-effective elements in the American medical establishment.”
Also pushing the Obama regime’s plans to socialize American healthcare to “fundamentally transform” America…the Rand Corporation stated: “If other health care providers followed the VA’s lead, it would be a major step toward improving the quality of care across the US health care system.”
At one point, Obama himself said that the “VA would lead healthcare reform.”
Clearly…Obama knew the VA was in shambles just as he knew Obamacare would end up in shambles and in those who have served our nation, he saw nothing but fodder to be exploited…used to push his personal and ideological agenda. Just as he lied to our veterans, he l
ied to us and now it is coming back to haunt him.
I can think of no better example than what Obama has allowed to take place at the VA…no more clear example than the fabricating of records to hide the truth of a 100% government run healthcare system and those dying because of it to repeal, in full, Obamacare immediately as the fate of the best of us will surely befall the rest of us.
This is Memorial Day weekend, a time when we pause to pay our respects to veterans who gave their all, the ultimate sacrifice, laying down their lives in the service of our nation whether standing guard over our freedom or striving to liberate others.
Thanks to this regime…there are now more than 100 more veterans to whom we can pay our last respects rather than thanking them for their service because…Obama has declared war against our veterans.
Craig Andresen
The National Patriot
Weekend Edition 5/25’2014
The root of the problem is not a lack of money. The problem is there is no accountability for wrongdoings. The VA is Union run and it is almost impossible to fire anyone. Even Obama is afraid to fire Shinseki. Why? This Union ( AFGE )is the largest donor to the Democratic Party. Anyone who needs to know does know that the system needs to get rid of those who have been gaming it and artificially inflating performance statistics. They also know that the whistle blowers need protection. Marco Rubio introduced a simple 3 page bill last week which would allow management to be relieved of duty when necessary. It passed with flying colors in the House with bipartisan support. Great! Quick action for a change. Not so fast! Bernie Sanders, Vermont Democrat, refused to bring it to a vote in the Senate. He did not have enough time to read the 27 lines………any excuse to get out of possibly offending his #1 union donor.
I just read the POS took off to Afghanistan for a “surprise” visit with our troops!! are you kidding me! Now we know this is all political — nothing more than “show!” He could care less, all for show. Then he’s flying back and addressing the nation, when? I can’t remember being I was furious at this stunt! But everything he does is a stunt! Does he really think this is going to make things better? Well in his sick mind, I’m sure he does!