A Year At the VA
Antoine is at the Table
Good Morning, Breakfastpoppers. Today is Thursday, June 25, 2015. Our industrious French friend, Antoine, is at the breakfast table this morning. Antoine is very concerned about the lack of progress at the VA. One year has passed since we learned about the deplorable waiting times our veterans faced at the VA when seeking treatment. One year is a long time when you are sick and in need of medical care. One year is hideously long when you are suffering and nothing is being done to make things better. Please join Antoine at the table this morning to discuss the situation at the VA. Antoine has baked dozens of croissants for your enjoyment. I will be supplying the lattes. We hope to see you soon.
All Talk
Thank you all for joining me this morning. I distinctly remember hearing about the ugly conditions at the VA hospitals across the country. Veterans seeking medical attention had to endure long waiting times. Some died waiting. Here we are one year later and conditions have changed. The problem is that the change is for the worse. The number of veterans seeking medical attention and ending up on a wait list has gone up by 50 percent! The Department of Veterans Affairs has failed miserably. To add insult to injury they are whining about a budget shortfall The VA does not spend all of its allowed funds each year. It's not money they need, but leadership that knows how to problem solve. There is no excuse for this failure. Heads should roll, but they haven't and they won't. This is the government's way of doing business. The VA has a culture of waste, indifference and ineptitude. In the meantime our veterans are suffering and dying.
Fake Posturing
When the news about this scandal broke, President Obama was outraged. He declared the situation intolerable and he vowed to do something about it. Nice words, but in the end the words meant nothing. In response to their abysmal record, the VA is blaming a huge increase in patient loads. They say they never anticipated such an increase. How can an agency with the collective intelligence and morals of a flea anticipate anything? The VA is now considering hiring freezes and furloughs to deal with their budget shortfall of nearly $3 billion. The proposed solution seems designed to ramp up the problem. The VA is also considering rationing care. They are toying with the idea of withholding certain treatments for patients who have terminal illnesses.
No Consequences
The abominable behavior at the VA has gone unpunished. The same people are still there doing the same miserable job as before. The VA is a tax funded entity that must be answerable to the American people. For far too long they have circumvented attempts to get important information released about waiting times and the consequences of these overly long waiting periods. Veterans in our nation deserve better treatment. The government has failed them miserably and they are failing them now. The House Committee on Veterans Affairs asks questions, but never gets any answers. Either the committee is pathetically bad at what they do or the VA is completely indifferent to requests for information. The sad truth is that not cooperating with Congress is the norm these days. I am still waiting for even one committee to get to the bottom of anything. It seems that they meet, they talk, they shake their hands and their heads and they adjourn. There are no consequences for any of this. Life just goes on. How can any of this be acceptable? Let's put the blame for the mess at the VA where it belongs. The leadership at the VA is inept. The employees don't seem to care, Congress is asleep, and the president is on the golf course.
Antoine's Song
Let's go children of the homeland
The day of reckoning has arrived
Against you tyranny's ugly flag is raised
