Our Vets are Dying

Pop and Manny,

Another fine example of government run health care.

Another issue in the government. There always does seem to be investigations...and they never conclude. It is about focusing on unimportant matters and getting the public swayed in another direction. And time has a way of making people forget and focus on the current issue de jour. I will be at the Inn tonight..perhaps for some rum and diet coke.

This is an outrage worse than any of the previous scandals that are supposedly being investigated. This lady needs to be prosecuted and sent to prison for the rest of her life.

As long as the government continues to reward failure by its employees, things such as this will continue to happen. I seriously doubt this lady will ever pay the price for what she has done. I see her getting retirement with full pension and benefits just as many others before her have received.

Even in our schools and some sporting activities children continue to be rewarded for failure. They receive trophies just for showing up to the event. We are teaching them that failure is acceptable and to be expected.

Because of the large number of deaths involved with this scandal, they will have a problem brushing it off and just pretending to take action. This lady and everyone who worked with her that was aware of this secret list belongs in prison. I really doubt this practice was exclusive to the Phoenix VA and possibly exists in other VA hospitals and treatment centers.

The poor treatment of our veterans is inexcusable. Thank you for raising awareness about this topic. Well done as always.

I know diet coke is bad and haven't had it for over 10 years..does that tell you something LOL

POP: This is shameful! Don't hold your breath waiting for Sharon Helman to be prosecuted. Maybe she will be promoted again. This administration must give bonuses for unique ways to fool the people. I wonder if she will ever be held accountable! I'm off to the bar. Save me a seat...

I would never defend this womans actions, but:

Back in my days with the corporate world we were often given assignments that were impossible with the current staffing levels and equipment on hand.

When asking for additional personell, we were of course denied.

When asking permission to work overtime, we were denied.

When asking for additional equipment, we were denied.

Bottom line is it was always about the reported numbers rather than the task at hand. The only difference between this and government operations is we had to take the blame for failure, not get promoted for failure.

My point is that there are people above this lady who were pushing for better numbers and could care less how she got them. For this to be going on without the knowlege of a higher-up would indicate those in charge were not doing their jobs all that well either.

When we questioned government's ability to smoothly run our health care under Obamacare, the left smugly pointed to the VA as a model of efficiency. I already knew better than that because I took my father-in-law to the Phoenix VA many times before he passed away just to pick up his prescription, which was an ordeal that took anywhere from an hour to three hours.

My son, a 24 year veteran with the Army Rangers has been involved in a battle with the VA for over 4 years now. This is in regards to just some of the many injuries he received during combat tours in many far off godforsaken places.

It seems that there are no records of treatment received by medical personelle on the battlefield. So the VA says they have no proof that these injuries occured during his time on active duty. They did have proof from an Army hospital regarding a bullet wound through his leg, but that is one of the few injuries that is not causing him any problems. Shame on those battlefield medics for not stopping to write a report while they are treating the wounded on a battlefield.

Jumping out of airplanes with full packs and battlegear takes a physical toll on every one of our Vets who chose this career.

One VA employee actually told him that he knew it was dangerous when he signed up, so why should they be held responsible for the treatment of his injuries.

These men and women are heros that deserve much better. It is because of them we are still speaking English as our native language and enjoying the freedoms we have left.

Shame on our government and the VA.

Washington gives lip service to the military, and then forgets about them. Whenever the people demand cuts is spending, the military is almost always the first target, and it almost always involves benefit cuts. When did we ever see a cut in vote buying welfare?

We haven't seen a cut in entitlements. Most people don't realize the cost for those "Obama Phones" they used to buy votes shows up on their own bill every month. More "free lunch" stuff that someone else has to pay for.

A very good friend of mine, a former helicopter pilot in Vietnam, received a terminal diagnosis from the VA. They told him he was suffering severe circulation problems as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange. They gave him six months. His brother talked him into going to a specialty hospital in Arizona and they ran exhaustive tests on him. What was found was that he had some vitamin and mineral deficiencies and needed some physical therapy. It's three years later and he's still alive. His last words to the VA doctor after confronting them with the new findings were pretty under-stated (I thought). He said you practipce p---poor medicine and have a sh--ty bedside manner.

From my own VA experience--which has been ok but not great--the greatest frustration is not being able to see a real doctor. PA's and Nurse Practitioners do most of the work. I predict the same for all medicine now that ObamaCare is the ruling body. Only the rich will see a doctor outside the Emergency Room unless the situation is very serious.

"From my own VA experience--which has been ok but not great--the greatest frustration is not being able to see a real doctor. PA's and Nurse Practitioners do most of the work. I predict the same for all medicine now that ObamaCare is the ruling body. Only the rich will see a doctor outside the Emergency Room unless the situation is very serious."

And you are correct. That's exactly what Obama said would be employed to cut costs...PA's and Nurse Practitioners, so look for decreasing life spans, which of course, will also 'cut costs'.

Aside freom the jerk in the white house and the jerks in congress, all departments are guilty of shoddy work practices. From the IRS, to DHS, to the VA, these folks believe they are owed a living no matter how bad their proformanace. The Inspector General has to make an awful lot of inspections of federal departments and agencies to deterrmine if people are working and doing the job they are supposed to do. Our tax dollars go to these a--holes for doing a horrible job and partying with our money. Manny, put a plague on them.

"And you are correct. That's exactly what Obama said would be employed {in Health Care} to cut costs...PA's and Nurse Practitioners, so look for decreasing life spans, which of course, will also 'cut costs'."

Is that an example of unanticipated consequences? Shortened life expectancy and less opportunity to vote and contribute to the taxbase? Who will pay the lawmakers when they make laws with these sort of unanticipated consequences?

The VA medical system is the very reason I avoid seeking any treatment there. I'd have to be dying! Whoops! There ya go...

The government investigating itself is ridiculous.

The Frog Prince

Anyone who thinks the top administrators were not aware that something was amiss are fooling themselves. The top administrators may not have known the details of the "secret list," but they knew something had changed with the improved numbers at this facility.

They had not added staff or resources, yet when this lady took over the results were outstanding. There also had to be a large number of employees involved in playing this numbers game. They are equally guilty in my opinion.

Every one who had knowledge of this fake scheduling scheme should be held accountable and lose their jobs. Some of them need to go to jail for the crime they have committed.

But as history shows us, rather than be punished they will be promoted, transferred, or allowed to reitre with full benefits and pension. It will be interesting to see what comes of the investigation and just how high up this attrocity goes.

Poppy - The top officials may not have known the details of what was going on, but they liked the reported numbers and didn't ask any questions.

That makes them equally guilty. I wonder where this will go in the stack of scandals currently being investigated. Even the liberals can't ignore this one and call it a phoney scandal.

The tip of the iceberg is the truth BP! And now we have a couple investigations going on which will take forever to bring anyone to justice if at all and do you know how many millions of dollars these investigations and prosecutions will cost?

What the government needs to do is offer total amnesty for 30 days to anyone who reports any fraud or wrongdoing and answers all questions about it no matter where it leads. After the thirty days anyone who hasn't copped is subject to all the consequences.

Actually this is what the government should be doing in every branch, agency and program. It would literally save billions of dollars spent on investigations and prosecutions, is the only way to stem the fraud,

but you know what?

The lawyers are in charge of our government and there is no way they will let the government do anything that will keep them from pocketing billions of OUR tax dollars spent on investigating and prosecuting (and defending) perpetrators, investigations and prosecutions which in many cases cost more than the damage caused by immoral and corrupt government employees.

We are getting a lesson in how to abuse taxpayer dollars.. Gain power, do criminal things, demand expensive investigations, hire criminals to do the investigation and commit more crimes. When it looks like you'll be held accountable, rewrite the law, pardon, or refuse to proesecute. Keep all on the payroll as watchdogs. The pardons are coming.

BP, immunity is money. Imagine the book title, "How I Defrauded the Government and They Let Me Walk". Best seller for sure.

I've been watching the coverage on this and it's horrible. The agency along with the employees should be ashamed of themselves. These patients fought for us and should not be treated this way.

There are things that render me totally speechless......sad, angry, outraged and nearly to the brink.....THIS is a BIG one in particular.

If I say anything more....I'll be banned forever!......Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!

Do you suppose the fact they unable to "fire" any employee regardless of how poorly they perform could be part of the problem? No private business could survive for very long and excell at what they do with these rules.

The Government is totally incompetent to run anything. If they couldn't raise your taxes or print money there would be no America, all government enterprises (if they can actually be considered enterprises) would cease to operate and at some point the case will be they can't print anymore money or raise taxes anymore and that will be the end.

The only thing anyone gives the government credit for operating successfully is the military but truth be told that is in spite of run away waste and fraud and at the enormous cost of unnecessary loss of life. They are totally incompetent at winning a war, protecting our own diplomats and patriot soldiers under fire.

Sure the main problem now is with this administration being an incompetent commander in chief (and I say administration because it is obvious Obama's political advisers are calling the shots when commanding the military) but where is the spine of these generals? Are they so worried about their careers they won't stand up to a corrupt president for the sake of the lives of their men? Why would anyone in command stand down from sending help to the men in Benghazi? Anyone in command who wouldn't ignore that order when he knew he could make a difference is a coward, I don't care what his rank. The military has all been politicized as is obvious in General Petraeus' case as I believe he was blackmailed by the administration (knowing about his affair) to do their dirty work - that case has still not been closed. Obama has been retiring and moving out old guard Generals and replacing them with "politically correct" robots he can better control ever since he took office.

The problem with incompetent government has not been a partisan problem but has been exasperated and frankly brought to historical heights in these last 5 1/2 years of the Obama administration, the culmination of historical ineptitude in government as evidenced from the economic collapse in 2007 caused by incompetent government policies to never ending scandal after scandal under this administration. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg.