Obama “madder than hell” that he’s done nothing about the VA since being told of the problems in 2008

Loading

POWaitlist

By now you have to roll your eyes when you hear it. A scandal pops up and you know exactly what is going to happen:

Obama claims he learned about a scandal on TV or in the newspapers just this morning.
Obama will declare how “angry” he is.
Obama promises to ‘get to the bottom” of it.
Obama promises to hold accountable those who are responsible.

And then what happens?

Obama blocks all requests for documents.
Absolutely nothing happens.
Obama declares it a meaningless “bonehead” act and it’s not serious.

IRS:

“So we’ll wait and see what exactly all the details and the facts are,” Obama said at a news conference. “But I’ve got no patience with it. I will not tolerate it. And we’ll make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this.”

So what has Obama done?

Nothing, save for block all requests for documents.

Who’s been held accountable? No one.

Benghazi:

Obama’s reaction to the terrorist bombing in Boston? No, those were Obama’s words at a political fundraiser in Las Vegas Sept. 12, 2012, the day after the murder of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi, and less than 24 hours after he claims to have given the order to “secure our people” in Benghazi.

The next day, as he was massaging his radical base at the University of Colorado, and by which time he still had not checked with his Secretary of State or his Secretary of Defense to see what progress they’d made in rescuing our people in Benghazi, he said, “I want people around the world to hear me: To all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished.”

Who’s been held accountable? No one.

Fast and Furious:

President Barack Obama vowed Tuesday that federal officials who made bad decisions in designing or carrying out the controversial gun-running probe known as Operation Fast and Furious will be “held accountable.”

“People who have screwed up will be held accountable,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News.

Who’s been held accountable? No one.

Now we have the VA Scandal and Obama lets us know that, predictably, he’s “madder than hell.” In what is certainly a prelude to a government run single payer medical system, at least 40 veterans have died via supervised neglect.

(CNN) — At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.

The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.

For six months, CNN has been reporting on extended delays in health care appointments suffered by veterans across the country and who died while waiting for appointments and care. But the new revelations about the Phoenix VA are perhaps the most disturbing and striking to come to light thus far.

Internal e-mails obtained by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew about the practice and even defended it.

There was a conspiracy to keep it quiet:

Dr. Sam Foote just retired after spending 24 years with the VA system in Phoenix. The veteran doctor told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Phoenix VA works off two lists for patient appointments:

There’s an “official” list that’s shared with officials in Washington and shows the VA has been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham list. And then there’s the real list that’s hidden from outsiders, where wait times can last more than a year.

Now it appears that perhaps as many as 100 more may have died waiting for treatment.

Others may have committed suicide waiting for treatment:

A West Virginia doctor is coming forward with new allegations against the Department of Veterans Affairs, claiming that she too was told to put patients seeking treatment off for months on end — and that at least two of them committed suicide.

The claims add to the mounting controversy surrounding the VA, and allegations in several states that workers were concealing information about the long wait times veterans encountered. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki testified last week before Congress on the scandal, but so far has resisted calls for his resignation.

Dr. Margaret Moxness, who says she was employed at the Huntington VA Medical Center in Charleston, W.Va., from 2008 to 2010, told “Fox & Friends” on Monday that she was told to delay treatment even after she told supervisors they needed immediate care. She said at least two patients committed suicide while waiting for treatment between appointments.

But Obama didn’t learn of the problems at the VA this morning.
Or yesterday.
Or last year.

He was informed of the trouble in 2008.

The Obama administration received clear notice more than five years ago that VA medical facilities were reporting inaccurate waiting times and experiencing scheduling failures that threatened to deny veterans timely health care — problems that have turned into a growing scandal.

Veterans Affairs officials warned the Obama-Biden transition team in the weeks after the 2008 presidential election that the department shouldn’t trust the wait times that its facilities were reporting.

“This is not only a data integrity issue in which [Veterans Health Administration] reports unreliable performance data; it affects quality of care by delaying — and potentially denying — deserving veterans timely care,” the officials wrote.

The briefing materials, obtained by The Washington Times through the Freedom of Information Act, make clear that the problems existed well before Mr. Obama took office, dating back at least to the Bush administration. But the materials raise questions about what actions the department took since 2009 to remedy the problems.

This is what you can expect from an Obama government-run single payer system. Death panels.

Let’s crank up the Wayback Machine to 2012 to appreciate the value of Obama’s promises:

“The VA and DOD will work harder towards a seamless transition so new veterans aren’t just piled on to the backlog. And we will not rest — I will not be satisfied until we get this right.”

Obama says that he learned of the trouble at the VA just the other day. In the news accounts. Like he learns about every other scandal that can cause him harm. For a list of what Obama doesn’t know, go here. One of the reasons Obama knows nothing is that he doesn’t bother with his PDB’s. They tend to infringe upon the time he needs to play golf and fundraise.

Liberals, with an endless capacity to swallow Obama lies, will once again mindlessly suspend disbelief for their champion.

Anyone with a brain will not.

UPDATE

Guess who said it?

“After seven years of an Administration that has stretched our military to the breaking point, ignored deplorable conditions at some VA hospitals, and neglected the planning and preparation necessary to care for our returning heroes, America’s veterans deserve a President who will fight for them not just when it’s easy or convenient, but every hour of every day for the next four years.”

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
29 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

And in a month, he’ll be telling us; “it’s time to move on from this phony scandal”…

Getting one guy, seven months from his planned retirement, (he’d announced it back in September last year!) to ”resign,” is going to be the extent of Obama’s ”reform,” too.
Were’nt those rooms with the huge piles of paper files risking their weight limit on the structure of the buildings they were in from the VA?
They were.
But they are for disability and other benefits for new veterans!
More than a year wait in rural places, over two years in cities!
Seems Obama’s been expanding the number of gov’t employees while excusing their lack of doing work (just like him!)

President Obama is always mad…

Whenever he learns of a new scandal in the media…

It’s amazing how the most intelligent President in history can be so oblivious to everything that goes on around him.

“informed of the trouble in 2008” Dude, that was, like, 6 years ago.

@Kraken: Initially, even though notified of the problem in 2008, you could give Obama the benefit of the doubt as far as how bad it was and the dishonesty involved in covering it up. However, when they pull that same IRS scandal-crap and “fire” someone that was about to retire and gets to keep all their pension and benefits, there is no mistaking that the administration, again, values covering their own political asses far more than serving the veterans or bringing those responsible to account.

But, but … Carney said the president first learned of the problems at the VA like the rest of us did – on the nightly news. If that’s true, I guess that means he knows how to change channels from ESPN. Yet, he’s forgotten he was caught on videotape implying he was generally aware of the problems at the VA in 2007. Like everything else, he has a severe problem with the truth … he doesn’t tell it.

Anyone who has to deal with the VA knows it is a nightmare of red-tape paperwork and run-around, and that’s before you’re seen. My dad has done it. I’ve done it, for him and myself.

@Kraken: Experienced the backlog myself first hand. Anyone stating it isn’t so and that things got better is a liar. But when you go to a VA and the indoctrinated staff tells you how great Obama is and what a rat bastard Bush was, what do you expect? One of the drones didn’t even know that Obama tried raising health care costs to the military and their families.

Back when Shinseki took office the wait time for a disability claim was 120 days.
He made a promise that is laughable in light of this: he vowed that every disability claim would be processed within 125 days!
Five MORE days!
But he didn’t keep that ”promise.”
By 2012, the average wait time was about nine months.
It is really sad that one man thrown under the bus is considered payment for this egregious performance.
Shinseki’s head should roll, as should many more paper-pushers who sit and do nothing all day.
We need hard workers and their bosses need to crack a whip over them.

@Kraken: Yeh — where are our trolls? Nine comments w/o a troll! Must be waiting for the talking points from the mutha ship!

This post does have a fabulous succinct observation:

Liberals, with an endless capacity to swallow Obama lies, will once again mindlessly suspend disbelief for their champion.

Anyone with a brain will not.

@Tabby: Naw — two – three weeks max! Haven’t ya heard – LAX is gonna get drowned by the ocean!

Just like the GOP rejected Hillary’s request for more security at Embassies….

Paul Ryan & the GOP Must Own the Cuts to Veterans Benefits
http://www.redstate.com/2013/12/18/paul-ryan-the-gop-must-own-the-cuts-to-veterans-benefits/

GOP blocks veterans bill

GOP blocks veterans bill

Senate rejects far-reaching Veterans Affairs billhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/senate-rejects-far-reaching-veterans-affairs-bill/2014/02/27/1d10801c-a001-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html

With just 41 votes, Republican senators block veterans benefits bill
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/27/1280922/-With-just-41-votes-Republican-senators-block-veterans-benefits-bill#

Expanded veterans benefits bill fails over GOP’s budget-busting objections
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/27/expanded-veterans-benefits-bill-fails-over-gops-bu/

Dr.J., very well done.

This should have finally moved the MSM to at least PONDER about who is really running this Admin, while I-Know-Nothing watches NBA repeats and fund raises for a lavish retirement.

. . . . . and yet Jarrett, for now, remains in the weeds.

Not surprisingly, the uninquisitive minds of the W.H. Press Corp blankly stare into some distant space, dreaming of a moment when their Dear Leader might someday walk in and acknowledge them.

The right’s sad VA hypocrisy: Limbaugh and co.’s desperate Obamacare ploy:

“…There’s real trouble at the VA, but there’s bigger trouble for the Republican Party, which purports to love veterans but does little to help them. Thom Hartman recently ran down the list of pro-veteran measures the GOP has blocked. Earlier this year Senate Republicans filibustered a bill to boost VA funding by $21 billion and restore military pensions cut in the Murray-Ryan budget deal. They opposed President Obama’s $1 billion jobs bill to put unemployed vets to work in 2012. They’ve killed bills to help homeless veterans and promote vets’entrepreneurship…”

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/2

This one

Maybe all true. But how does adding money to an incompetent and wasteful agency improve it’s effectiveness?

The problem appears not to be funding but a sclerotic and uncaring bureaucracy. Added money would most likely include funds for bonuses for the unconcerned turf protectors.

…and lavish offices… etc.

@MAKAYA: …and lavish offices… etc.

Yup.
That’s what happened instead of heightened security for dangerous buildings.
Also add a fleet (not just one or two) of electric cars for each of several European Embassies.
And, to buck up Government Motors, the gov’t (taxpayers) spent full price for each car plus all the extra goodies!
Hillary was asked nicely more than once to increase security around dangerous buildings.
But she refused.
Locals were hired with (apparently) no background checks.
And on that (now no longer used) application was the fact that State Dept was actively looking for GAY men to fill all these positions!
Can you imagine a Muslim in Libya reading that??

@This one: I wonder why, when this administration is so quick to draw the blame card, that, if Republican funding-blockage is the major culprit here, we haven’t heard Carney or Obama come out and publicly say so?

You have to look into what each one of these bills offered to determine WHY they were opposed. No doubt, in each and every one, you will find a liberal poison pill, inserted with the specific purpose of causing the failure of the bill and fodder for future fools who will use the bill’s failure to justify some administration failure.

Why didn’t Obama just “executive order” the funds? He doesn’t have to wait on Congress; he has a pen and a phone. What he doesn’t have is a concern for sick veterans.

Nice try, but no cigar.

In Obama’s world. “hell” isn’t mad. So to be just a tiny fraction of being irate is “madder than hell.”

Faux.
Faux.
Faux.
Zippy is such a poor actor he cannot do rage.
Who does he think he is? Haim Ginnot? “I am angry. I am mad.”
The source of his anger is the bad public relations. He objects strenuously to anything which reflects badly on his leadership. Since his leadership is flawed or non-existent, all he can do is get angry. The Alinsky playbook only goes so far.
Think of Dylan

When all the bandits you turned the other cheek to
tear off their bandanas and complain
that your conclusions should be more drastic,
won’t you come see me, Queen Jane.

Item: the WSJ recently reported that there are rifts between the WH and Congress; apparently those running for re-election in November feel threatened by 0’s policies.

@This one: Who’s Commader and Chief??

Seems to me that a pResident so incompetent that he has to find out what’s going on in his own regime from the media is a scandal in and of itself.

Don’t worry when the Democrats get to the bottom of this investigation they will conclude it’s either Bush or the Koch Brothers who are to blame!! Or maybe global warming, climate change, Palin, or some other totally stupid excuse for them failing!!

@Common Sense: Wrong. It was a video.

@Nanny G: Hillary was asked nicely more than once to increase security around dangerous buildings.
But she refused.

Hillary REQUESTED funding to beef up security and the GOP shot it down.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/10/10/985191/chaffetz-absolutely-funding-embassy-security/

@This one: Well, This One, seems State Department already discounted that theory.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2012/10/15/libya_isn039t_about_funding_cuts_293141.html

I guess Media Matters didn’t tell MSNBC to tell the President to tell you.

@Bill#18 –

“Why didn’t Obama just “executive order” the funds? He doesn’t have to wait on Congress; he has a pen and a phone. What he doesn’t have is a concern for sick veterans. “

Great Point!!

Actions speak louder then words…now, isn’t THAT true…

This political structure now occupying ‘our’ White House has a total disregard for what their Role, their ‘purpose’ is when it comes to the U.S. Constitution – that is without re-interpretation-spin-and furthering a non-Constitutional liberal-progressive “agenda” (for political points and low-info votes of course) that hurts the country…

Wow! In the now very BRIGHT LIGHT of what has been occurring at the VA – run by our illustrious Government fraudsters and permanent liars… another Government Agency with no oversight, no morals, no ethics…just GREED off the backs of those brave men and women who worked and gave up so much for this Country… SHAMEFUL – DISGRACEFUL

Well, we can all see what is down the road for ALL of us with the ACA…gee, can’t wait!

Can’t say the Tea Party didn’t try to warn people about the pitfalls of having the Government bureaucrats run YOUR healthcare….radical thoughts huh?

@This one: Earlier this year Senate Republicans filibustered a bill to boost VA funding by $21 billion….

Via Hot Air:

OMB historical data on budget outlays by department are easily available at the White House website, and the spreadsheet tells a very interesting story. Since 9/11, the VA budget has increased by 235%, from FY2001′s $45 billion annual budget to FY2014′s $150.7 billion.
On a percentage basis, the only Cabinet agencies that had larger budget increases over that arc have been State (271%) and Homeland Security (245%), the latter of which barely existed at the start of that period. In the Bush era, comparing the final budget with his signature (FY08) to the final Clinton budget (FY01), VA spending rose 88.3% to $84.7 billion. Defense spending rose 104% in the same period.

Barack Obama ran in 2007-8 on failures at the VA, promising more resources and better management. In comparison to that final Bush budget — don’t forget that Obama signed the FY2009 budget in March 2009 with the omnibus spending bill after a Democrat-controlled Congress refused to deal with Bush — VA spending has risen dramatically as well. The annual budget rose 78% in six budget cycles, with double-digit increases in four of the six years — while Defense spending was flat. No other Cabinet agency had a larger budget increase by percentage during Obama’s tenure.
…..
The amount of increase in the VA’s budget in the Obama era, $65.9 billion, exceeds the entire VA budget in the FY2004 budget.

During this entire period, Eric Shinseki has been the man in charge of the VA and the recipient of this massive increase in resources. Despite all of the new resources and a supposed mandate for reform, Shinseki has utterly failed to improve the situation for America’s veterans.

As I pointed out early in this thread, BEFORE Shinseki took office the VA wait was 120 days.
He promised to keep it under 125 days, giving his Dept. employees the hint that they did not have to improve a thing.
But the wait lengthened to where it is now over 9 months….270 days!
His “leadership” led directly to this, not lack of money.