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Shinseki apologizes, gets summoned to White House for ominous meeting C

Renae

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I hope Shinseki won't be forced to fall on his sword.
 
MaggieD said:
His would be a token resignation since I don't believe he had one solitary thing to do with this debacle. I'd rather see him stay and kick some ass.
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While I agree that he is a token fix, Shinseki is an idiot, see the black beret incident. Get a real leader in there.
 
Do you think the Admin will choose a real leader?
 
MrVicchio said:
While I agree that he is a token fix, Shinseki is an idiot, see the black beret incident. Get a real leader in there.
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Exactly. Lack of oversight and a culture of corruption falls squarely under the responsibility of the person in charge. If they don't clean house, though, the next person should go to.

In fact, if the next person isn't given freedom to clean house then they should resign in protest.
 
nota bene said:
I hope Shinseki won't be forced to fall on his sword.
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Firing Shinseki won't fix the problem. It will only take the focus off the real debacle, which is that Congress won't pass a bill to restructure the VA to allow Vets access to private doctors and hospitals for better care than their piss poor VA Admin centers. It's some kind of bureaucratic mess that the gov't doesn't want to fix for some reason (corruption?) and yet the hypocrites act like they care so much for Vets.
 
nota bene said:
Do you think the Admin will choose a real leader?
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Of course not.

I've heard the name Mitt Romney floated around as a guy who would clean house the right way but there is zero chance Obama would ever ask for Romney's help.
 
Frankly, there is enough out their in the news to bring the FBI into this. You're talking systematic fraud to generate bonuses for administrators. Some of the hostipitals had the audacity to document the fraud in memos. We're beyond firing people for incompetence, people should be going to jail for this crap.
 
jmotivator said:
Of course not.

I've heard the name Mitt Romney floated around as a guy who would clean house the right way but there is zero chance Obama would ever ask for Romney's help.
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Now, that's an interesting idea. Where did you hear it?
 

I think there are some who don't want to admit the weakness of VA because their ultimate goal is a national health care system much like the VA model. They can't admit there is a problem because they'd be admitting that the dream is broken.
 
Two administrations in a row where this guy takes a serious blow.
 
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I know a manager of a non-medical department of the VA, located somewhere in the mid-west. According to him, the VA is about half staffed (non medical again) with some of the most incompetent and lazy people he has ever seen. This has been going on for decades and the VA has become ground zero for dumping affirmative action and diversity quota employees. It's an institutional nightmare. Replacing the head will do nothing. The system needs to be completely gutted. Veterans going to private hospitals is a good idea except it would be the same incompetent, non medical employees who still be in change of paying the hospitals.
 
MaggieD said:
His would be a token resignation since I don't believe he had one solitary thing to do with this debacle. I'd rather see him stay and kick some ass.
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I think all political resignations are token resignations since these come down from the guy who should be in charge, and the reason is to save his own ass.

The troubling part to me is that the vacated spots are filled with yet another political appointee favorable to the big guy.
 

Most of the time, I don't think he learns. Hubris, you know. From your link:

Sometimes you wonder if there would be some way to introduce some private-sector competition, somebody else that could come in and say, you know, that each soldier gets X thousand dollars attributed to them, and then they can choose whether they want to go in the government system or in a private system with the money that follows them," said Romney. "Like what happens with schools in Florida, where people have a voucher that goes with them. Who knows?"

Though Romney was equivocal about the idea, the Democrat-aligned Protect Your Care was quick to pounce on the suggestion, which could have the effect of diverting cash from the VA.

"It is well-known that Romney wants to take away seniors' Medicare and turn it into a privatized voucher system, but it is unfathomable that on Veterans Day he would even hint at privatizing their VA health care," said Protect Your Care spokesman Eddie Vale. "Although I guess that is the kind of thing they should expect from someone who in the past said his sons also served their country by campaigning for him."

Heaven forbid that Romney dared to float this idea. :roll:
 
jmotivator said:
I think there are some who don't want to admit the weakness of VA because their ultimate goal is a national health care system much like the VA model. They can't admit there is a problem because they'd be admitting that the dream is broken.
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The ACA still supports the insurance/private sector system, though many claim that's only so it will fail and be nationalized.

I do agree that the gov't has a serious problem admitting mistakes and I know why. Historically, they cover up their blunders and inefficiencies as much as possible, so that the public doesn't lose faith in their ability to lead. If we knew about all the things the gov't did wrong, we'd scrap the huge mess and start over. So, though I understand their need to minimize lack of confidence by not admitting errors, they can't correct things that need repair, and the VA definitely needs a fix.

They've become too large, arrogant, elite and corrupt. And if we don't start to pare back some of the waste and power, we'll start paying a price for it.
 
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Is the lack of oversight due to leadership or lack of manpower to do the PROPER checks on the hospitals? takes time to dig down, if the inspection teams are hard pressed to make the rounds visiting all the facilities... what sort of inspection will there be?

Funny thing about 'oversight', Sen McCain has been critical of the VA and it's management, he professes to be a huge supporter of vets. I can't help but wonder why he never knew about what was happening in Phoenix? It is the capital of Arizona- I guess none of his houses are there?

I'm 125% in agreement people should be sent to prison- but every Congressman should be dressing down their chief of staff and asking- "Why in THE hell didn't I know about this from YOU!?"

Another odd thing, I learned VERY quickly NOTHING gets the attention of the chain of command as some one stripe private writing his Congress Critter with some bitch. These are vets, they know about Congressional Inquiry- why no letter to McCain complaining about long delays in being seen? One letter might be just a bitching old troop, two and an eyebrow goes up- 12 and Papa McCain should be knocking on the door with a team of investigators...

I'd say it is in the best interest of a lot of people to scapegoat someone and QUICKLY...
 
MaggieD said:
His would be a token resignation since I don't believe he had one solitary thing to do with this debacle. I'd rather see him stay and kick some ass.
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His lack of kicking ass is the problen I have. He would have a hell of a lot more credibility if he had fired a few people by now.
 

Since when is it the job of congressional chiefs of staff to monitor this?
 
apdst said:
His lack of kicking ass is the problen I have. He would have a hell of a lot more credibility if he had fired a few people by now.
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And stopped the bonus program.
 

It's lack of leadership. Shinseki took over the VA knowing it had problems, but he never did anything to fix the problem. No mass firing of incompetent staff, no outside audits. Nothing. He went the political rout and asked for improved metrics and the VA gave him improved metrics... that were fake, but he never bothered to double check.



Are you saying that they didn't do that? But it is still primarily a problem for the administration and his cabinet. They were ultimately in charge of the VA. It was broken when they got there but that is no excuse for why it got worse.


Do you think that McCain has any sway over the Obama Administration? More importantly, are you suggesting the the PEOPLE IN CHARGE knew less about the VA than a Senator? If that is the case then it is a failure of leadership on the part of the administration.

I'd say it is in the best interest of a lot of people to scapegoat someone and QUICKLY...
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Probably so, but Shinseki had to go either way. To argue that a Senator knew more and had more power over the VA than the SecVA did isn't going to help the problem!

I mean think about it, reread your post. Aren't you are really just scapegoating McCain?
 
Typical government bureaucracy, the guy in charge should be fired but Obammy hesitates because this is yet another episode of the dems inability to govern. Obammy is headed for the title "The Worst President In American History". His speech before the West Point grads was a disgrace. He knows zero about military affairs as he was too busy smoking reefer to go in to the service as a young whatever. Sing some Al Green for us prezz.
 
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