Little-Acorn
Gold Member
- Jun 20, 2006
- 10,025
- 2,410
In Nov. 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama said, "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."
Barack Obama: Press Release - Obama Campaign Announces National Veterans Advisory Committee
___________________________
In July, 2012, President Obama said in a speech before the VFW, "Lets keep taking care of our extraordinary military families. Weve made military families and veterans a top priority not just at DOD, not just at the VA, but across the government, Obama said. We will not rest. Thats my vow to you. Ive got your back. Ive got your six. - Remarks by the President to the 113th National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars | The White House
___________________________
In Feb. 2013, The Washington Examiner reported that the VA's Inspector General had found that accuracy reports on employees' mistakes, had been manipulated to make them look better than reality:
"Accuracy reports have been manipulated by the Department of Veterans Affairs to make it appear employees make fewer mistakes on claims for disability payments than they actually do, The Washington Examiner has found.
"Audits of individual case files by the agency's inspector general consistently show error rates on disability claims much higher than those claimed in official reports. The IG also found the agency's accuracy gauge is easily manipulated by VA officials seeking to improve their apparent performance. The pressure to process benefits claims cases as quickly as possible creates an incentive to 'cook the books,' according to veterans advocates and the VA's own internal investigators.
"'VA is notorious for flat-out cooking the books,' said Paul Sullivan, a former VA official who is now a board member of the group Veterans for Common Sense. 'The error rate is under-reported and it's intentional. VA is trying to hide VA's blunders and mistakes.'"
_____________________________
When Shinseki took office, he vowed that every disability claim would be processed within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy. But the backlogs only got worse.
It took about four months for VA to process a claim for disability compensation claim when Shinseki was sworn in. By 2012, the average wait time was about nine months. In February 2013 ... about 70 percent of the 900,000 claims for initial benefits were considered backlogged, meaning they were older than 125 days.
Cascade of scandals has Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki fighting for his job | WashingtonExaminer.com
_____________________________
And yet today, President Obama's staff is telling us that the first he heard about these problems, is when he read newspaper and media reports last week.
Is there any reason to believe that problems in the VA will be fixed, any more then they have been from 2007 through today?
Or will he simply keep making speeches telling us what a good job he is doing for our veterans?
Barack Obama: Press Release - Obama Campaign Announces National Veterans Advisory Committee
___________________________
In July, 2012, President Obama said in a speech before the VFW, "Lets keep taking care of our extraordinary military families. Weve made military families and veterans a top priority not just at DOD, not just at the VA, but across the government, Obama said. We will not rest. Thats my vow to you. Ive got your back. Ive got your six. - Remarks by the President to the 113th National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars | The White House
___________________________
In Feb. 2013, The Washington Examiner reported that the VA's Inspector General had found that accuracy reports on employees' mistakes, had been manipulated to make them look better than reality:
"Accuracy reports have been manipulated by the Department of Veterans Affairs to make it appear employees make fewer mistakes on claims for disability payments than they actually do, The Washington Examiner has found.
"Audits of individual case files by the agency's inspector general consistently show error rates on disability claims much higher than those claimed in official reports. The IG also found the agency's accuracy gauge is easily manipulated by VA officials seeking to improve their apparent performance. The pressure to process benefits claims cases as quickly as possible creates an incentive to 'cook the books,' according to veterans advocates and the VA's own internal investigators.
"'VA is notorious for flat-out cooking the books,' said Paul Sullivan, a former VA official who is now a board member of the group Veterans for Common Sense. 'The error rate is under-reported and it's intentional. VA is trying to hide VA's blunders and mistakes.'"
_____________________________
When Shinseki took office, he vowed that every disability claim would be processed within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy. But the backlogs only got worse.
It took about four months for VA to process a claim for disability compensation claim when Shinseki was sworn in. By 2012, the average wait time was about nine months. In February 2013 ... about 70 percent of the 900,000 claims for initial benefits were considered backlogged, meaning they were older than 125 days.
Cascade of scandals has Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki fighting for his job | WashingtonExaminer.com
_____________________________
And yet today, President Obama's staff is telling us that the first he heard about these problems, is when he read newspaper and media reports last week.
Is there any reason to believe that problems in the VA will be fixed, any more then they have been from 2007 through today?
Or will he simply keep making speeches telling us what a good job he is doing for our veterans?
