Discussion for article #223063
Nicely done, my dear. You should probably throw in something where you’re calling on or demanding the president fire him. That’s a win-win.
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who had the last laugh the last time he got run out of washington? surely she knows the problems existed before him, or maybe she’s not the best warm body for that seat.
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Gettin’ out in front of Mitch. Nice move Alison, grab the attention back from Mitch’s “victory” and roll into the weekend. And how about shootin’ contest over the Memorial Day weekend. And ah Alison … wear something tight.
Kidding aside, what the VA needs is a businessman running the show with the authority to fire the sloths that run the VA. Not a former general. It took me seven years to win my appeal from the VA. And they fought me hard every step along the way. Without the American Legion as a sponsor I would have lost or given up.
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Oh c’mon, Alison. Is this the way it’s going to be? You’re going to jump to the right and try to look tougher than everyone else every time, regardless of what the situation really calls for?
I’m trying to stay on your side, but this pandering to the right–instead of a thoughtful and sincere response–really makes it difficult. We’ve already got a Joe Manchin.
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It’s politics for ya, and as it stands, we need Joe Manchins and Grimes types to have a functioning majority in the government.
I’m not a fan of Manchin, and my like of Alison went down a bit after she went after Shinseki’s head, but this is small potatoes compared to getting Turtle out of there. At this point, we have to settle for moderates and blue dogs like Grimes if we are to get these do nothing Republicans out of the government.
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I was all for support of Alison before she made this foolish political statement. We should change the system, not wholesale fire people who, obviously, were not aware of, nor in control of inexcusable actions by a few dozen middle management people, in an agency with literally thousands of middle management people. Let’s get this right for the last time: hire well trained and qualified people at all levels, allow the costs of care to be dictated by what the patients need, not what some people in Washington wish it to be. Audit and review expenses, fire those who are not performing well at doing their job, always have a qualified veteran with a war-related disability running the show at VA, and leave Congress out of this.
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I’m a big fan of Grimes and I do think she’ll win but getting Shinseki’s head on a pike is NOT the solution to the problems the VA is facing. It just isn’t. I understand why she’s doing it; doesn’t stop it from being wrong.
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Get out of my brain.
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Having Shinseki resign is suddenly going to solve 3+ decades of institutional rot and problems? Is that what she thinks?
These problems existed before Shinseki. If he goes with no institutional review at all the problems will continue to exist and veterans will continue to die.
Here’s an idea Allison - how about focusing that displeasure on the legislation filibuster gleefully supported by the guy you’re trying to oust from the Senate, which would have seen better oversight and proper funding of the VA? You’re smarter than this knee-jerk reaction, aren’t you?
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I can handle it if a) it’s really necessary to win KY and b) she knocks off this silly crap once she’s in office. Otherwise, we can look forward to her helping to obstruct important bills, in the same way that Manchin and Landrieu (especially) do.
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Who is suppose to have oversight over the Executive Branch if not Congress? Congress provides the funding for the VA, why shouldn’t they have a say over how it is run? If it wasn’t for Congress, there wouldn’t even be a VA.
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You maybe should have done some polling first, Alison:
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Ok, so she is better than McConnell? HOW?
Sorry, I still hope she beats McConnell but the ends don’t justify the means.
Gen Shinseki was the Army Chief who testified to the Senate that several hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to occupy Iraq properly. Ignoring his advice was the single biggest Bush blunder, of the whole sorry Iraq war debacle. The anarchy and looting were so bad in the wake of Rumsfeld’s shock & awe, that villagers were scavenging yellow-cake barrels to gather rainwater.
So I think his history of being unafraid to give candid advice, which also proved to be right, makes General Shinseki exactly the right person to inform Republicans how many doctors the VA needs to hire and how much it will cost, to provide veterans with timely medical care.
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This continues to be a sad, sorry side effect of the Bush era - the fact that everyone believes the guys at the top of the ladder not only know about all the shenanigans and chicanery, but that they were likely the ones that approved it.
While I believe Shinseki as the top of the VA ladder needs to take responsibility for this incident, I’m not getting that sense he knew about this and ignored it. He’s not that good of an actor.
There are problems at the VA, there is no doubt about that. But cutting the head off the snake doesn’t solve the problem.
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The VA has a long history of being screwed up. This is just the current wrinkle in a long running play in my opinion. We need to do right by our veterans. We need to fix the problems in the VA and the place to start is with proper funding so doctors and psychiatrists can get hired in order to reduce case loads. That way vets can get what they need. So I think the problem lies with Congress, not Shinseki. I also believe that the VA should be headed by a person who has served in combat, a warrior. I.e. someone familiar with the needs of veterans for personal experience.
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Dumb ass remark from someone who probably has not clue one about what is going on. The problems at the VA started long before Shinseki and in many ways are better under him than they were in the past.
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She is losing me very fast. This is what you get when the Clintons get involved.
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This is as you say hardly Shinseki’s fault and things are better than they were, but again we can thank GWB for starting two wars and saving people’s lives on the battlefield so they returned with half bodies and injuries both mental and physical so severe, that they will each probably require e millions of dollars of care, I am not at all insinuating we shouldn’t care for them, but it seemed no one was even prepared to deal with all these casualties of war.
Another fucked up mess Obama had to clean up after the war mongers
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