Discussion for article #223166
"It seems that my open letter to veterans has brought more outrage than the VA crisis itself," he told the newspaper.
Could that be because it was a cheap shot, and doesn’t address the underlying cause of the backlog (More wounded and maimed soldiers from two Dubya wars) that drove administrators to the ridiculous and criminal lengths they’ve gone to? Yes, the administrators who did this stuff need – at LEAST – to be fired ASAP, but let’s not treat this like the deficit that “magically” appeared on January 20th, 2009.
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“…in the future, we will spend a substantial percentage of our time seeking to inform our members and our constituents of the repeated failure to act by our elected officials…”
The Republican Congress has earned their incredibly low approval ratings, and now they want to lecture dedicated Veterans’ staff about responsibility. Who exactly is “more interested in their own livelihoods and Washington connections”?
It couldn’t possibly be the guys on perpetual vacation, could it?
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Burr stood by his criticism of the groups Monday in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“It seems that my open letter to veterans has brought more outrage than the VA crisis itself,” he told the newspaper.
These guys never know when to shut up, do they? Yes, of course, it’s the Veterans’ fault that all this took place. Thanks for your support, Senator.
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Government Death Panels = Unjustified and Illegal Wars…
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Too bad Mr. Burr never took the time to serve in the military and become a veteran.
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Apart from their transparent, reflexive desire to embarrass President Obama, Republicans want Gen. Shinseki gone before he embarrasses them.
Gen. Shinseki, you’ll recall, was the Army Chief who told the Senate it would require on the order of several hundreds of thousands of soldiers to occupy Iraq, when the Republican political leadership thought that there was no need for a big occupation force, because shock and awe would be quick and easy and our troops would be greeted as liberators. Mission Accomplished.
No wonder Republicans want him to resign before he testifies again.
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GOP Politician opens mouth insults:
A. Women
B. Veterans
C. Gays
D. Minorities
E. Puppies.
Pick one or more, depending on day of week.
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I am a VA healthcare consumer, and the issues facing Shinseki are so complex, and the funding debacles brought on by Burr’s party have been so damaging, that I would spit in his face if he were present when I read this article.
And I try to remain calm.
The reason the VFW, DAV et al aren’t attacking Shinseki like Burr and his ilk is because they understand that the Secretary is working hard with limited resources on an impossible problem.
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Republicans seem blind to the fact that IT IS VERY TRANSPARENT THIS TIME AROUND that they are going all political with another witch hunt, when they need to be governing, not politicking.
For whatever reason(s), the old games aren’t working any more, and the public is growing impatient with the constant obstruction. How soon that translates to changes at the ballot box is the only question, it is hard to imagine a scenario where even by design, the Republicans could more efficiently separate themselves from public approval.
Headhunting for Shinseki so rabidly, and using it as some sort of “Dems don’t support the troops” twisted meme, only steels the Vets’ resolve to lean even harder into this.
It is as if Republicans, in their partisan zealousness, can’t understand what it is that We, the People, want of them, they act like their own aggressive political agenda outweighs all other governance, and they proceed as if theirs IS the only agenda, much to the frustration of their VA constituents, who want something other than being used as a political bludgeon…
Whoever is writing Republican strategy these days should get a medal. From Democrats.
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Let us not forget that the aim this conveniently outraged GOP is to destroy the VA.
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What Republicans can not understand is that our government is of the people, by the people and for the people.
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The GOP’s motto: We care about the wars, not the warriors.
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As has been the case with virtually every issue that Obama has been confronted with, the Repugs created a mess and they are blaming him for not cleaning it up faster.
The same was true of the financial crisis he inherited, the two wars that caused the VA backlog, and the health insurance crisis.
The party that claims to champion personal responsibility, fails to take responsibility for any of their historic mistakes.
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Sen. Burr and his 40 cohorts defund, block, and under cut funding
to Veteran Affairs so they sale off in pieces to private donors…
But yet, the greed cowards have the nerve to blame people
who delicate their lives to help veterans…
The Liars in their own words
-Lindsay-graham-and-other-gops-blocked-a-21-billion-veterans-
bill/
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Burr’s open letter to the veterans groups was deliberate. Did he think they would just take it? Did he think they couldn’t mount an effect response? I guess he thought Fox News was all he needed to protect himself from their wrath. If so Burr isn’t smart enough to be a Senator.
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In February, Burr voted to kill a bill (introduced by Bernie Sanders) that would have appropriated $24 billion to improve delivery of health services to veterans through the VA. He’s a lying ass hypocrite.
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Here is hoping that the Veteran’s groups remember this next time Burr is up for re-election. People like Burr make me sick.
The reason the R’s have grabbed on to this VA scandal is there actually is a real scandal here. Benghazi, Fast and Furious, Death Panels, etc, etc, have all been manufactured scandals with absolutely nothing to them. This is a real scandal, and people easily recognize it as such. But it only goes up to the hospital administrators, not to the executive branch. It does reach into the legislative branch in the disgusting cuts and refusals to fund the VA. The Republicans run the very real risk of tarring themselves with this one if they aren’t careful.
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Some have suggested that a veteran who has to wait longer than X days for an appointment be given, in effect, a voucher to go to the private sector. The reaction of the veterans’ groups is interesting. They don’t want the opportunity to enjoy the glories of private sector health care - they want their care to come from the VA. In short, they have found that the quality of care they get at the VA is superior - it’s just the long wait times that are unacceptable.
This is something that all the RWNJ’s who scream about the horrors of a “government takeover of health care” should pay attention to. The only truly government-run healthcare system we have in this country actually provides better care than the private sector. It’s shorthanded, but that’s something that really can be fixed by pumping more funding into the system, and even with considerably more funding, it would almost certainly still be more efficient than the private sector.
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The IHS–our national health service for Native Americans–is also well-regarded by the people who use it. Interestingly, Todd Palin and his children use it:
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