Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) defended the Department of Veterans Affairs Thursday at the first Senate hearing since the VA became embroiled in a major scandal over patient waiting lists.
Two weeks ago, CNN reported that at least 40 veterans died while waiting for appointments with the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system — and that managers hid the wait times by keeping a secret list. Since then, the American Legion and several congressional Republicans have called for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign.
Sanders, who serves as chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, did not join those calls Thursday morning as he presided over a hearing featuring Shinseki and representatives of several veterans service groups. Though he said he takes the allegations “very seriously,” the Vermont independent urged his colleagues to hold their fire until after an investigation by the VA’s inspector general is complete.
“I believe that every member of this committee will do everything they can to get to the truth of these allegations,” Sanders said. “But if we are going to do our job in a proper and responsible way, we need to get the facts and not rush to judgment. And one of the concerns that I have, to be very honest, is there has been a little bit of a rush to judgment. What happened in Phoenix? Well, the truth is we don’t know. But we are going to find out.”
Not all of Sanders’ colleagues gave the secretary the benefit of the doubt. Later in the hearing, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) asked Shinseki why he has, thus far, refused to resign.
A retired four-star general, Shinseki said he has spent his five years as secretary working to provide better care and benefits to “the people I went to war with.”
“This is not a job. I am here to accomplish a mission that I think they critically deserve and need,” Shinseki continued. “And I can tell you, over the past five years we’ve done a lot to make things better. We’re not done yet. And I intend to continue this mission until I have satisfied either that goal or I’m told by the commander in chief that my time has been served.”
In his opening statement, Shinseki said that if the allegations leveled at the Phoenix VA prove to be true, the situation is “completely unacceptable.”
“Any allegation, any adverse incident like this, makes me mad as hell. I could use stronger language here, Mr. Chairman, but in deference to the committee, I won’t,” he said.
In questioning Shinseki, Sanders asked why the VA had not acted upon previous warnings that claims backlogs were harming veterans.
“The criticism is that, year after year, reports have been made talking about these problems, and the problems continue to exist,” Sanders said. “Can you give us some assurance of what happens tomorrow? Where do we go from here, so that we don’t have this hearing next year or two years from now?”
But in his opening statement, Sanders said it was important to keep in mind that in a system of the VA’s size, many would inevitably find their care inadequate. The VA serves 6.5 million veterans a year and more than 200,000 a day, he noted.
“There is no question, to my mind, that VA health care has problems. Serious problems,” Sanders said. “But it is not the case that the rest of health care in America is just wonderful: Everybody walks in, gets immediate care, gets great care, at no cost, it’s all affordable. That’s not the world we live in.”
Citing a study published by the Journal of Patient Safety, Sanders said that more than 210,000 patients a year die from preventable medical error — making it the third-leading cause of death in America.
“Have deaths been reported from medical errors in the VA? The answer is yes. And every one of those deaths is a shame and something that we have got to address,” Sanders said. “But it’s not just the VA.”
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“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013
WHY? GOOD QUESTION THOSE SERVED SHOULD ANSWER, added to the past decades and wars of the ignoring of many issues along with the denying they exist! Think PTS, Agent Orange and Desert Storms Gulf War Syndrom, to name but only a very few, most now being addressed under This VA and Executive branch even though grossly, decades and wars from, under funded!!
The real scandal is those Served have yet to Sacrifice, DeJa-Vu all over again:
The same lawmakers now subpoening, and with their flag waving patriots(?) supporting, that rubber stamped the two wars, and all related, costs off the books and on the credit card, quickly abandoning the missions and those sent after 9/11, while doing extremely little for not only the veterans of but also us previous veterans and from the decades and wars before, while once again under a conservative led VA, DeJa-Vu!!
Sixth District Congressional candidate Seth Moulton: “Congress has made ‘travesty’ of veterans care” 05/14/2014
Conservative Veterans Affairs Ideology, Fire Gen. Shinseki, because unlike conservative administrations he’s actually fighting to build the VA the country should have always had, and he’s got the backing and help from this entire executive cabinet, again unlike conservative administrations and conservative congresses!!
Just what the conservative, in this case the Always reactive and not proactive for vets, the legion, with their grossly over paid executives, ideology wants, Get rid of one that’s doing the job and in this case with help from the entire cabinet, hired to do, just as the conservatives in congress want,
“If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too” “not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American.” -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013
They were Jubilant when conservatives controlled congress and the bush fired the General for being Honest, now their call is being picked up through one of the so called established Veterans organization the American Legion! All were praising the VA during that time, of total conservative control, even though extremely little was being done as the long ignored veterans issues were still being ignored while two more wars, and long occupations from, were being rubber stamped as to costs, still unpaid for, and these younger veterans were joining our veterans community seeking the commitment the Country promises and the Country waved flags, and other symbols, of that ‘patriotic’ commitment only, DeJa-Vu all over again! Their long want is to privatize government agencies for corporate profit, much more costly, and unregulated running of, just like their national security wars!
TX-19 Congressional Candidate Neal Marchbanks – Veteran: 28 March 2014 – “Congress controls the budget for the VA and it is the fault of Congress that the VA does not have enough employees and that the facilities are too small.”
Congress, in Veteran Marchbanks statement, are the people served and who representatives work for, or are supposed to!
“12 years also is a long time. We now have a lifetime responsibility to a generation of service members, veterans and their families.” Dr. Jonathan Woodson 11 Sep. 2013: ‘With 9/11 Came Lifetime Responsibility’ {two tax cuts, especially huge for the wealthy, with not a bit of guilt conscious for, came with these two recent unpaid for wars, nor the results of, DeJa-Vu all over again from the previous decades and wars from! Ignore the many issues, by those served, no need to fund!}
USN All Shore ’67-’71 GMG3 Vietnam In Country ’70-’71 – Independent
“Lets not treat these Vets like Vietnam Vets”
That’s what the whole country served said about us Vietnam Veterans and the now OEF and OIF Veterans right from the beginning!!
Then they quickly cheered on abandoning the missions and those sent to accomplish after 9/11! They started slapping on magnetic ‘support the troops’ symbols all over which quickly just plain disappeared! Then the talk was about everyone, elected officials especially, should be wearing lapel flag pins, I don’t even pay attention whether they do or don’t knowing they’re not ‘supporting’ anyone who Actually Sacrifices, and that includes public servants of all stripes! They loves waving them ‘patriotic’ flags and think they’re more ‘patriotic’ then many others! Then they want Parades and complain because we have yet had a Ticker Tape NYC parade, even though the abandoned 9/11 missions is still ongoing but finally winding down! They loves passing around the cute video’s of returning soldiers surprising their kids and families! And on and on and on!
But None Of That Is Sacrificing as in Paying For Wars and Especially the Decades To Follow Results From!!!
DeJa-Vu all over again!!!!!!!!!!!!!