Support Our Troops!

[Mephisto]

Again, we're finding out that supporting our troops is little more than a motto when it comes to this administration. The conditions at Walter Reed, unfortunately, aren't confined to Walter Reed:

Leaky roofs, bats among VA health facility problems

POSTED: 5:06 p.m. EDT, March 22, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Veterans Affairs' vast network of 1,400 health clinics and hospitals is beset by maintenance problems, such as mold, leaking roofs and even a colony of bats, an internal review says.

The investigation, ordered two weeks ago by VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, is the first major review of the facilities conducted since the disclosure of squalid conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

A copy of the report was provided to The Associated Press.

Democrats newly in charge of Congress called the report the latest evidence of an outdated system unable to handle a coming influx of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Investigators earlier this month found that the VA's system for handling disability claims was strained to its limit.

"Who's been minding the store?" said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "They keep putting Band-Aids on problems, when what the agency needs is major triage."

The review was conducted by directors of individual VA facilities around the country and compiled in a 94-page report to Nicholson. It found that 90 percent of the 1,100 problems cited were deemed to be of a more routine nature: worn-out carpet, peeling paint, mice sightings and dead bugs at VA centers.

The other 10 percent were considered serious and included mold spreading in patient care areas. Eight cases were so troubling they required immediate attention and follow-up action.

Some of the more striking problems were found at a VA clinic in White City, Oregon. There, officials reported roof leaks throughout the facility, requiring them to "continuously repair the leaks upon occurrence, clean up any mold presence if any exists, spray or remove ceiling tiles."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/22/veterans.care.ap/index.html


More and more soldiers are giving up on healthcare at VA hospitals and going to the private sector for treatment. Is this fair to our solders? Is this what "supporting our troops" means to this administration?

[shemp]

More and more soldiers are giving up on healthcare at VA hospitals and going to the private sector for treatment.

As a patriotic American, I have no choice but to ask: Why do our wounded veterans hate America?!

[Darth Rotor]

Again, we're finding out that supporting our troops is little more than a motto when it comes to this administration. The conditions at Walter Reed, unfortunately, aren't confined to Walter Reed:




More and more soldiers are giving up on healthcare at VA hospitals and going to the private sector for treatment. Is this fair to our solders? Is this what "supporting our troops" means to this administration?
Meph, this isn't the real scandal. The real scandal is the number of vets who got 10 and 20% disability and were discharged from the Army, and who show up to the VA who asses them at a considerably higher rating, up to 50-70%. It is the Army review boards who are making determinations, and it seems too many soldiers are accepting them without a fight due to frustration and the time it has taken to get things resolved. The VA is apparently having a bunch of people dumped on their doorstep in toto, people who should have been medically retired. (And thus their medical pension and tricare payments made by DoD. ) I only have a few anecdotal bits of evidence locally, through the old salts network, but I hear rumblings that this is a national issue.

The critical piece is the threshold for medical retirement. There is a money motive here, and I expect its source is deep in the Army or DoD secretariat, where people look at 5-12 year time horizons, budget and program overlaps, and funding spikes.

With a few thousand medical retirees not medically retired (and thus not on the Army's payroll for a long time at a nominal cost) more heads can be funded in the Army's end strength.

The cost for Tricare and the varied (by length of service) for about 10,000 people, salaries represents a cost borne by annual DoD execution budgets. This cost is being transferred to the VA wholesale . . . different secretariat, and thus different pot of money.

It's all tax money, but it's also a shell game, with the key result being the burden of disabled vets being shifted to VA, and a significant loss of income to disabled vets who are discharged, not medically retired.

The buildings you cite are a symptom of another long standing problem: VA funding in general. I agree with you completely, and your post, that the VA burden needs to be acknowledged, addressed, and funded.

DR

[Tmy]

Welcome to the US healthcare system. Poor people get crappy coverage. Vets or not. .

[Daylight]

But the question is "if the VA is underfunded, why does the Bush Administration keep trying to give the rich tax breaks?"

[WildCat]

Who cares? The Capital has a kickass new $600 million visitor center (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-07-capitol-visitors-center_x.htm).

It's all about priorities. :rolleyes:

[Tony]

As a patriotic American, I have no choice but to ask: Why do our wounded veterans hate America?!

The nerve of those ungrateful SOB's!!!

Seriously, I may support cuts in overall military spending, but veteran's services is one aspect of the military that shouldn't be underfunded.

[Mephisto]

But the question is "if the VA is underfunded, why does the Bush Administration keep trying to give the rich tax breaks?"

Because tax breaks for the rich are good for everyone, haven't you been listening? ;)

It's the economy . . .

[Mephisto]

Meph, this isn't the real scandal. The real scandal is the number of vets who got 10 and 20% disability and were discharged from the Army, and who show up to the VA who asses them at a considerably higher rating, up to 50-70%. It is the Army review boards who are making determinations, and it seems too many soldiers are accepting them without a fight due to frustration and the time it has taken to get things resolved. The VA is apparently having a bunch of people dumped on their doorstep in toto, people who should have been medically retired. (And thus their medical pension and tricare payments made by DoD. ) I only have a few anecdotal bits of evidence locally, through the old salts network, but I hear rumblings that this is a national issue.

The critical piece is the threshold for medical retirement. There is a money motive here, and I expect its source is deep in the Army or DoD secretariat, where people look at 5-12 year time horizons, budget and program overlaps, and funding spikes.

With a few thousand medical retirees not medically retired (and thus not on the Army's payroll for a long time at a nominal cost) more heads can be funded in the Army's end strength.

The cost for Tricare and the varied (by length of service) for about 10,000 people, salaries represents a cost borne by annual DoD execution budgets. This cost is being transferred to the VA wholesale . . . different secretariat, and thus different pot of money.

It's all tax money, but it's also a shell game, with the key result being the burden of disabled vets being shifted to VA, and a significant loss of income to disabled vets who are discharged, not medically retired.

The buildings you cite are a symptom of another long standing problem: VA funding in general. I agree with you completely, and your post, that the VA burden needs to be acknowledged, addressed, and funded.

DR

You're right, of course DR, but the condition of VA medical facilities has been a problem since Ron Kovic returned home from the Nam. I'm a dreamer, but wouldn't it be nice if (just once) we were prepared to "support our troops" in the ways that it matters most?

[Mephisto]

Who cares? The Capital has a kickass new $600 million visitor center (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-01-07-capitol-visitors-center_x.htm).

It's all about priorities. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the link, WildCat.

You're unfortunately right about this. It IS all about priorities and I guess the opening paragraphs show exactly where the priorities lie:

WASHINGTON — About 50 feet below the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, scores of workmen install polished marble, mahogany veneer and other finishing touches on what may qualify as one of America's most beautiful, and controversial, cellars.
Two years after its scheduled opening date, and more than double its original price tag, . . .


Still, disabled veterans will have a nice place to visit if they're in town for some shoddy health care at a substandard facility.

[Mephisto]

The nerve of those ungrateful SOB's!!!

Seriously, I may support cuts in overall military spending, but veteran's services is one aspect of the military that shouldn't be underfunded.

I agree, Tony - yet who is the first to point fingers and claim that the troops aren't being supported?

When members of Congress pursue an antiwar strategy that’s been called ‘slow bleeding,’ they are not supporting the troops, they are undermining them,” Mr. Cheney said, adding, “Anyone can say they support the troops and we should take them at their word, but the proof will come when it’s time to provide the money.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/washington/13cheney.html?ex=1331438400&en=973879e1d054f5ae&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


Supporting our troops DOESN'T mean sending them off to a useless war, it means taking care of them with the proper equipment, training and armor BEFORE they go to war and taking care of them when they return limbless, eyeless or with traumatic brain injuries AFTER the war.

[Darth Rotor]

You're right, of course DR, but the condition of VA medical facilities has been a problem since Ron Kovic returned home from the Nam. I'm a dreamer, but wouldn't it be nice if (just once) we were prepared to "support our troops" in the ways that it matters most?
No argument. I am watching to see what James Webb plays for cards when his son gets home from Iraq.

I suspect some VA cards will be played.

DR

[Mephisto]

No argument. I am watching to see what James Webb plays for cards when his son gets home from Iraq.

I suspect some VA cards will be played.

DR

I'm sure it will be interesting.

I've heard that anyone who fought Mr. Webb in the ring knows a thing or two about traumatic brain injury. ;)