With the Fourth of July upon us, we are learning of another terrible episode in the treatment of our nations veterans by the Veterans Administration medical system. Previously, we had heard in detail about how veterans were made to wait months or even years to get an appointment to see a physician. Now the news is out that applications by veterans for medical benefits were ignored and ultimately purged from the system by the VA staff. The goal of the employees at the VA was to protect performance bonuses which would not be paid if the agency was unable to process applications for benefits within a certain time period. Rather than have applications in the system which were not handled in the required fashion, the VA employees just erased those applications from the system.
Here is the story in more detail. There will also be testimony before Congress in the next week from the whistle blower who broke the story.
The head of the Department of Veterans' Affairs was already fired over the first part of this scandal, so there is no need to get rid of the guy at the top. Instead, what needs to happen is for there to be a full investigation and every VA employee who participated in this disgrace needs to be fired. That's right; Congress needs to step in and authorize the firing of these people from the VA. At the moment, it is nearly impossible for these workers to be fired. Nevertheless, if there are employees who are found to be more interested in their own bonuses than in helping America's veterans, there is no place for these people at the VA. If it were up to me, I would also authorize the recapture of any bonuses paid to those who are fired during the last three years. And let's be ruthless here -- there should not be some judicial process set for firing these people. There should be an inspector general or similar agent investigating at the VA; anyone found to have knowingly participated in the VA scandals should then just be fired on the spot.
And by the way, we also learned that hundreds of VA employees were taken off their duties of handling applications from veterans and transferred to handling Obamacare applications in 2013. That means that our vets can also thank president Obama and his Obamacare plans for keeping these vets from getting healthcare. Once again, the Obamacare statute needs to be renamed the "Unaffordable Lack of Care Act".
Here is the story in more detail. There will also be testimony before Congress in the next week from the whistle blower who broke the story.
The head of the Department of Veterans' Affairs was already fired over the first part of this scandal, so there is no need to get rid of the guy at the top. Instead, what needs to happen is for there to be a full investigation and every VA employee who participated in this disgrace needs to be fired. That's right; Congress needs to step in and authorize the firing of these people from the VA. At the moment, it is nearly impossible for these workers to be fired. Nevertheless, if there are employees who are found to be more interested in their own bonuses than in helping America's veterans, there is no place for these people at the VA. If it were up to me, I would also authorize the recapture of any bonuses paid to those who are fired during the last three years. And let's be ruthless here -- there should not be some judicial process set for firing these people. There should be an inspector general or similar agent investigating at the VA; anyone found to have knowingly participated in the VA scandals should then just be fired on the spot.
And by the way, we also learned that hundreds of VA employees were taken off their duties of handling applications from veterans and transferred to handling Obamacare applications in 2013. That means that our vets can also thank president Obama and his Obamacare plans for keeping these vets from getting healthcare. Once again, the Obamacare statute needs to be renamed the "Unaffordable Lack of Care Act".
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