President Obama is addressing the annual convention of the American Legion today. Here is an excerpt from his speech which was released about an hour ago by the White House:
My friends, it is an honor to be here today to speak to this gathering. Before I say anything else, I want to thank you all for your service to our great country. I know full well the many sacrifices that were made by each of you, sacrifices that were not all the same, but which were difficult whatever they may have been. Any man or woman who steps forward to serve this country is a true American hero, and I again want to thank you, not just for Michelle and myself, but for the entire nation.
Let me now focus on a subject that I know is in your thoughts: the well publicized failures of the Veterans' Administration medical system. The federal government made a promise to America's veterans that they would have first rate, easily available medical care. It is the least we can do after all that the veterans have done for us. Sadly, we learned recently that the promise had been broken. Veterans were left waiting weeks, months or even a year just to get appointments to see a doctor. This is completely unacceptable. When I learned of this terrible reality, I was furious. We cannot allow this promise to be ignored or broken. America must take care of its veterans.
My anger, however, is not sufficient. Nor is my promise, which I give you now, to correct the problems in the VA medical system as quickly as possible. No, today I am offering you all my heartfelt apology. I was not the one keeping the veterans from treatment, and I did not know of the practices that led to this result. Nevertheless, this travesty happened on my watch, and I take full responsibility for it. When I ran for office in 2008, I told veterans' groups that the VA medical system was not working properly and I promised to make serious improvements to that system once in office. I have to admit that I dropped the ball. I told some of my staff to do whatever was possible to help improve the system, but then I moved on to other matters. It was not good enough; I should have stayed involved, and I did not. Again, I apologize. It was my failure that I did not make sure that real improvements to the VA system were underway.
An apology, of course, is insufficient to repair the damage of the past. Nothing can alter the long waiting periods that many sick vets had to endure over the last five years. We can, however, fix the underlying problem as we move forward. Congress has already passed a measure to increase the funding for the VA system and to allow the management of the VA to weed out those who were responsible for the errors of the past. This is a good start, but more must be done. Today, I am delivering to the Congress a plan to reorganize the VA which should reduce wait times for care, improve the quality of care, and impose better supervision on the system to make sure an outrage like the delays of the last few years cannot go unnoticed. I pledge to work together with both Democrats and Republicans to get this bill passed. America's duty, our obligation to our veterans is just too important to let it get entwined in the usual partisan bickering that permeates Washington.
Okay. This was not released by the White House, and president Obama did not say any of it. But, just for once, isn't it nice to think that we could have a president (some day?) who is prepared to take responsibility for his actions and failures and who recognizes that he has both to lead and to compromise if anything positive is to be accomplished.
My friends, it is an honor to be here today to speak to this gathering. Before I say anything else, I want to thank you all for your service to our great country. I know full well the many sacrifices that were made by each of you, sacrifices that were not all the same, but which were difficult whatever they may have been. Any man or woman who steps forward to serve this country is a true American hero, and I again want to thank you, not just for Michelle and myself, but for the entire nation.
Let me now focus on a subject that I know is in your thoughts: the well publicized failures of the Veterans' Administration medical system. The federal government made a promise to America's veterans that they would have first rate, easily available medical care. It is the least we can do after all that the veterans have done for us. Sadly, we learned recently that the promise had been broken. Veterans were left waiting weeks, months or even a year just to get appointments to see a doctor. This is completely unacceptable. When I learned of this terrible reality, I was furious. We cannot allow this promise to be ignored or broken. America must take care of its veterans.
My anger, however, is not sufficient. Nor is my promise, which I give you now, to correct the problems in the VA medical system as quickly as possible. No, today I am offering you all my heartfelt apology. I was not the one keeping the veterans from treatment, and I did not know of the practices that led to this result. Nevertheless, this travesty happened on my watch, and I take full responsibility for it. When I ran for office in 2008, I told veterans' groups that the VA medical system was not working properly and I promised to make serious improvements to that system once in office. I have to admit that I dropped the ball. I told some of my staff to do whatever was possible to help improve the system, but then I moved on to other matters. It was not good enough; I should have stayed involved, and I did not. Again, I apologize. It was my failure that I did not make sure that real improvements to the VA system were underway.
An apology, of course, is insufficient to repair the damage of the past. Nothing can alter the long waiting periods that many sick vets had to endure over the last five years. We can, however, fix the underlying problem as we move forward. Congress has already passed a measure to increase the funding for the VA system and to allow the management of the VA to weed out those who were responsible for the errors of the past. This is a good start, but more must be done. Today, I am delivering to the Congress a plan to reorganize the VA which should reduce wait times for care, improve the quality of care, and impose better supervision on the system to make sure an outrage like the delays of the last few years cannot go unnoticed. I pledge to work together with both Democrats and Republicans to get this bill passed. America's duty, our obligation to our veterans is just too important to let it get entwined in the usual partisan bickering that permeates Washington.
Okay. This was not released by the White House, and president Obama did not say any of it. But, just for once, isn't it nice to think that we could have a president (some day?) who is prepared to take responsibility for his actions and failures and who recognizes that he has both to lead and to compromise if anything positive is to be accomplished.
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