Wouldn't you think that would be the story? VA has problems treating patients, long waiting lists, etc - and the Repubs obstructed a vote just three months ago that would have helped alleviate some of these problems. The Repubs are against funding for the Vets. They send people to war - yet they won't care for them appropriately when they come back injured and maimed - both physically and psychologically.
And why didn't the Dems - make an issue of this? Why did some start piling on Shinseki? Why didn't the President be more vocal about this? Why did he scapegoat Shinseki?
I'm sorry - I just don't understand this when it is clear that the Repubs are part and parcel to the problem that the blame always falls on the President.
Again - I think when Congress approves a war - automatically in the approval process - a percentage of the war spend - whatever it turns out to be - needs to be allotted to take care of the returning GI's that fought the war.
We should not have to deal after the fact with trying to get funding for this care. It should be right up front in any declaration of war.
BushCo kept their wars out of the formal budgeting process. Yet we spent billions on Iraq and Afghanistan. Some percentage of that spend should automatically go to paying for the medical problems incurred by GI's in those wars.
We should have learned this lesson from VietNam days - yet we continue to do the same stupid things over and over and expect different results.
I'm really thinking that this whole VA scandal broke - so that a movement can begin to privatize the VA. That would be sad. Maybe that's why the Dems were silent on the Repubs failures - because they will go along with privatization.
I hate to be that cynical. I'm hoping that maybe this scandal will lead to more of a movement toward a single payer health care system and that ACA will evolve into that.
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