Biggest VA scandal is not what you think

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 18, 2014

John McCain said that "No one should be treated this way in a country as great as ours," he said. "But treating those to whom we owe the most so callously - so ungratefully - is unconscionable, and we should all be ashamed." The shame should have come a very, very long time ago considering the VA has never been fixed all the way by the House or the Senate. While McCain has been in the Senate 1987, you'd think he would have known what was going on all along but frankly, what is happening now may actually make him happy. McCain has wanted to privatize the VA for years. He is still on the "give veterans vouchers" rant as if that will help make things right.

It ian't the first time he has been wrong on what veterans need.

The news was "Vietnam Veterans of America: President Bush's VA Budget is $3 Billion Short" in 2008. It seems that didn't matter too much with two wars on and more veterans flooding into an already overloaded system because no one thought to make sure veterans were taken care of. Marine Lance Corporal Jeffrey Lucey's parents had to file suit agains the VA after he was unable to get the care he needed in 2004.

Josh Barber was another of the uncared for.

Josh Barber, former combat soldier, parked outside the Army hospital here one morning last August armed for war.

A cook at the dining facility, Barber sat in his truck wearing battle fatigues, earplugs and a camouflage hood on his head. He had an arsenal: seven loaded guns, nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition, knives in his pockets. On the front seat, an AK-47had a bullet in the chamber.

The "smell of death" he experienced in Iraq continued to haunt him, his wife says. He was embittered about the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that crippled him, the Army's failure to treat it, and the strains the disorder put on his marriage.

Despite the firepower he brought with him, Barber, 31, took only one life that day. He killed himself with a shot to the head.

"He went to Fort Lewis to kill himself to prove a point," Kelly Barber says. " 'Here I am. I was a soldier. You guys didn't help me.' "

McCain was against the GI Bill because it was "too generous" and would cause too many to leave the military. Not really all that new considering McCain is usually been against veterans even after he uses his own military history to get their votes.

John McCain: Administration has failed to fix VA health care problems
CBS NEWS
By JAKE MILLER
May 17, 2014

An outraged Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., slammed the "systemic" problems plaguing Veterans Affairs health care centers around the country on Saturday, saying the Obama administration has "failed" to respond to the mismanagement and delays that have been linked to dozens of deaths nationwide.

"Decent care for our veterans is among the most solemn obligations a nation incurs, and we will be judged by God and history by how well we discharge ours," McCain said in the weekly Republican address. "That's why I'm so deeply troubled by the recent allegations of gross mismanagement, fraud and neglect at a growing number of Veterans Administration medical centers across the country."

"It's been more than a month since allegations that some 40 veterans died while waiting for care at the Phoenix VA were first made public," he said. "To date, the Obama Administration has failed to respond in an effective manner. This has created in our veterans' community a crisis of confidence toward the VA - the very agency that was established to care for them."

The Phoenix facility reportedly worked to disguise patients' long wait times by creating a secret waiting list and later destroying the evidence. Reports suggest the same practice of using secret waiting lists may be happening elsewhere across the country.

McCain, a veteran himself, recalled a town hall in Arizona last week where he was confronted by families whose loved ones passed away "because they were not provided the care they needed and deserve."

"No one should be treated this way in a country as great as ours," he said. "But treating those to whom we owe the most so callously - so ungratefully - is unconscionable, and we should all be ashamed."
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This is from AZ Central

With so many years to actually do something to fix the VA for all veterans, McCain has never really been interested enough. While Senator McCain served as Ranking Member of the Committee from 2006 to 2012 on the Armed Services Committee, he doesn't seem to be bothered by military suicides. McCain called a suicide prevention bill "overreach" when he should have been screaming about all of this years ago. But hey, why talk about something that has been going on for far too long? Why talk about the 400,000 VA claim backlog President Clinton left, of the 800,000 President Bush left or the other claims every other President has left?

This is more about politics than doing the right thing. It always has been and both side play the game while veterans suffer needlessly. Right now everyone is jumping all over Obama, including this writer, but that isn't new considering no matter what party is in charge, veterans have been neglected and the press swoops in until the next story causes outrage. No one ever fixes anything all the way and that, that is the biggest scandal of all.