Firing General Shinseki won't do a damn thing to fix the systemic problems at the VA and will only serve to paper over a fcked up system which has been hampered by Republican funding cuts and votes against expansion. There. I said it.
Democrats seem petrified to drill that point into the heads of the public the same way vicious Republicans would do if it were the other side who voted against building new VA facilities before this latest VA scandal hit.
In February, whiny 'Hate-Obama-First' Republicans refused to vote for a bill introduced by Bernie Sanders (Independent) which would have waived VA spending limits. Though more than 50 members of the Senate reportedly supported the bill, it was 4 votes short of the 60 vote threshold to keep Republicans from filibustering it.
According to the Washington Post, the bill would have allowed VA to open 27 new health facilities. Obviously the imperfect bill would have provided more places for veterans to receive care in a more timely fashion over time.
So let's be clear. The same war-hungry Republican party who wholeheartedly supported war in Afghanistan and Iraq didn't appear to do a damn thing to expand the after-war care for the new war veterans they were bound to create.
In fact, it was General Shinseki who was brutally honest BEFORE the U.S. went to war in Iraq saying it would take HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of troops in order to be successful. Meanwhile, dangerous a$$holes — like Don Rumsfeld — were claiming it would be a cakewalk. Needless to say, Shinseki was run out of town on a rail by the Bush administration.
Nobody expected to be in Afghanistan and Iraq for a thousand years but at some point when it became obvious the U.S. wasn't going to pull out right away, it should have become a major priority for Congress to greatly expand the VA system. And I ain't talkin about giving higher salaries to bureaucratic administrators either.
It is absolutely unacceptable to lay all of these problems at the feet of Shinseki like everything was fine before he was hired. Republicans are acting as if all hell broke loose with the VA just in the last 2 minutes and 35 seconds Shinseki has actually been on the job! He's only been in the position for 5 years.
It's a miracle to get a governmental agency to flush the toilet and wash its hands in 5 years, let alone do a complete overhaul of a system rife with upper-level people more focused on protecting their jobs than keeping their nasty hands out of the cookie jar.
It's absolutely shameful to expect one person to work miracles in a massive government bureaucracy while not helping (or not being able to help) that person accomplish what he needs to achieve in order to correct the system.
That's like asking somebody to dig a ditch with a thimble and being outraged at them for failing to do so in a timely manner when you didn't provide a trencher… a shovel… (or a goddamn spoon!) to even help them begin the process of making it happen.
How much help did he get from Republicans and Democrats who are now screaming for him to be guillotined? I mean, really? Think about that.
If an employee — who was at the company before you got there — systematically lied to you, embezzled funds, and falsified documentation to cover their tracks, should YOU be fired because of that?
Should you be fired for not having an obvious reason to employ a thousand private investigators to ensure every official document your own underlings were handing in wasn't falsified?
Should you be fired for not being Nostradamus and deciding the people working under you were doing so in good faith as they handed in their reports about who got treated and how long they waited?
Some Republicans are set on ruining this nation as long as that black… uh, I mean, President Obama remains in office. And if Shinseki can be another head on their wall, then they'll scream from the rooftops about how terrible he is.
Now the dam has burst and its become okay for whimpy-a$$ Democrats to look butch by asking for Shinseki's head so that they'll have a higher chance at winning their respective elections this November.
Good luck with that, but yall ain't doin $hit by calling for Shinsek to be fired.
Instead of joining the mob to burn Shinseki in effigy, they should focus more on doing something to fix the damn problem and to fight against Republicans trying to use this situation to snatch Senatorial power.
Its clear cowardly Democrats shouldn't expect anything to change as long as they cannot effectively protect Veterans from hateful Republicans who are masters at throwing stones and hiding their hands.
@whisperdispatch
// Research Material //
+ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/senate-rejects-far-reaching-veterans-affairs-bill/2014/02/27/1d10801c-a001-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html
+ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/30/us/politics/pressure-builds-to-oust-veterans-affairs-chief-shinseki-and-make-changes.html?_r=0