Bush’s Record on VA Funding

[whitehall]

WW2 only lasted four years and Obama has been the CEO of the US for five years. When are lefties going to hold him responsible for anything?

 

[hortysir]

WW2 only lasted four years and Obama has been the CEO of the US for five years. When are lefties going to hold him responsible for anything?

The next presidency.

If ___________ starts to turn things around, it will ONLY be because of policies put into place by Obama

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Progs need their Kulaks. It never fails. Kulaks, Jews, Capitalists and Booooooooooooooooooooooooooosh

 

[Sallow]

Please, Bush screwed up. Are all you Lefties happy now?


But that was 5 years ago and your Administration is still blaming bush instead of doing anything in the last 5 years to fix it...

So take your sorry ass Bush's fault shit and stick it. Obama now owns this mess.....Even if he still believes it's Bush's fault..........

Can any of the Obamabots own up to anything?

How about this.

It's high time to get serious about funding the VA and making sure they are operating efficiently.

Personally? I've been saying this for years.

Vets deserve the best benefits this country can offer.

That should be a non-partisan idea.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Let the Marines run the VA

 

[Rocko]

the treatment of veterans returning from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a national disgrace, highlighted most dramatically by the neglect and substandard care given wounded troops at Walter Reed and other military hospitals.

The budget increases that have occurred mostly were enacted over Bush’s opposition or related to the fact that injuries from the Iraq War far exceeded the administration’s rosy projections in early 2003. The Bush team especially underestimated how many cases of post-traumatic stress disorder to anticipate as well as the number of brain injuries, which have been endemic to the Iraq War where insurgents made effective use of “improvised explosive devices,” or IEDs.

Before Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, documents released by the Department of Veterans Affairs said it expected a maximum of 8,000 cases of post-traumatic stress disorder.

However, according to a study released last year by the RAND Institute, there are more than 320,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars suffering from major depression, PTSD and/or traumatic brain injury. The report found that the VA has been and continues to be ill-equipped to deal with these cases when soldiers return from combat, especially after multiple tours.

An Army task force last year also found major flaws in the way the VA treated and cared for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

Bush’s Record on VA Funding

For his part, Bush stacked the VA with political cronies, such as former Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson, who as VA Secretary defended a budget measure that sought major cuts in staffing for healthcare and at the Board of Veterans Appeals; slashed funding for nursing home care; and blocked four legislative measures aimed at streamlining the backlog of veterans benefits claims.

Of the 84,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by VA, only half, about 42,000, had their disability claim approved by VA. Instead of expediting PTSD claims, Bush's political appointees at VA actively fought against mental health claims.

Bush's appointees also obstructed scientific research into the causes of Gulf War illnesses dating back 18 years to Operation Desert Storm and opposed medical research on treatment for 210,000 of those veterans.

As for funding, Bush proposed a 0.5 percent budget increase for the VA for fiscal year 2006, which amounted to a “cruel mockery” of Bush’s promises to do everything to support veterans and soldiers, Rep. Lane Evans, D-Illinois, said at the time.

Evans called Bush’s proposed budget increase for the VA “grossly inadequate,” saying it would force the VA to “ration” healthcare to veterans.
VA officials had testified in 2005 that the agency needed at least a 13 percent increase to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of war veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and others who needed long-term mental health care.

In early 2007, the Washington Post put a spotlight on the human consequences resulting from the combination of Bush’s wars and the budget squeeze.

The Post published a series of articles documenting the substandard conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which is located only 4.7 miles from the White House. Wounded vets were housed in rooms with moldy walls, leaky plumage and an infestation of vermin, underscoring how out of touch Bush had become regarding the nation’s veterans.

In response to complaints that some veterans under VA care were being neglected, Nicholson said in March 2007 that such cases were “anecdotal exceptions.”

“When you are treating so many people there is always going to be a linen towel left somewhere,” he said.

In May 2007, the AP revealed that while Nicholson was pinching pennies on treatment costs and coping with a $1.3 billion budget shortfall, he awarded “$3.8 million in bonuses to top executives in fiscal 2006″ — many as much as $33,000.

Simultaneously, Bush was resisting congressional efforts to beef up the VA’s budget. In May 2007, Bush threatened to veto legislation that sought a 10 percent—$3.2 billion—increase, calling it too expensive. Bush proposed a 2 percent increase, far below what lawmakers and VA officials said was needed to treat a dramatic increase in traumatic brain injury and PTSD cases.

After Congress passed the legislation with the higher VA spending, Bush backed down on his veto threat but that was largely due to the fact that every Republican in the Senate with the exception of Jim DeMint of South Carolina, supported the measure.

Amid the growing scandals about substandard VA treatment and inept management, Nicholson resigned in July 2007.

Suicide Epidemic

Even after Nicholson’s resignation, the Department of Veterans Affairs continued to be buffeted by scandals, including a cover-up in an epidemic of veterans’ suicides and attempted suicides.

Last year, internal VA e-mails surfaced that showed how top agency officials tried to conceal the information from the public about the sudden increase in suicides and attempted suicides among veterans that were treated or sought help at VA hospitals around the country.

And last November, internal watchdogs discovered 500 benefits claims in shredding bins at the 41 of the 57 regional VA offices around the country.

Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a veterans’ advocacy group that sued the VA in federal court, said attempts by the White House to portray Bush as an advocate for veterans is beyond shameful.

“Bush is the worst failure for our veterans since Hoover,” Sullivan said, expressing shock that the President “would shamefully continue his legacy of lies to the American people as he and his political cronies are forced to leave office on Jan. 20.”

Sullivan disputed some of Bush’s claims as misleading, such as the assertion that he doubled funding for the VA. “However, President Bush failed to disclose that the number of veterans seeking VA healthcare doubled, from 2.7 million to 5.5 million, and that rising healthcare inflation actually resulted in a net decrease in spending per veteran by VA during the past eight years,” he said.

“If not for the intervention of Congress to substantially increase VA funding beyond Bush's inadequate budget requests, especially in the past two years, the situation would have deteriorated from a serious crisis to a catastrophe at VA.”

Read much more:
Consortiumnews.com

Why not discuss Nixon's VA funding...or Ford's, or fucking Adams???


500 benefit claims shredded?


How about 1.5 MILLION ????

The point is we're taking about THIS ADMINISTRATION'S failures.

You left-nuts have bemoaned Obamacare in saying that it didn't go far enough.....that you would have preferred a 'single payer' system/
Well, guess what, ass-hats? That's exactly what the fuck the VA is.
THERE is your single payer system.
This is what you fucking wanted?
Waiting lists and hidden and/or deleted waiting lists with people dying while they wait for care?

Ah, hell, let's try it out on our nation's heroes first...see how they fare.

because with everything these days you need context. Obama is to blame for doing very little. So is Bush. You can hold Obama's feet to the fire while not being so disingenuous about what Bush did. Blowing it off doesnt solve the issue. How about having some personal Integrity about the issue.

More to that point, Its pathetic, Pathetic that you people are making this into a political football about who did what. Just solve the damn issue and be done with it. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO we have to toss our partisan dicks around and wave our flgs saying we love the troops the most..

Grow up. Bush did jack shit for the troops, Own it. Obama ignored and appointed or continued on the guy who failed to sovle these issues. Own it.

Context?? You're one stupid fuck! This is all the contex anyone needs - ObamA was told about the problem 6 years ago and did nothing, as a result people died on his watch. Thats not Bush's fault, its your messiah's fault. Own it. And as far as you complaining people are politicizing this, you're stupid fuck. If ever a legimate reason to criticize an administration it's when vets die unecisary deaths on thier watch, but according to retards like you the president is always off limits.

 

[HelenaHandbag]

Let the Marines run the VA

Let Walmart run the VA.

 

[blackhawk]

First and it's truly sad to have to keep pointing this out but Bush is no longer President second the Bush administration transition team did inform the Obama people about this third the VA problems didn't start with Obama or with Bush they have been around for a very long time but the lid on this blew off under Obama so fair or unfair it falls on him that's just how it is in politics.

 

[Rocko]

First and it's truly sad to have to keep pointing this out but Bush is no longer President second the Bush administration transition team did inform the Obama people about this third the VA problems didn't start with Obama or with Bush they have been around for a very long time but the lid on this blew off under Obama so fair or unfair it falls on him that's just how it is in politics.

How's it unfair? Bush did a bad job, but that's besides the point. Obama knew about the problem and did nothing, and people died. Obama's failure had nothing to do with Boooosh.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Does anyone remember what Dems were like before they became Obama worshiping Zombies?

 

[blackhawk]

First and it's truly sad to have to keep pointing this out but Bush is no longer President second the Bush administration transition team did inform the Obama people about this third the VA problems didn't start with Obama or with Bush they have been around for a very long time but the lid on this blew off under Obama so fair or unfair it falls on him that's just how it is in politics.

How's it unfair? Bush did a bad job, but that's besides the point. Obama knew about the problem and did nothing, and people died. Obama's failure had nothing to do with Boooosh.

Wasn't claiming it did just pointing out to the hyper partisans on both sides who like to think every problem in the country started with either Bush or Obama is not the case this whole thing could have hit the fan under Bush it could have under who ever follows Obama it just so happens it did under Obama so he get's all the heat for it some may think and probably that's unfair but as I said it's just how politics is.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Please, Bush screwed up. Are all you Lefties happy now?


But that was 5 years ago and your Administration is still blaming bush instead of doing anything in the last 5 years to fix it...

So take your sorry ass Bush's fault shit and stick it. Obama now owns this mess.....Even if he still believes it's Bush's fault..........

Can any of the Obamabots own up to anything?

How about this.

It's high time to get serious about funding the VA and making sure they are operating efficiently.

Personally? I've been saying this for years.

Vets deserve the best benefits this country can offer.

That should be a non-partisan idea.

It is the government, efficiency is never going to happen.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

First and it's truly sad to have to keep pointing this out but Bush is no longer President second the Bush administration transition team did inform the Obama people about this third the VA problems didn't start with Obama or with Bush they have been around for a very long time but the lid on this blew off under Obama so fair or unfair it falls on him that's just how it is in politics.

Even the Democrats in Congress are figuring that part out, but the idiots here keep blaming him.

 

[TemplarKormac]

President Bush has remained committed to ensuring all veterans receive the care and support they need from the Federal government. Under his leadership, the Administration has:
Dramatically Increased Funding To Support And Care For Those Who Have Served Our Nation

• Increased funding for veterans' medical care by more than 115 percent since 2001.
• FY 2009 funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) totals more than $97 billion, nearly double the level of funding when the President took office and the highest level of support for veterans in history.
• Provided more than $6 billion to modernize and expand VA medical facilities and more than $1 billion over the past three years to support traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder treatment and research.
• Honored our veterans with a hallowed, final resting place by implementing and fully funding the largest expansion in the national cemetery system since the Civil War.

Improved Care And Services For Wounded Warriors

• Created the Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors – co-chaired by former Senator Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala – to ensure that wounded service members and veterans receive quality care and services and can live lives of hope, promise, and dignity. Nearly all of the Commission's recommendations have already been implemented, such as:
  • Expanded training, screening, and staff resources to help service members and veterans suffering from mental health disorders.
  • Created a joint Recovery Coordinator Program for seriously injured service members.
  • Initiated a pilot program to replace the cumbersome system of two separate disability examinations with a single, comprehensive medical exam.
• Established a Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury and expanded VA's polytrauma system of care to 21 network sites and clinic support teams to provide state-of-the-art treatment to injured veterans at facilities closer to their homes.

Ensured Those Who Have Served Our Country Receive The Benefits They Deserve

• Called for and signed a GI Bill for the 21st century, which expanded education benefits for service members and veterans and made it easier for those who defend our Nation to transfer unused education benefits to their spouses or children.
• Increased career counseling services for returning veterans, particularly those wounded in combat.
• Signed legislation that increased from two to five years a combat veteran's eligibility to enroll for lifetime VA medical care and allowed family members of injured service members to take additional time away from their jobs to care for their loved ones.
• Signed legislation to ensure military retirees with severe disabilities receive both their military retired pay and their VA disability compensation.
• Helped more than 1.9 million veterans enroll in the VA health care system since 2001.
• Reduced the average length of time to process a veteran's disability claim to under 180 days, down from 230 days when the President took office.

Worked To Decrease The Number Of Homeless Veterans

• Expanded Federal grants and worked extensively with faith-based and community organizations to help homeless veterans.
• Cut the number of homeless veterans by nearly 40 percent from 2001 to 2007.

THE BUSH RECORD - FACT SHEET: The Bush Administration Has Provided Unprecedented Support for Our Veterans

 

[The T]

Does anyone remember what Dems were like before they became Obama worshiping Zombies?

Clinton-Worshiping Zombies?

 

[Missourian]

the treatment of veterans returning from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a national disgrace, highlighted most dramatically by the neglect and substandard care given wounded troops at Walter Reed and other military hospitals.

The budget increases that have occurred mostly were enacted over Bush’s opposition or related to the fact that injuries from the Iraq War far exceeded the administration’s rosy projections in early 2003. The Bush team especially underestimated how many cases of post-traumatic stress disorder to anticipate as well as the number of brain injuries, which have been endemic to the Iraq War where insurgents made effective use of “improvised explosive devices,” or IEDs.

Before Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, documents released by the Department of Veterans Affairs said it expected a maximum of 8,000 cases of post-traumatic stress disorder.

However, according to a study released last year by the RAND Institute, there are more than 320,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars suffering from major depression, PTSD and/or traumatic brain injury. The report found that the VA has been and continues to be ill-equipped to deal with these cases when soldiers return from combat, especially after multiple tours.

An Army task force last year also found major flaws in the way the VA treated and cared for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

Bush’s Record on VA Funding

For his part, Bush stacked the VA with political cronies, such as former Republican National Committee chairman Jim Nicholson, who as VA Secretary defended a budget measure that sought major cuts in staffing for healthcare and at the Board of Veterans Appeals; slashed funding for nursing home care; and blocked four legislative measures aimed at streamlining the backlog of veterans benefits claims.

Of the 84,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by VA, only half, about 42,000, had their disability claim approved by VA. Instead of expediting PTSD claims, Bush's political appointees at VA actively fought against mental health claims.

Bush's appointees also obstructed scientific research into the causes of Gulf War illnesses dating back 18 years to Operation Desert Storm and opposed medical research on treatment for 210,000 of those veterans.

As for funding, Bush proposed a 0.5 percent budget increase for the VA for fiscal year 2006, which amounted to a “cruel mockery” of Bush’s promises to do everything to support veterans and soldiers, Rep. Lane Evans, D-Illinois, said at the time.

Evans called Bush’s proposed budget increase for the VA “grossly inadequate,” saying it would force the VA to “ration” healthcare to veterans.
VA officials had testified in 2005 that the agency needed at least a 13 percent increase to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of war veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and others who needed long-term mental health care.

In early 2007, the Washington Post put a spotlight on the human consequences resulting from the combination of Bush’s wars and the budget squeeze.

The Post published a series of articles documenting the substandard conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which is located only 4.7 miles from the White House. Wounded vets were housed in rooms with moldy walls, leaky plumage and an infestation of vermin, underscoring how out of touch Bush had become regarding the nation’s veterans.

In response to complaints that some veterans under VA care were being neglected, Nicholson said in March 2007 that such cases were “anecdotal exceptions.”

“When you are treating so many people there is always going to be a linen towel left somewhere,” he said.

In May 2007, the AP revealed that while Nicholson was pinching pennies on treatment costs and coping with a $1.3 billion budget shortfall, he awarded “$3.8 million in bonuses to top executives in fiscal 2006″ — many as much as $33,000.

Simultaneously, Bush was resisting congressional efforts to beef up the VA’s budget. In May 2007, Bush threatened to veto legislation that sought a 10 percent—$3.2 billion—increase, calling it too expensive. Bush proposed a 2 percent increase, far below what lawmakers and VA officials said was needed to treat a dramatic increase in traumatic brain injury and PTSD cases.

After Congress passed the legislation with the higher VA spending, Bush backed down on his veto threat but that was largely due to the fact that every Republican in the Senate with the exception of Jim DeMint of South Carolina, supported the measure.

Amid the growing scandals about substandard VA treatment and inept management, Nicholson resigned in July 2007.

Suicide Epidemic

Even after Nicholson’s resignation, the Department of Veterans Affairs continued to be buffeted by scandals, including a cover-up in an epidemic of veterans’ suicides and attempted suicides.

Last year, internal VA e-mails surfaced that showed how top agency officials tried to conceal the information from the public about the sudden increase in suicides and attempted suicides among veterans that were treated or sought help at VA hospitals around the country.

And last November, internal watchdogs discovered 500 benefits claims in shredding bins at the 41 of the 57 regional VA offices around the country.

Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, a veterans’ advocacy group that sued the VA in federal court, said attempts by the White House to portray Bush as an advocate for veterans is beyond shameful.

“Bush is the worst failure for our veterans since Hoover,” Sullivan said, expressing shock that the President “would shamefully continue his legacy of lies to the American people as he and his political cronies are forced to leave office on Jan. 20.”

Sullivan disputed some of Bush’s claims as misleading, such as the assertion that he doubled funding for the VA. “However, President Bush failed to disclose that the number of veterans seeking VA healthcare doubled, from 2.7 million to 5.5 million, and that rising healthcare inflation actually resulted in a net decrease in spending per veteran by VA during the past eight years,” he said.

“If not for the intervention of Congress to substantially increase VA funding beyond Bush's inadequate budget requests, especially in the past two years, the situation would have deteriorated from a serious crisis to a catastrophe at VA.”

Read much more:
Consortiumnews.com

Now here this! Now here this! Stay Tuned for a Breaking News Bulletin!!!


George W. Bush is no longer president!!!


That's right folks, you heard it here first...there have been not one, but TWO presidential elections since George Bush was last president of the United States.

It's true folks...Barrack H. Obama has been...I repeat HAS BEEN the President of the United States for the previous FIVE YEARS!!!

That's right folks, as shocking as it seems, George Bush has NOT been president for half a decade!!!

This ends our Special Bulletin, we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread...please stay tuned for more breaking news at the top of the hour.

 

[Missourian]

Then-Senator Barack Obama, November 12, 2007: “After seven years of an Administration that has stretched our military to the breaking point, ignored deplorable conditions at some VA hospitals, and neglected the planning and preparation necessary to care for our returning heroes, America’s veterans deserve a President who will fight for them not just when it’s easy or convenient, but every hour of every day for the next four years.”

Obama, 2007: Time to End 'Deplorable Conditions at Some VA Hospitals' | National Review Online


Obama was right...unfortunately they are still waiting for the president they deserve.

 

[Avatar4321]

You act like Bush's record somehow excuses Obama. Obama campaigned on improving the VA for our veterans. Any problems now are on Obama.

 

[Steve_McGarrett]

Then-Senator Barack Obama, November 12, 2007: “After seven years of an Administration that has stretched our military to the breaking point, ignored deplorable conditions at some VA hospitals, and neglected the planning and preparation necessary to care for our returning heroes, America’s veterans deserve a President who will fight for them not just when it’s easy or convenient, but every hour of every day for the next four years.”

Obama, 2007: Time to End 'Deplorable Conditions at Some VA Hospitals' | National Review Online


Obama was right...unfortunately they are still waiting for the president they deserve.

That would be the honorable Sarah Palin, a patriotic woman who cherishes and loves the fighting men and veterans of the United States military.

 

[Clementine]

Since you're bringing up George W. Bush (what a surprise)...

....what is Bush's record for vets dying while waiting for VA health care?

Only a fraction were on waiting lists compared to now. Also, Obama is acting upset at finding out about it though the left acts like Bush should have known more than Obama.

Obama was on the VA committee so should have been aware of what was going on before he became president.