VA: Congress does nothing. Obama is doing what he can

[boutons_deux]

FACT SHEET: President Obama Announces New Executive Actions to Fulfill our Promises to Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/26/fact-sheet-president-obama-announces-new-executive-actions-fulfill-our-p

And :

http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-14-02603-267.pdf


Obama Wades Into North Carolina Battleground To Announce Reforms for Veterans (http://thinkprogress.org/election/2014/08/26/3475793/obama-north-carolina-veterans/)

Speaking in the midterm battleground state of North Carolina at one of the nation’s biggest annual gatherings of veterans, President Obama unveiled a host of new executive actions (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/26/fact-sheet-president-obama-announces-new-executive-actions-fulfill-our-p)Tuesday to address the problems former service members face in obtaining health care (http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/05/30/3443135/4-ways-to-fix-the-current-va-crisis/),going to college (http://thinkprogress.org/education/2012/06/26/506645/predatory-military-for-profits/), and buying a home (http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/10/05/336351/lawsuit-alleges-nations-biggest-banks-defrauded-veterans/).

“I want you to know directly from me that we are focused on this at the highest levels,” he told (http://www.c-span.org/video/?321148-1/president-obama-speech-american-legion-convention) the American Legion’s annual convention. “We are going to get to the bottom of these problems, we are going to fix what is wrong, we are going to do right by you, we are going to do right by your families. That is a solemn pledge.”

The speech in Charlotte, North Carolina comes in the midst of one of the tightest and most expensive (http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?disp=R) Senate race in the nation. Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis, who is attempting to unseat Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan, has used the VA scandal (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/north-carolina-sen-kay-hagan-braces-obamas-visit-state/) and other national issues to portray his opponent as a carbon-copy of the President.

Senator Hagan, who is considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in this year’s elections, was also at the conference, and spoke about the need for “a complete change in culture at the VA.”

She also sought this week (http://www.kayhagan.com/release/speaker-tillis-agenda-failed-nc-veterans/) to paint her opponent as the anti-veteran candidate. She points out that in his tenure as House Speaker,

Tillis has opposed raising the minimum wage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWb3PFcdI08), expanding Medicaid (http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/voteHistory/RollCallVoteTranscript.pl?sSession=2013&sChamber=H&RCS=69), regulating predatory payday lending companies (http://www.heraldsun.com/news/blog/state/x1065838518/AP-Lender-hosts-Tillis-event-days-after-bill-passes) and extending theEarned Income Tax Credit (http://www.ncjustice.org/sites/default/files/Military%20EITC%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf)—all issues that directly impact tens of thousands of military families in North Carolina.

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2014/08/26/3475793/obama-north-carolina-veterans/

[vy65]

No, the thing is he posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency. The torturers go free. The Wall Street executives go free. The war crimes in the Middle East, especially now in Gaza, the war criminals go free. And yet, you know, he acted as if he was both a progressive and as if he was concerned about the issues of serious injustice and inequality and it turned out that he’s just another neoliberal centrist with a smile and with a nice rhetorical flair. And that’s a very sad moment in the history of the nation because we are—we’re an empire in decline. Our culture is in increasing decay. Our school systems are in deep trouble. Our political system is dysfunctional. Our leaders are more and more bought off with legalized bribery and normalized corruption in Congress and too much of our civil life. You would think that we needed somebody—a Lincoln-like figure who could revive some democratic spirit and democratic possibility.

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/24/cornel_west_he_posed_as_a_progressive_and_turned_o ut_to_be_counterfeit_we_ended_up_with_a_wall_stree t_presidency_a_drone_presidency/

[boutons_deux]

No, the thing is he posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security presidency. The torturers go free. The Wall Street executives go free. The war crimes in the Middle East, especially now in Gaza, the war criminals go free. And yet, you know, he acted as if he was both a progressive and as if he was concerned about the issues of serious injustice and inequality and it turned out that he’s just another neoliberal centrist with a smile and with a nice rhetorical flair. And that’s a very sad moment in the history of the nation because we are—we’re an empire in decline. Our culture is in increasing decay. Our school systems are in deep trouble. Our political system is dysfunctional. Our leaders are more and more bought off with legalized bribery and normalized corruption in Congress and too much of our civil life. You would think that we needed somebody—a Lincoln-like figure who could revive some democratic spirit and democratic possibility.

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/24/cornel_west_he_posed_as_a_progressive_and_turned_o ut_to_be_counterfeit_we_ended_up_with_a_wall_stree t_presidency_a_drone_presidency/

Cornell West, as stupid as most Americans, thinks a US president has all the power to do what he wants, like a king or dictator, as if the Repugs, legislative and judicial, federal and state, didn't exist, haven't been, are, blocking, obstructing EVERYTHING the Dems propose, the Repug House blocking even the Senate Repugs.

[boutons_deux]

Sen. Ron Johnson purposely misled public, media on VA medical scandal (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/11/1370184/-Sen-Ron-Johnson-purposely-misled-public-media-on-VA-medical-nbsp-scandal)

Because Johnson's staff sat on Honl's tips (http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/ron-johnson-aides-sat-on-whistleblower-tips-on-tomah-va-b99458701z1-295675581.html) for months, and then—when the story broke—repeatedly lied to the media and the public about having taken action.


Aides to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson have stated repeatedly that they referred a whistleblower's complaints about the troubled Tomah VA Medical Center to a U.S. Senate oversight committee last year.One Johnson staffer told the whistleblower that back in October (http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/reaction-to-tomah-va-problems-follows-years-of-complaints-b99426525z1-288633441.html), and the assertion has been repeated in media reports (http://lacrossetribune.com/tomahjournal/news/local/va-to-probe-tomah-allegations/article_b3703620-e201-5fb3-853b-5cb90e737445.html) by another Johnson aide.

But a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who ran the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Federal Contracting Oversight, said Sunday that the whistleblower complaints never reached her or others in charge of the panel. […]

A Johnson spokeswoman responded Monday that the complaints filed last fall by Ryan Honl, a former Tomah employee, did go from one Johnson aide on his Senate staff to Johnson aides assigned to the subcommittee.

And there the complaints died.


Johnson was the ranking member on McCaskill's oversight committee, and he and his staff did nothing to bring this whistle-blower report to the committee's attention. His personal staff sent the information to the minority committee staff, and there it sat. Meanwhile,

Johnson and his staff repeatedly put out the lie that they had passed all the information on to the full committee.

When Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) found out that her local staff had also sat on Honl's complaints (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/295766981.html), she fired the staffer who blew it. Johnson, in contrast, just let his staff keep lying about it.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/11/1370184/-Sen-Ron-Johnson-purposely-misled-public-media-on-VA-medical-nbsp-scandal?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos %29#