WASHINGTON
— An “open letter” from a senior Republican senator to the nation’s
veterans in which he castigates the leadership of veterans organizations
has prompted a brutal war of words over the Memorial Day weekend,
including a promise from the Veterans of Foreign Wars that its “hat in
hand” approach to Congress will turn more combative.
The
burgeoning controversy over delayed access to care at Department of
Veterans Affairs hospitals has always contained risks for Republicans
pushing the issue. The logical conclusions of the push would be either a
politically difficult effort to privatize veterans’ health care or to
supply substantially more money to a system burdened by veterans of the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an option veterans groups have demanded
but Republican leaders have resisted.
The open letter
from Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the ranking Republican
on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee — and the groups’ responses —
pushed that conflict into the open.
Mr. Burr, angry that only the
American Legion has called for the resignation of Veterans Affairs
Secretary Eric Shinseki, accused the groups of being “more interested in
defending the status quo within the V.A., protecting their
relationships with the agency, and securing access to the secretary and
his inner circle,” than helping members.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans and the Paralyzed Veterans of America hit back hard.
“For
years, the V.F.W. has come to Congress with hat in hand, and for years
we’ve heard the same old story,” the heads of the veterans groups wrote
to Mr. Burr. “You can be assured, Senator, that you’ve done a superb job
showing us the error in our ways. You can also be assured that in the
future, we will spend a substantial percentage of our time seeking to
inform our members and our constituents of the repeated failure to act
by our elected officials.”
To
that sentiment, the national president and the executive director of
the Paralyzed Veterans of America added, “Perhaps you should have shared
with all veterans in your ‘open’ letter that you cared so much about
their health care that you were not actually present during the
testimony that the V.S.O. representatives provided, and you did not ask a
single question.” V.S.O. stands for veterans service organizations.
“Regrettably,
Senator Burr shows no interest in pursuing policy solutions, preferring
instead to launch cheap political attacks on the integrity of leaders
of veterans organizations that do not agree with him,” wrote Joseph W.
Johnston, the national commander of the Disabled American Veterans.
Mr.
Burr, along with other senior Republicans such as Senator John Cornyn
of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, has called on Mr. Shinseki
to resign, a demand echoed by the American Legion but not by other
veterans groups or by Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio. Mr. Boehner on
Thursday said he was “getting a little closer” to demanding that the
former four-star general step down.
But
beneath the fight over Mr. Shinseki’s future is a potentially larger
war over the Veterans Affairs hospital system itself.
Over the weekend,
the Obama administration said it would allow more veterans to get access
to care through private health facilities to ease the backlog at the
V.A.'s 152 medical centers and 900 community care facilities.
Republican
lawmakers in the House and the Senate are pushing further.
Representative Jeff Miller of Florida, the chairman of the House
Veterans Affairs Committee, said on Friday that he would introduce
legislation to give any veteran unable to obtain a V.A. appointment
within 30 days the option to go outside the system at the department’s
expense. “Now is the time for immediate action,” he said.
But
veterans groups are leery, and they maintain that the V.A.'s services
for spinal cord injury, blinded care, amputee care and other trauma
cannot be matched by private facilities. Over the past two to three
years, Veterans Affairs has had a net gain of 1.5 million patients,
200,000 of them with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain
injuries, said Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont and the
chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
Carl
Blake, the national legislative director of the Paralyzed Veterans of
America, testified this month before the Senate Veterans Affairs
Committee that “insufficient staffing, and by extension, insufficient
capacity is ultimately a reflection of insufficient resources that this
administration and previous administrations have requested.”
Joseph
A. Violante, the legislative director of the Disabled American
Veterans, said at the same hearing, “Simply giving a veteran a plastic
card and wishing them good luck in the private sector is no substitute
for a fully coordinated system of health care.”
Those
sentiments prompted Mr. Burr’s Memorial Day weekend blast. Relations
between Senate Republicans have been strained since February, when
Republicans blocked a vote on broad veterans legislation, written by Mr.
Sanders, that would have bolstered health and dental care, authorized
27 new clinics and medical facilities, bolstered veterans education
programs, and dealt with veterans who suffered sexual trauma while in
the military.
Republicans
complained that Democratic leaders were not allowing them to amend the
bill, especially with bolstered sanctions on Iran. But at heart is a
budget fight. Republican leaders say that Veterans Affairs has the money
it needs, but that it is plagued by inefficiency and poor management.
Mr. Burr spared the American Legion, saying, “It is clear that the Legion has been listening to its membership.”
He then all but called for a purge of the other veterans groups.
“I
fear that change within the V.A. will not be possible unless and until
these organizations also reconsider their role, as well as the nature of
their relationship with the V.A.,” he wrote.
The
responses were unusually personal. Bill Lawson, the national president
of the paralyzed veterans group, and Homer S. Townsend Jr., the
executive director, criticized Mr. Burr for supporting the filibuster of
the veterans bill in February, and said that “every member of Congress
should be embarrassed” by the senator’s letter.
“Only
a politician would be so bold as to believe he or she knows better what
veterans want and need than actual veterans themselves,” they wrote.
“You clearly represent the worst of politics in this country.”
William
A. Thien, the commander in chief of the V.F.W., and John E. Hamilton,
the adjutant general, called Mr. Burr’s letter a “monumental cheap shot”
and “clearly one of the most dishonorable and grossly inappropriate
acts that we’ve witnessed in more than 40 years of involvement with the
veterans community.”
The
V.F.W. letter pointed to a staff with more than 47 combat deployments
in Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, four Purple Hearts, 16 Air
Medals, Bronze Stars and other honors.
“I
suggest you compare the more than exorbitant amount of days off you
receive, including virtually the whole month of August, two weeks around
Easter/Passover, and certainly not a single five-day workweek, to the
oftentimes long, arduous hours they put forth every week of the year,”
the letter said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/us/veterans-groups-lash-out-at-republican-senator.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0
- Here's what We The People can do here now:
2014: It's time to work to elect Constitutional Independent Representatives not funded by special interests.
Regards,
Richard <Ricardo Carlos> Charles
Now voters may better appreciate why we are taking
on the responsibility of the Nevada Libertarian Party
nominated Common Sense Fresh Start Politics of
Prosperity Constitutional Campaign for
US Representative in Las Vegas District 1.
Join the campaign for Constitutional Government with more Justice, Life, Liberty, Peace and Prosperity for All.Compra Los Documentos Fundadores EstadoUnidenses
en el Espanol, aqui':
https://www.createspace.com/4677401http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IX3Q5I2http://www.amazon.com/Project-Fresh-Start-Politics-Prosperity/dp/149213452X
Get the campaign eBook here:
http://www.amazon.com/Project-Fresh-Start-Politics-Prosperity-ebook/dp/B00ENPP7WE
Register to vote Libertarian in Las Vegas here:
http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/depts/election/pages/registertovote.aspxhttp://nvsos.gov/index.aspx?page=703
Tweet the campaign here:
https://twitter.com/RichardCharlesI
Support our Americans First Common Sense
Constitutional campaign here, $100 or less per election,
registered voters only, thanks:
Feel free to share this alert with significant others to leaven the way for justice, liberty, life, opportunity, peace and prosperity for all
No comments:
Post a Comment