Issa says "Decades-old VA claims backlog inexcusable" so what's his excuse?

UPDATE
Last night I was mulling this over and remembered something that Issa didn't seem to understand along with the history of claim backlogs.

Obama: New PTSD rules 'long overdue step'
July 09, 2010
By the CNN Wire Staff

The Department of Veterans Affairs is making it easier for veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder to get benefits, a development President Barack Obama calls a "long overdue step."

In his weekly address Saturday, Obama said Veterans Affairs will launch new rules for easing PTSD documentation requirements starting next week.

Current department rules require veterans to document events like firefights or bomb explosions that could have caused the disorder. Such documentation was often time-consuming and difficult, and sometimes was impossible.
read more here

or this

VA Starts Paying New Agent Orange Claims
November 04, 2010
Terry Howell

On November 1, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that they had begun distributing disability benefits to Vietnam Veterans who qualify for compensation under new expanded Agent Orange exposure rules.
This means that up to 200,000 Vietnam Veterans may now be eligible to receive VA disability compensation for medical conditions recently associated with Agent Orange.

The expansion of coverage involves B-cell (or hairy-cell) leukemia, Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease.

According to the VA it will likely take several months for them to begin paying the initial payments or increases to existing payments. As reported on Military.com in March of this year, it is very important for those who were exposed to Agent Orange and suffer from one of the three diseases to submit their claims as soon as possible.
read more here

Why wouldn't he mention these? Simple. At the same time President Obama and his team were trying to do something good to help veterans, Congressmen like him were saying "cut the deficit" so they were not hiring people to handle all of these expanded claims to be processed.

Gee, does Issa remember a thing like this?

Jan. 11: Victory for Veterans - Judge Rules in Favor of VCS in Case Against VA
Veterans for Common Sense
Jan 11, 2008

January 10, 2008, Washington, DC – The U.S. District Court in San Francisco today handed an enormous victory to veterans who sued the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over lengthy delays for medical care and disability benefits. The Judge’s ruling means our class action lawsuit against VA will move forward, with the first court hearing scheduled for next month.

“We won this round against VA. Veterans will have our day in court. The VA must now release documents under discovery about their deliberate attempts to deny and delay medical care and disability benefits for all veterans, especially our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans,” said Paul Sullivan, the executive director of Veterans for Common Sense (VCS), the lead plaintiff organization that filed suit against VA.

On July 23, 2007, VCS and Veterans United for Truth (VUFT) filed a class action lawsuit against VA in order to force VA to provide prompt and high-quality medical care and disability benefits to veterans, especially those with mental health conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “Our Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are committing suicide while waiting for VA to answer their pleas for medical care. VA must make sure all our veterans receive prompt and high-quality medical care and disability benefits. The long waits at VA must end,” added Sullivan.
go here for the rest

That's the problem with politicians forgetting a thing called an archive because things like this are in it just like this one.

President Bush's VA Budget is $3 Billion Short

Vietnam Veterans of America: President Bush's VA Budget is $3 Billion Short
February 13, 2008 - "The annual exercise of debating the merits of the President's proposed budget is flawed," said John Rowan, National President of Vietnam Veterans of America, before the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "Medical Center directors should not be held in limbo as Congress adjusts this budget and misses, yet again, the start of the fiscal year.

I could go on posting even more but I think you get the idea. While veterans were coming home screaming for help, people like Issa didn't even care it was happening.

Rep.: Decades-old VA claims backlog inexcusable

By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 18, 2012

The Veterans Affairs Department announced Wednesday that almost 1.7 million people are using its online eBenefits information system — but that wasn’t sufficient to ward off continuing complaints from Congress about the backlog of claims.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Investigations Committee, said the average 188-day wait for a claim to be processed and an error rate of 16 percent on claims decisions are unacceptable.

But he doesn’t blame the Obama administration for the problem. “The system was broken in the Vietnam War when I enlisted, and it was never fixed,” said Issa, who joined the Army as a senior in high school, and later became an officer as a result of an ROTC scholarship.

Issa, who said he has no service-connected disability and has never filed a claim, said veterans are weary of promises with no results. “VA continues to claim it will get better, but they have not gotten better,” he said.
read more here