Joe Klein just noticed veterans are suffering?

UPDATE

Paul Rieckhoff just wrote a good piece on CNN about the backlog but again, all of this was missed in that report too.
U.S. shamefully slow to help vets

Joe Klein just noticed veterans are suffering?
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
March 16, 2013

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day but Klein must have thought the Blarney stone would save him. After all it has become the cause of many "reporters" coming out and jumping all over the administration because veterans are suffering.

Klein wants to blame Eric Shinseki and the Obama Administration. Why are they such an easy target? Simple, Klein like too many other reports don't have a single clue what has been going on. First take a look and the budget President Obama submitted for the VA 2010 budget for 2011 for 2012 and for 2013

Joe Klein should really know better than to say Eric Shinseki should be a public advocate since when he does talk, no one in the press covers it. How many times has he testified at hearings saying what is needed and has been needed since he took over as Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2009? How much coverage did they give him when he was speaking out against what was done in Iraq? The truth is Congress is in control over what does or does not get done at the VA just like they do with the Department of Defense. If they don't do their jobs, they get to pass the buck literally. What the Congress does or does not do is supposed to be reported by the press so the people know what the hell is going on. Taking care of our veterans has never, ever, been fully done and the press has been lousy at reporting on it. They cant' even get straight the number of servicemen and women who committed suicide last year!

Battleland
Latest Column: The VA Mess
By Joe Klein
March 16, 2013

Eric Shinseki is a fine man, and a courageous one. He spoke truth to power at the beginning of the Iraq war. But he has not been an effective Sercretary of Veterans Affairs and it is time for him to go.

I’m sorry I didn’t post this column several days ago, when it first went online. It has caused a fair amount of controversy in the veterans’ community. There are many other details I could have added. For example, Bob Kerrey told me that when he moved from New York to Nebraska to run for the U.S. Senate, he had to actually go to the local VA hospital several times over the course of several weeks to get his disability records transferred (he was able to get his bank accounts transferred, electronically, overnight). The hassles aren’t limited to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans; they are multifarious.
read more here

Guys like Klein crack me up. It is as if all this started yesterday! They get away with pretending PTSD is new and that the billions being spent on "research" is a step in the right direction and they also forgot how to actually do interviews with people while knowing what the real answer should fit with. How about they start with the claims made by military brass about addressing suicides? How do they explain the numbers going up after all these years of hearing they have a plan, program, addressed it and fixed it only to have to be interviewed a month later by someone else letting them get away with making all the same claims again because reporters are too lazy to look up the facts? Answer that one.

That's the biggest scam of all. We read all the reports from across the country so we know what is going on and the power of the press when someone in their local communities are getting screwed and need help from their communities. How many times have you read on this blog a veteran got justice because a reporter gave a damn and went to work to make sure the public knew what was going on? These big boys can't even get straight what is going on day to day. Did they even mention over all these years that while President Obama has been doing budgets the congress has not passed a doable budget in what, four years? The majority of the American people elect the President and he is supposed to set the agenda for the whole country. Members of the Senate and House are elected by their areas of their states. They are supposed to figure out how to do what the majority of the American people want, not figure out how to stop the President. Then they are supposed to make sure that all the parts of the government work since they are responsible for funding them. When there are problems, like the massive problems with the VA, they are supposed to figure out how to fix them.

I'm going to be very clear here and break this down since Klien doesn't seem to know what the hell has been going on under Shineski.

AGENT ORANGE AND VIETNAM VETERANS 40 YEARS OF AGONY.

"Last October, based on the requirements of the Agent Orange Act of 1991 and the Institute of Medicine’s report, “Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2008,” I determined that the evidence provided was sufficient to support presumptions of service connection for three additional diseases: Parkinson’s Disease, Hairy Cell and other Chronic B-Cell Leukemia, and Ischemic Heart Disease. After a public rulemaking process, we are now issuing a final regulation creating these new presumptions.

This action means that Veterans who were exposed to herbicides in service and who suffer from one of the “presumed” illnesses do not have to prove an association between their medical problems and their military service. This action helps Veterans to overcome the evidentiary requirements that might otherwise make it difficult for them to establish such an association in order to qualify for healthcare and other benefits needed as a result of their diseases. The “Presumption” simplifies and accelerates the application process and ensures that Veterans will receive the benefits they deserve.

As many as 150,000 Veterans may submit Agent Orange claims in the next 12 to 18 months. Additionally, VA will review approximately 90,000 previously denied claims from Vietnam Veterans for service connection for these three new diseases. All those who are awarded service-connection, and who are not currently enrolled in the VA health care system, will become eligible for enrollment." (Agent Orange and Veterans: A 40-Year Wait, Secretary Eric K. Shinseki August 30, 2010 White House Blog)

VIETNAM VETERANS AND PTSD CLAIMS

V.A. Is Easing Rules to Cover Stress Disorder
New York Times
By JAMES DAO
Published: July 7, 2010

The government is preparing to issue new rules that will make it substantially easier for veterans who have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits, a change that could affect hundreds of thousands of veterans from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

The regulations from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which will take effect as early as Monday and cost as much as $5 billion over several years according to Congressional analysts, will essentially eliminate a requirement that veterans document specific events like bomb blasts, firefights or mortar attacks that might have caused P.T.S.D., an illness characterized by emotional numbness, irritability and flashbacks.

For decades, veterans have complained that finding such records was extremely time consuming and sometimes impossible. And in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans groups assert that the current rules discriminate against tens of thousands of service members — many of them women — who did not serve in combat roles but nevertheless suffered traumatic experiences.

HOMELESS VETERANS

Shinseki cites plight, plan to help homeless veterans
Washington Post
By Ed O'Keefe and Garance Franke-Ruta
November 04, 2009

The Department of Veterans Affairs laid out Tuesday an ambitious five-year goal of curbing the number of homeless veterans, pledging $3.2 billion to an issue that is more rapidly affecting those who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars than by any from past conflicts.

"No one who has served this nation as veterans should ever be living on the streets," VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said.

"In the past, VA focused largely on getting homeless veterans off the streets," Shinseki said. "This plan is different. It aims as much, if not more, on preventing as it does on rescuing those who live on the streets."

Roughly 131,000 of the nation's 24 million veterans may be homeless on any given night, and about twice as many are homeless each year, according to VA estimates. About 3 percent of homeless vets served in Iraq or Afghanistan, but a 2007 study by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America found that they become homeless faster than do other veterans.

While homeless Vietnam veterans first spent, on average, five to 10 years trying to readjust to society, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans can end up homeless within 18 months, the study said.

Now lets take a look at what Congress ended up doing.

AGENT ORANGE

Pass Agent Orange Act
Published: Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 8:53 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2013

With the elections over, the new House and Senate will have their first session in early 2013. They will be faced with many issues — old and new. It is time for the new Congress to put aside politics and become legislators. There are still two major bills in committee of interest to Vietnam veterans, HR 3612 and SB 1629. These bills would restore Veterans Affairs benefits for Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War.

The current House and Senate still have time to act upon these bills before January. These bills must come out of committee and go to the floor of both houses.

I ask the American people to urge our legislators to act on these bills. The Vietnam veterans who are sick from Agent Orange dioxin exposure need these bills to be passed into law before the new Congress convenes.

A new legislative session will require us advocates for Vietnam veterans to start again. This means longer delays for veterans' VA approval and thousands won't be approved because they did not have boots on ground, even though they were awarded the Vietnam Service Medal.

Many sailors, airmen and Fleet Marines who served during that war are sick from exposure to the deadly herbicide. The passage of these bills means these members of the armed forces will receive equality for VA benefits. John J. Bury
Media, Delaware County
The writer is retired from the U.S. Navy and is a Vietnam veteran.

HOMELESS VETERANS

April 8, 2011
Congressman Filner Introduces Legislation to Eliminate Veteran Homelessness

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Bob Filner, Ranking Democratic Member (D-CA) of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, reintroduced legislation that would further the goal of ending veteran homelessness in five years.

"We know the Department of Veterans Affairs has many programs to address currently homeless veterans, and they do a great job. However, the most important piece to ending homelessness among the nation's veteran population is to prevent it in the first place. It is unacceptable that even one of our veterans sleep on the streets or in shelters after risking their lives on behalf of this country. H.R. 806 will go a long way in strengthening our efforts to ultimately end homelessness," said Congressman Filner.

According to recent reports, approximately one-third of the adult homeless population served in the Armed Services. Population estimates also suggest that about 131,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.

This bill increases funding to successful programs for homeless veterans; requires each VA medical center that provides supporting housing services to provide housing counselors; requires housing counselors to conduct landlord research; strengthens permanent housing programs, and pays special interest to the needs of homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children.

H.R.806
Latest Title: End Veteran Homelessness Act of 2011
Sponsor: Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] (introduced 2/18/2011) Cosponsors (3)
Related Bills: S.1060
Latest Major Action: 3/15/2011 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Policy and Legislative Update: Contentious Issues Remain for the 112th Congress
Nov. 2, 2012

The second session of the 112th Congress is coming to a close, and a number of contentious legislative issues remain: among them, the imminent "sequestration" and scheduled expiration of the 2001 and 2003 (“Bush-era”) tax cuts. The former issue is of particular concern to homeless veteran service providers because of its potential impact on the Department of Labor-Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS), which administers the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP).

A report released by the Office of Management and Budget on Sept. 14 details the impact of sequestration – that is, $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that are scheduled to begin taking effect in January 2013, unless Congress intervenes. While this report confirmed that the entire Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) budget as well as all HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) vouchers are exempt from these cuts, HVRP remains at risk.

If sequestration takes effect as planned, the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program could be subject to a $4.346 million spending cut. At present, the program is only funded at $38.185 million.

Leadership from both parties oppose these indiscriminate spending cuts, yet an alternative to sequestration has not yet been reached. Congress will be back in session on Nov. 13 to potentially decide on this issue.

On PTSD claims we see what happened there as well with all the reporters suddenly waking up to these issues as if they just happened under President Obama. They got worse under him for several reasons but the biggest one is too many other President took a pass on actually doing something for the veterans waiting longer in line for some kind of justice as reporters slept!

Yes, that means you too Klien!