Shinseki leaving solves nothing

How many times does this have to happen before Congress takes responsibility for what they got paid to do but refused to do? If they actually believe veterans have no clue what has been going on for decades then members of congress deserve what they get when veterans expose the decades of suffering they have had to go through.

How many more crisis reports do we have to get all upset about before veterans, all veterans, matter enough to fix the VA?

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigns
Stars and Stripes
By Jon Harper and Travis J. Tritten
Published: May 30, 2014


WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday accepted the resignation of Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki.

The move comes two days after the inspector general found VA officials throughout the system had been aware of records falsified to hide long delays before veterans could receive care.

Earlier Friday, Shinseki said senior leadership at the Phoenix VA will be fired and executive pay bonuses frozen as punishment for systemic scheduling abuses in the nationwide health care system.

The moves were among a series of initiatives, also including the removal of wait times in employee evaluations and support of legislation that removes administrative roadblocks to firing executives, unveiled by Shinseki during a rare public appearance amid increasing calls for his resignation.

Congress has called for firings and bold moves by VA leadership. On Friday, Shinseki offered an apology for what he called a “systemic totally unacceptable lack of integrity” in his department.

“I can’t explain the lack of integrity among some of the leaders of our health care facilities. This is something I rarely encountered in 38 years in uniform,” Shinseki said. “So, I will not defend it because it is indefensible. But I can take responsibility for it, and I do.”
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Shinseki had support of many vet groups until end
BY KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — He's one of them — a disabled veteran who lost part of his right foot to a mine in Vietnam, a soldier who riled his superiors in the Bush years by telling Congress the U.S. needed more troops in Iraq than the administration wanted.

That bond is why veterans groups overwhelmingly endorsed Eric Shinseki as Veterans Affairs secretary in 2009. And it's part of the reason many continued to support him until his resignation Friday in the firestorm surrounding lengthy waits for veterans to get care at VA hospitals and reports that employees had tried to cover them up.

"I extend an apology to the people whom I care most deeply about — that's the veterans of this great country — to their families and loved ones," Shinseki told advocates for homeless veterans Friday before giving President Barack Obama his resignation.

Support for Shinseki among vets groups was not universal. The American Legion led the call for his resignation.

"It is not the solution, yet it is a beginning," National Commander Daniel M. Dellinger said.

By all accounts, the VA is difficult to manage. Consider the numbers: 9 million veterans get health care from the VA and nearly 4 million receive compensation for injuries and illnesses incurred from their service. The department runs 150 hospitals and more than 800 outpatient clinics.

Shinseki, 71, served longer than any other VA secretary since 1989, when the agency became a cabinet-level department. President George W. Bush had three VA secretaries and one acting secretary during two terms. Shinseki's longevity gave him ownership of — and responsibility for — for the VA's myriad problems, many exacerbated by the needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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