Senator Tom Coburn forgets he was part of the problem

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 15, 2014

Senator Tom Coburn seems to forget that since 2004, he was part of the problem and not the solution. Coburn was complaining about the problems caused by the VA. The problem is, he was in office when it went from bad to worse. Every member of congress is responsible for what happened to our veterans. They want to use the Sgt. Schultz excuse. "I knew nothing."

"I know nothing, I was not here - I did not even get up this morning!"

It is unacceptable that the men and women who bravely fought for our freedom are losing their lives, not at the hands of terrorists or enemy combatants, but from neglect by the very government agency established to take care of them. (Senator Tom Coburn)

(WASHINGTON) -- In this week's Republican address, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn calls on President Obama to nominate a new Veterans Affairs Secretary to address what he deems "the myriad failings" at the agency.

Acknowledging the recent VA scandal dealing with long wait times and delays, Coburn says, "Veterans who have survived war should no longer have to do battle with bureaucracy to access the best possible care. It’s time to give our combat-impacted veterans the very best care that they have earned and deserve.”

Citing a bipartisan bill recently approved by the Senate, Coburn says passage of the legislation empowering veterans is just the beginning. The lawmaker adds that he will release an oversight report next week that "exposes a culture within the VA where vets are not always a priority and in which administrators manipulate both data and employees to give the appearance that all is well."

Wow sounded like he was really serious but the agency he should have been nailing was the Senate and the House considering they had control over the VA and the budget and held all the hearings year after year. He has been in his Senate office since 2004 but in political office since 1995.

Prior to his election to the Senate, Dr. Coburn represented Oklahoma's Second Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 1995 through 2001. He was first elected in 1994, then re-elected in 1996 and 1998, becoming the first Republican to hold the seat for consecutive terms. Dr. Coburn retired from Congress in 2001, fulfilling his pledge to serve no more than three terms in the House.

Here is another part of his bio.

Dr. Coburn's priorities in the Senate include reducing wasteful spending, protecting your liberty, balancing the budget, improving health care access and affordability, protecting the sanctity of all human life - including the unborn - and representing traditional, Oklahoma values. As a citizen legislator, Dr. Coburn has pledged to serve no more than two terms in the Senate and to continue to care for patients. He is a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Dr. Coburn also serves as Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

In all those years one thing is clear. He knew about the problems veterans were facing at least in his home state of Oklahoma. Veterans do not suffer quietly. They complain. First they fight for themselves but then when they get the run around, they call the people elected to serve them. Veterans call and the staffer takes the call, figures out what to do and then report to their boss, in this case, Coburn.

Nothing that happened in all these years should have surprised Coburn.

Oklahoma Veterans Center investigation raises more questions in 2008

Or this from 2012

In letters to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and Congressman James Lankford, state Rep. Anastasia A. Pittman has requested a federal investigation of employment practices, alleged civil rights violations and patient care at the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The center is in Pittman’s legislative district.

Nearly three months after an 85-year-old veteran died after being scalded in a whirlpool bath at the Claremore Veterans Center, the executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs has retired and the administrator of the center abruptly resigned.

A veterans affairs official said executive director Martha Spears retired Friday, citing her husband's ongoing medical issues. Claremore Veterans Center administrator Cynthia Adams did not give a reason for her resignation, said Larry Jordan, administrative programs officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Claremore division.

Coburn would have known about the VA claims problems too,

An Oklahoma veteran is enjoying a long overdue payday. The former soldier, from Tulsa, finally received $600,000 in back benefits that he was never paid because of a paperwork error.

The veteran wants to keep his privacy about the money, so we won't use his name.

He recently got paid for a claim he filed in 1986.

Coburn would have known about the fact Oklahoma active military and veteran suicides rates were double the general population.

Oklahoma veterans and active-duty military personnel are killing themselves at twice the rate of civilians, despite increased efforts to address the problem.

The 2011 suicide rate for soldiers was about 44 per 100,000 population, according to an Oklahoma Watch analysis of Oklahoma State Department of Health data. This rate includes active-duty military as well as veterans from the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Gulf War, Vietnam, Korea and World War II. The civilian rate for people over the age of 18 was about 22 per 100,000.

In 2011, 141 of the state’s 684 suicides were veterans, according to state health department records.

The veteran suicide rate in Oklahoma is down from a peak of about 46 in 2008, but researchers said that year had increased suicides due to the Great Recession. The rate dropped to about 39 in 2009 and has since climbed back up.

But why remember all that? Why remember all the bills that were passed to "address the problems in the VA" when they had the umteenth chance to fix it once and for all? Why acknowledge what he knew when he knew it when he gets to pretend, he wasn't even there?