Jeff Miller Delivers PR Piece to CTA Lack of Caring for Veterans

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 3, 2014

I just got finished reading the latest PR release from the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Does he really think we're that stupid? Does he understand veterans have been paying attention for decades as elected officials refused to take responsibility for what they failed to do for decades? All this article was boiled down to an attempt to cover the asses of members of Congress.

Let's take this press release apart.

Oversight by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and whistleblower revelations have exposed widespread corruption, systemic delays in access to medical care and failures in accountability across the board at our nation’s second largest federal agency.

Oversite? Really? Exactly how many years did they hear veterans complain about what was going on? Exactly how many hearings did the House Veterans Affairs Committee ignore?

While members of the 113th Congress were supposed to be actually paying attention to what the VA heads were doing, they didn't. Chairman Jeff Miller does not get to use the Sgt. Schultz Excuse of knowing nothing-seeing nothing.

First on Jeff Miller and how long he has been in Congress. He became Chair of the Committee in 2010.

First elected to Congress in 2001, Miller represents the Panhandle -- Escambia, Holmes, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton and Washington counties. He was chosen to chair the Veterans Affairs Committee.

2003

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2003 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS, Washington, DC

Only days ago the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that for the first time it would use its authority to curtail new enrollments for veterans’ health care. VA reported that at least, and I emphasize at least, 200,000 veterans are waiting 6 months or longer for their first appointment with a VA doctor, and that estimate doesn’t count those still waiting to enroll in the system. Many of those waiting are 100 percent disabled and paralyzed veterans.

In fact, when Secretary Principi sent one of his deputies, Gordon Mansfield, a decorated Vietnam veteran paralyzed in combat, to try and enroll in VA health care, he was turned away in state after state due to overcrowding.

Earlier this month Chairman Buyer and committee staff visited one medical center in Florida and discovered that over 2,700 veterans are waiting to be scheduled to see a VA audiologist, over 4,000 veterans are waiting to see an eye specialist, and almost 700 are waiting to see a cardiologist. More than half of these veterans were high-priority veterans in categories 1 through 7. All reports indicate that a similar situation exists at a majority of VA medical centers throughout the country. Care delayed, I would respectfully submit, is care denied.

The word ‘‘crisis’’ is often overused in this town, but clearly VA health care is in crisis, the funding of VA health care, and it is at a crossroads. Last year I, along with my good friend Lane Evans, offered several bills seeking long-term solutions to VA health care funding problems.

2005

"When we learn that the VA health care budget is more than $1 billion short, we shouldn't tell our veterans that there isn't a crisis, we should tell them that we will do what it takes to make sure that they get the health care services they earned" said Obama. "That is why I once again am joining my colleagues in an effort to provide the VA with the funding it needs to fully meet the health needs of our veterans. Senator Murray's emergency supplemental funding bill is necessary to avoid what is clearly an on-coming crisis in the VA health system." (Obama Says $1 Billion Shortfall in VA Health Care Budget Requires Emergency Funding By: Barack Obama II Date: June 28, 2005 Location: Washington, DC)

2008

Committee chairman accuses VA of criminal negligence

12,000 veterans a year attempt suicide while under department treatment. "Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?" the e-mail asks.

The e-mail was among those recently disclosed during a trial in San Francisco that suggested some at the VA might have been attempting to hide the number of attempted suicides by those under the agency's care. Its disclosure prompted two Democratic senators to call for his resignation.

At the White House, press secretary Dana Perino said Bush has "full confidence in Secretary Peake and believes that he is handling it appropriately."

"It's a disgrace that veterans have to wait months or years for the benefits they have earned because of a bureaucracy that simply doesn't work," said Rep. John Hall, New York Democrat.

2009 
Republican priorities include trying to improve the benefits claims process. A $2.5 million increase would be used to hire 30 more people to train claims processors; $170 million would speed deployment of a paperless claims adjudication system; and $5 million would fund a two-year pilot program in which veterans could pick the regional office they want to process their claim based on a performance report.

In 2009, it took an average of 161 days to rate a disability claim. Today, it takes about 286 days, according to the VA's most recent figures.

The VA's claims backlog, which includes all benefits claims and all appeals at the Veterans Benefits Administration and the Board of Veterans Appeals at VA, was 803,000 on Jan. 5, 2009. The backlog hit 915,000 on May 4, 2009, a staggering 14 percent increase in four months.

2012
Congressman Marlin Stutzman (IN-03) and the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Jeff Miller (FL-01) held a veterans’ affairs forum in Fort Wayne Tuesday. Dozens of area vets showed up with concerns ranging from unemployment to mental health.

More than 100 veterans came to the Classic Cafe in Fort Wayne with questions or just wanting to hear what the congressional leaders had to say. Some shared worries about homeless vets not getting the proper care and others about the challenge of getting veterans jobs when they come back from service.

After a question about the increasing amount of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, Miller said the VA hospital is not prepared for the vets that are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

2013

"I'm concerned that we're not really seeing the results for the money Congress has provided to VA over the last years," Miller said. "VA has missed its own performance goal every single year and I think most committee members here are really very tired of the excuses that we keep hearing."

Now that you were reminded of all that, it makes this part all the more telling about how things got this bad.

"So how did things get to this point? The unfortunate truth is that top leaders simply ignored or denied the department’s problems at every turn."

Miller wants to blame the VA but as you can see, Congress did not do what they were supposed to do. They only claimed they were taking care of our veterans.

Miller claims

"House oversight was crucial in bringing VA’s problems to light, and it will not stop once the president signs the Veterans Access,"

But history has shown that is far from reality. These problems, issues and deception were not brought to public's attention because of Congress. Veterans went to reporters because no one in Congress did their jobs in the first place.

This part sums it all up brilliantly,

"It's impossible to solve problems by whitewashing them or denying they exist."