President Obama said Friday he accepted the resignation of embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki.
He made the announcement shortly after Shinseki apologized publicly Friday for what he called an “indefensible” lack of integrity among some senior leaders of the VA health-care system and announced several remedial steps, including a process to remove top officials at the troubled VA medical center in Phoenix.
Here’s Shinseki’s speech outlining changes:
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Too little, too late.
Obama should have fired him when this first broke. He thought that this was just a ‘made-up’ scandal he could ride out like all the others the press has given him a pass on.
The manager of every single facility where the false reports were being filed needs to be removed, along with every employee that ever filed a false one.
Then, MAYBE I’ll trust he’s interested in solving something.
“Firing” is for the little people.
Merely being removed is simply not enough. They need to be prosecuted criminally, I’m thinking something along the lines of reckless endangerment for every person on those lists that they were responsible for. This needs to be the standard prosecutorial process for every one of them. Workers at the VA need to be terrified, not just of losing their jobs but being incarcerated on felony charges. That is the only way we can make sure this doesn’t happen again. And I do not trust the federal government to do that. This needs to be done at the state and local levels so that Eric Holder can’t whitewash it and claim “prosecutorial discretion” again like he is wont to do on so many occasions.
Meanwhile, what’s Obama doing to actually fix the problem?
Obama fix a problem? IMO every effort he puts forth only makes the problem worse.
Yawn, another Obama scapegoat.
Obama needs to resign.
If he had a shred of integrity, he would.
Therefore, he will be in office until they drag him out. Unless we all pitch in and offer him a golf vakay in Oahu in the last month of his term.
Hard to believe– Vets not being able to see a doctor, secret waiting lists, vets dying waiting to get on the “real” list, and Administrators getting rich off dead veterans in waiting–is POLITICAL!
Harder to believe–Today’s POLITICAL SOLUTION to a NON-POLITICAL PROBLEM.
Every time I think I cannot feel more ashamed of what this country has become….UGH!!
I doubt if I’m the only one that would have preferred he use the ancient and honorable Japanese method of apology.
What of the hospital administrators that created these secret lists so they could cash in on bonuses?
What of the doctors, that knew of the massive backlog, yet only see 2 patients a day and spend the rest of the day sipping scotch at the Country Club?
Sure, Shinseki needed to resign, but until proven otherwise he didn’t do this. I want the people that actually did this.
Since it wasn’t limited to just a single hospital, it’s safe to say this is indicative of the culture of the VA. That comes straight from the top.
If by “culture” you mean a crime syndicate, punishable under R.I.C.O., then I agree.
Organizational culture is certainly a factor here.
So, too, are the perverse incentives built into the system.
I do NOT think any Federal employee should have a bonus for simply doing their job. Most of them are over-compensated already, relative to their peers in the private sector.
The only bonus I can see being justified is as a reward for an actual innovation that benefits the public. Of course, innovation in BIG GOVERNMENT is a true aberration.
Bureaucracy sucks. (to put it nicely)
You are too nice. I have for several decades described it thus: The government is an idiot.
Obama “reluctantly” accepted the resignation. He was reluctant because that leaves him as the face of this debacle and therefore unable to deflect as usual.
Perhaps the IRS should begin auditing those in the VA that received bonuses in the past few years to see what else they put on a “secret list.”
Obama “reluctantly” accepted the resignation.
Just as Shinseki reluctantly offered it.
Should but won’t. The IRS has it’s own problem with unearned bonuses. Wouldn’t do to start investigating others bonuses,might give people ideas.
Eric Shinseki wsa a purely a political reward appointment. He was a hero to the Left for his anti-Iraq War position and was rewarded with a job for which it turned out that he was completely unqualified to perform. the same with Chuck Hagel – an embittered, alcoholic, defeatist, anti-military, anti-Semite who although a “social reactionary” was forgiven by the Left and was rewarded with the Pentagon job for being a useful idiot for Obama.
He should have been a hero to the Right for his anti-Iraq War position or rather his willingness to put a realistic figure on how many troops were needed. You do remember how that turned out?
Sorry for the misspelling. I hit post before proofing.
Having been in the Army for 28 years, every General who ever visits a unit or post knows that the highest ranking officers below him have orchestrated a dog and pony show, painted rocks and only let him talk to the soldiers who will say everything is fine. Any leader worth their salt has to go behind the curtain to find out what is really happening and not fall for the whitewash. If Shinseki did not know this, then he is either lazy or an idiot. He had plenty of warnings and notice. He choose to sit on his duff and collect his salary and he certainly deserves to go.
As for the executives, this is truly a criminal enterprise. Apparently, everyone was interested in getting the bonuses by lying. This is: false official statements on Federal documents; probably mail or wire fraud and certainly theft of money because they took bonuses to which they knew they were not entitled. Long prison sentences for every swinging Richard!
Thanks for your career of service, Ground Pounder.
I predicted that he would be the Friday “dump” – like the document dump, or that which is thrown under the bus.
He only surprises by doing this at noon.
Unfortunately, no problems are solved; the VA should be abolished, and every vet given a card that will allow him/her to see ANY doctor or choose any hospital for treatment.
The US government should pay 100%, at current market prices.
Otherwise, get the government OUT of providing this nightmare “care”!!!
The rank and file knew that many VA hospitals were useless as far back as 1970. These recent developments indicate the rot has spread through the entire system.
I don’t think that any President actually took a look at the mess and tried to clean it up.
Lot’s of things that were falling apart hit the hog wallow on Zero’s shift, and this was foreseeable, IMO. No one with a lick of sense would want that office in the best of times, and we had the worst of times due. And we ended up with the worst of Administrators in office. Ohhhh, I’m so happy.
Who will resign for Obamacare?
And while we’re at it …
Who will resign for Benghazi?
Who will resign for the IRS?
Too bad. Guy had a distinguished military career. Combat infantry commands in Vietnam. Ranger. Purple Heart. Bronze Star. In sum, a bad ass.
I don’t see how he could have such a long and distinguished military career and not want to do good for the vets. I hope he’ll write a book or do extensive interviews to explain why he was unable to fix the bureaucracy.
Until then, he’ll be remembered as the fall guy for an incompetent president. Sad ending.
Boy oh boy, things are gonna be different now!
I’ve had occasional contact with the VA medical services folks since the Jimmy Carter years and have been fortunate enough to receive what I consider better care by private healthcare providers due to continuous employer based health insurance. The VA medical system, as a whole, has been broken for decades. As the warts have erupted over the years lip service has been paid, time passes and all is forgotten until the next eruption.
Healthcare in the US has advanced in both quality and availability to the point where a separate veteran’s medical services system just isn’t necessary. VA medical services should be phased out rather than reformed. There’s no good reason why veteran medical benefits can’t be provided by the civilian world. Doesn’t matter whether it’s general care, trauma care, mental health or rehab the care can be reasonably accessible to a veteran. The VA doesn’t do anything not available in the real world. Simply allow the benefits to follow the veteran.
In 2009, President Obama appointed Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to lead a massive transformation of the VA into a high-performing 21st century organization that can better serve Veterans. Under the leadership of Secretary Shinseki, the VA has adopted three guiding principles to govern the changes underway, namely being people-centric, results-driven, and forward-looking. These principles are reflected in the 16 major initiatives that serve as a platform from which transformation is being executed.
The 16 major initiatives are:
Eliminating Veteran homelessness
Enabling 21st century benefits delivery and services
Automating GI Bill benefits
Creating Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record
Improving Veterans’ mental health
Building Veterans Relationship Management capability to enable convenient, seamless interactions
Designing a Veteran-centric health care model to help Veterans navigate the health care delivery system and receive coordinated care
Enhancing the Veteran experience and access to health care
Ensuring preparedness to meet emergent national needs
Developing capabilities and enabling systems to drive performance and outcomes.
Establishing strong VA management infrastructure and integrated operating model
Transforming human capital management
Performing research and development to enhance the long-term health and well-being of Veterans
Optimizing the utilization of VA’s Capital portfolio by implementing and executing the Strategic Capital Investment Planning (SCIP) process
Improving the quality of health care while reducing cost
Transforming health care delivery through health informatics
http://www.va.gov/about_va/vahistory.asp
The missing chapter from “Dreams from My Father”
Keep in mind that this is in no way a punishment for Shinseki.
1) He keeps his military retirement.
2) While I am not sure about the details, I would be horribly surprised if his “service” as the civilian head of the VA did not either give him another pension or add to his military pension.
3) Note that his departure was not involuntary, but a resignation. Nothing disciplinary at all.
4) Given that the corruption and veteran deaths, and the bonuses to the administrators were over a prolonged period of time and covered widely separated VA regions; it is surely nationwide and standard practice. Since the bonuses are known to be bogus, it would be normal in a corrupt organization for there to be kickbacks to the higher levels for the bonuses. All the way to Shinseki. Poor baby lost that income stream.
5) However, it can be assumed that within a very short period of time that Shinseki will get another no-work, high pay job with a Democrat NGO. This will compensate him for either not writing a book, or for writing one that meets the approval of the rest of the corrupt.