-Eric Shinseki deflects Senate panel’s tough questions on Veterans Affairs scandals
-Five Times Obama Officials Expressed Outrage at Their Own Incompetence
May 16, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield
I suspect the real answer is as many as they can get. After all veterans tend to vote Republicans. Like cutting Medicare, cutting Tricare and letting the VA kill vets is one way to kill off the voters least likely to vote for the Democratic Party.
Still some questions are finally being asked.
Today White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough kept defending the record of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinkseki over his handling of the Veterans Administration hospitals scandal on CNN’s The Lead. Finally an increasingly agitated Jake Tapper grew frustrated with the excuses until he exploded in anger: “How Many Dead Veterans Do You Need?”
Jake Tapper is one of the few mainstream media people who still ask hard questions about Obama Inc. Here’s part of the transcript.
TAPPER: How many stories like this, how many letters like this, how many dead veterans do you need before somebody asks the question within the White House, maybe this guy isn’t the best steward of these veterans?
MCDONOUGH: The question, Jake, is, are we doing everything we can every day to get the veterans the care and the opportunities that they deserve?
TAPPER: But you are not. This letter was sent a year ago. And you guys ignored it.
MCDONOUGH: And we have been working aggressively to ensure that not only is health care expanded, opportunities made more ready to our vets, but that people are held to account, as Ric is doing in this case. We will continue to do that.
McDonough, a Center for American Progress player, like much of the rest of Obama Inc. is completely impermeable to shame, guilty or facts… the traditional tools of reporters in hard hitting interviews. He has his talking points about how things are getting better and will repeat them again and again.
And that’s Obama Inc. in microcosm. There is just no accountability.
MCDONOUGH: You heard what Ric said to the Senate committee today, that, in this instance, there’s been more than 250 cases of people who have been held accountable for their actions. He can explain that in great detail. The president, as soon as he heard about this latest outrage in Phoenix, called Ric and said, you know what, Ric? I need to know exactly what happened. I need to know exactly the accountability measures that you have and that you can institute, and if it’s not enough, then let’s change it and make sure that we hold people to account.
TAPPER: But I’m telling you right now that happened in 2011 under Secretary Shinseki, and that person was not held accountable. The person got a perfect performance review and got a bonus. There are lots of examples like this.
But Obama Inc. doesn’t care about facts. It tells blatant lies and tells them again and uses its political allied non-profits, e.g. CAP, to echo the lies to make it seem as if their big lie is a consensus.
Meanwhile veterans keep dying.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/cnn-reporter-to-white-house-how-many-dead-veterans-do-you-need/
Eric Shinseki deflects Senate panel’s tough questions on Veterans Affairs scandals
MAY 15, 2014 By Mark Flatten
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki dodged repeated questions about why he failed to ensure his underlings were not “cooking the books” on patient wait times despite years of warnings during a Senate hearing Thursday.
Senators from both parties pressed Shinseki about repeated warnings going back to 2010 documenting specific tactics being used at Veterans Affairs’ medical centers to hide huge backlogs of appointments for medical care.
Since then, a series of reports by the Government Accountability Office, the VA inspector general and Shinseki’s own internal medical investigators documented the existence of bogus waiting lists and other paperwork tricks at veterans hospitals nationwide.
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Yet Shinseki did not move to end the practice until reports surfaced in Congress a month ago that hospital administrators at the VA hospital in Phoenix were keeping phony appointment books to hide patient backlogs.
As many as 40 patients died there due to delays in care, according to allegations referred to the inspector general for investigation.
When Shinseki was repeatedly asked Thursday by members of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs how he had responded to the previous reports, and whether anyone was fired, he insisted on getting the results of the IG’s investigation and his own internal review of what happened in Phoenix before offering conclusions or taking disciplinary actions.
Several senators voiced frustration, pointing out they that were asking about Shinseki’s response to prior reports, not the ongoing investigation.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., ranking Republican on the committee, ticked through a list of previous investigations, all of which found records were being falsified at veterans’ health facilities to hide backlogs in care.
“VA’s leadership has either failed to connect the dots or failed to address this ongoing crisis, which has resulted in patient harm and even death,” Burr told Shinseki.
“The question we must answer today is, even with all of the information available to the secretary, starting over a year and a half ago, and specific instances of patient harm and death directly related to delays in care, why were the national audits and statements of concern from VA only made this month,” Burr said.
Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also wanted answers about why more has not been done to fix the problem.
“The criticism is that year after year reports have been made talking about these problems and the problems continue to exist,” Sanders said.
“In your judgment, based on what you know about people who were cooking the books, is that in fact a problem within the health care system?” Sanders asked.
“I’m not aware in other than a number of isolated cases where there is evidence of that,” Shinseki responded, adding that the Phoenix investigation and a separate internal audit will document the extent of the problem.
“The IG is going to get to the bottom of that,” Shinseki said.
Shinseki, who was put under oath before beginning his testimony, stuck to that answer as successive committee members asked him about reforms and discipline against agency managers caught falsifying wait times in previous investigations.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., cited an August 2010 internal VA memo that described multiple schemes investigators found being used at health care facilities to manipulate statistics on patient care delays.
That memo — from William Schoenhard, then deputy under secretary for health — called for an immediate end to the practices, including some similar to those allegedly used in Phoenix and other cities that have been exposed recently.
“It has come to my attention that in order to improve scores on assorted access measures, certain facilities have adopted use of inappropriate scheduling practices sometimes referred to as ‘gaming strategies,’” the Schoenhard memo said, calling those tactics inappropriate.
Shinseki said he was not familiar with that memo.
Robert Petzel, under secretary for health, was seated next to Shinseki during the hearing and said the agency does try to root out inappropriate scheduling practices.
“It’s absolutely inexcusable,” Petzel said.
Shinseki is under fire from Congress, veterans groups and the media amid widespread reports that delays in care and efforts to cover them up by manipulating paperwork has jeopardized the safety of patients and potentially led to deaths.
The Washington Examiner has reported on many of the tactics used by VA medical centers nationwide to hide large backlogs, some of which have been linked to patient deaths.
In February, the Examiner reported on mass purges of backlogged medical orders in Los Angeles and Dallas to reduce reported backlogs.
Citing GAO reports and testimony, the Examiner also showed earlier this month that more than 1.5 million medical orders were purged.
The allegations about secret waiting lists being kept in Phoenix were first revealed by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs during a hearing last month.
Miller said there were credible reports that two sets of books were kept at the Phoenix hospital to hide wait times that were longer than allowed in agency policies, and that as many as 40 patients died due to delayed care.
So far investigators have not confirmed any preventable deaths due to delays in care, said Richard Griffin, acting inspector general at VA.
Since Miller’s announcement, similar practices have been alleged at VA hospitals in Colorado and Texas.
Miller asked for an inspector general’s investigation, which was later supported by Shinseki.
GAO also is investigating the mass purging of backlogged medical orders to determine whether it resulted in patients being denied care.
Three top administrators at the Phoenix facility were put on administrative leave this month by Shinseki after the move was requested by the IG.
The practices allegedly used in Phoenix were described in a GAO report issued in December 2012.
Several senators asked whether any VA employees had been fired for manipulating patient wait times to meet agency guidelines.
“On this issue, have you ever fired anybody when you find out that they are manipulating the records?” Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, asked at one point.
“I would say manipulation of the data, the truth, is serious,” Shinseki responded.
“Would you fire them?” Begich pressed.
“I will do everything I can,” Shinseki said.
“That’s not the question,” Begich continued.
“There is a process here, senator,” Shinseki replied, again apparently referring to the ongoing investigation rather than past findings of wrongdoing. “Let me not get out ahead of it.”
Begich also asked whether anyone was fired after being identified in the 2010 investigation by Schoenhard.
Shinseki said he doesn’t know and hasn’t seen the memo.
“I would say if there was any manipulation that identified some individuals, I would expect to see their names on that list” of fired employees, Shinseki said.
He was referring to a list of approximately 3,000 VA employees forced out of the agency last year for any reason.
Reports of patients dying because of delays in care, manipulation of records and phony wait lists drew bipartisan outrage from members of the committee.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Ct., said falsifying records is a crime and the allegations warrant a criminal investigation by the FBI.
Shinseki said he would rely on the inspector general to make that decision.
Griffin, the acting IG, said he has criminal investigators working on the Phoenix case, and is cooperating with federal prosecutors to determine if criminal charges should be filed.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, questioned whether performance bonuses paid to top administrators created an incentive to cook the books, especially since there seems to be a lack of accountability at the VA.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., also suggested bonuses create a perverse incentive for wrongdoing.
“Clearly this problem has gone on far too long,” Murray said, noting there have been reports going back more than 10 years warning of falsification of patient wait times.
“The lack of transparency and the lack of accountability is inexcusable and cannot continue. The practices of intimidation and cover-up have to change. Giving bonuses to hospital directors for running a system that places priority on gaming the system and keeping their numbers rather than providing care to veterans has to come to an end,” Murray said.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/eric-shinseki-deflects-senate-panels-tough-questions-on-veterans-affairs-scandals/article/2548507
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Five Times Obama Officials Expressed Outrage at Their Own Incompetence
17 May 14 by Ben Shapiro
On Thursday, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki told a Senate committee that he was “mad at hell” after hearing of allegations that the VA had been falsifying waiting lists for patients and that some 40 veterans had died as a result.
White House press secretary Jay Carney quickly ran to the press to inform them that President Obama was “concerned and angry” over the allegations. White House chief of staff Denis McDonough went even further:
The fact of these deaths is an outrage to the president. He’s made that clear. And you heard what General Shinseki had to say today. He’s mad as hell about this. Nobody is more mad than the president. And I have the scars to show it, given his reaction to it as he and I have talked about it.
President Obama and members of his administration constantly express rage and anger over events totally within their control. It’s an odd and unsettling fact of American life that so many Americans seem to think that such expressions of frustration should substitute for actual competence.
Here, then, are the top five times that Obama officials have expressed outrage, sadness, and anger over actions within their purview:
Benghazi: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was tasked with ensuring the security of her staff across the world – and she failed miserably at that task, leaving Americans vulnerable to terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans were killed, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Just a few minutes before exclaiming that it made no difference why those Americans were killed, Hillary expressed her upset over the incident:
I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews. I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters.
Then she convened a commission which did not interview her. We still don’t know where she was during the attacks, or why she didn’t greenlight security or request military intervention.
IRS: Upon learning of the IRS’ targeting of conservative non-profit applicants – apparently from the news reports of it – Obama expressed outrage, according to White House press secretary Jay Carney. “I mean,” Carney said, “nobody’s been more outraged by the reported conduct here than the president of the United States.” Obama then said, “It’s inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it.” A few weeks later, Obama would call the IRS scandal “phony.”
Secret Service Prostitution: Upon finding out about allegations that Secret Service members obtained prostitutes in Colombia, Obama said, “Of course I’ll be angry.”
Fast and Furious: In October 2011, after revelations broke that Obama’s Justice Department had greenlit an operation to smuggle guns south of the border to Mexican drug cartels, supposedly in an attempt to track gun pipelines, Obama stated, “It’s very upsetting to me to think that somebody showed such bad judgment that they would allow something like that to happen. And we will find out who and what happened in this situation and make sure it gets corrected.”
ObamaCare Launch Failure: When the Obamacare rollout imploded, White House press secretary Jay Carney explained that Obama was “not happy” with the rollout. He added, “The accountability the president seeks today is the accountability that comes from those who are working on implementation.”
So, when our top-level politicians claim to be supremely angry about their own departments and minions victimizing Americans, are we supposed to give a crap? They obviously don’t, which is why they think it’ll be good enough to simply express their outrage while continuing run roughshod over rights.
Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org.Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/17/Five-Times-Obama-Officials-Expressed-Outrage-At-Their-Own-Incompetence
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