Editor’s Note – The manner in which veterans are being handled by the Veteran’s Administration is unconscionable, yet the VA seems to be getting worse instead of better. here is yet another example of the Obama Administration’s failures and their tendency for payback when someone turns on them.
The stories are flowing daily of the long waits, the terrible service, and an administration that was supposed to be making things better has seen it only get worse. It was supposed to be high on the President’s priority list:
In 2008, President Obama vowed to fix the VA claims backlog. Instead, it grew 2,000 percent in just four years.
When General Eric Shinseki was confirmed as secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), he pledged to streamline the claims process. The VA promises the backlog will be resolved by 2015.
Yet, after all of these promises, there remain close to 760,000 pending claims and almost 62 percent are in the backlog. (Read more here.)
Now we come to the case of the most seriously wounded Airman in USAF history, Brian Kolfage. A triple amputee who once worked for ‘Gabby’ Giffords and was even invited to the 2012 State of the Union Address, yet now, as a loyal dissenter of Obama, he is seeing serious issues with his compensation. Here is an introduction to Brian, and we encourage you to go to his Facebook site. Here is an excerpt from a recent interview followed by the story:
Brian Kolfage is a former Security Forces Airman-turned Architect. On September 11, 2004, on his second deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, he lost both legs and an arm after a rocket attack. The 107mm rocket shell exploded about three feet from Airman Kolfage, who was thrown several feet in the air and landed against a wall of sandbags. Still conscious, he began calling for help. Thirty-six hours after being struck by the blast of that mortar, he was airlifted to Walter Reed Medical Center, where his new life would begin.
The fact that no one with his level of amputation had ever been able to walk independently didn’t discourage him. Brian walked out of Walter Reed 11 months after being injured. To this day, he is still the most severely wounded Airman to survive any war.
After leaving the hospital, he continued his service in the Air Force for a time and was assigned to Davis Monthan AFB (Tucson, Arizona) 355 Security Forces Squadron as the Base Security Manager. Brian further gave service to the community by proudly accepting a position on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ Veterans Advisory Committee where he provided crucial, inside information to help the Congresswoman make vital decisions which helped veterans nationally. Additionally, he was invited by the Congresswoman to be her special guest at the 2012 Presidential State of the Union Address when she resigned.
VA sends $4,000 bill to triple-amputee Purple Heart recipient after he spoke out against Obama
From Poor Richard’s News
If you want to see where government-run healthcare gets you, look no further than what the VA is doing to Airman Brian Kolfage after he spoke out against Obama. Our veterans who sustained injuries in combat deserve the best treatment we can give them, but the VA just sent Purple Heart recipient Brian Kolfage a bill for $4,000.
Here’s the letter he just received from the VA:
Kolfman is an outspoken critic of the Obama administration and wants to know why his records were pulled in the first place. He’s written about the whole story on his Facebook page (emphasis mine):
Two months ago I received a letter from the VA stating they over paid me and that I needed to provide evidence proving otherwise. So I mailed in everything showing that in fact I wasn’t over paid what they were stating, hard evidence too. I then get a letter stating its been resolved. Now today I get this letter showing that they are taking money out of my disability compensation that I receive for losing my three limbs… I call the number listed and the automated system says call back another day, WTF, you’re taking my money and you can’t even answer the phones. This is the garbage that so many veterans have been dealing with over the past few years.
And its complete [expletive] that someone can lose half their body for their country then they pull our records to nickel and dime us because the government is broke. After dealing with this for over a month I’ve decided to share my experience. This is exactly why we do not need a full blown government healthcare system run by the IRS, because they will target opposition, they will mess up, and they will take your money even if its by mistake. Then it will take months to even correct it, and this is just the VA, imagine this on a scale 30,000 times larger!
If this is how our nation treats our most severely wounded think about how they’ll treat those who are everyday citizens. The only people who are truly taken care of these days are those who control us and are politicians, they ensure their own are granted every privilege that they can come up with while screwing those who are trying to survive. IS THIS THE CHANGE YOU VOTED FOR? please tell WHY my record was pulled for one thing, and then a background check was done, then my money is being taken… for what? FREEDOM OF SPEECH!?
To his credit, Kolfman makes it clear that his objective isn’t to get any money out of this. He’s not looking for sympathy, just to expose how corrupt the VA is. He turned down one twitter user’s offer to pay for his medical expenses:
Stories like that of Airman Kolfage should send chills down the spine of every American. His story certainly raises the concern that the Federal government might already be using the healthcare system to punish those who speak out.
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