BlueCollar predicted VA secretary Shinseki would be fired for his inept performance.
A timeline wasn’t noted in the blog; we expected it to happen Wednesday. But we were wrong…Obama came out praising Shinseki, despite his 5 years of inept service.
We underestimated how deeply this president holds America’s veterans in disdain.
Reading through Obama’s prepared Wednesday remarks, though, it’s obvious that this VA scandal is being given the classic Obama treatment, with typical media assistance.
1 – He inserts how much he cares, how honored he is to be commander-in-chief, his searing moments visiting wounded warriors, and, most importantly, invokes America’s duty to uphold its “sacred trust to all who have served”…then, hypocritically…
2 – Obama ignores the 5 years he had to address the wait-time problem. His 2008 transition team were given results of audits revealing wide-spread fraudulent data;
3 – He lies about his malfeasance, implying he only just now heard of the problem (see note 6, below for confirmation of this point);
4 – He lies about not standing for it, not tolerating it, as commander-in-chief and as an American… but he has been ‘standing for it’ and ‘tolerating it‘ …since January 2009;
5 – He advises he was just updated on Shinseki’s review, but then says he expects ‘preliminary results’ of that review ‘next week’, and blithely moves on to a next point without detailing what the ‘review update’ was…at all;
6 – He points out the problem has been faced for decades, compounded by the last decade of war, and then, incredibly, admits when he came into office he had promised his team would systematically work to fix the problem…even though only moments before implying he had just heard of it, and wouldn’t stand for it, or tolerate it;
7 – Obama then tries to inoculate himself and his Democrat cohort in this pre-election season by stating “It’s important our veterans don’t become another political football”. He knows the issue is huge, and desperately wants to cauterize the situation by turning it into a ‘politics as usual’ ploy by Republicans, rather than the life-&-death issue it is.
8 – He deflects from a wide-spread mismanagement issue by citing a “larger mission… bringing the VA system into the 21st century”, hoping that everyone will miss the 800-lb gorilla in the room…the present ‘system’ doesn’t advocate falsifying wait times!
Waiting-list veterans suffering and dying met that unnecessary misery at the hands of callous, bonus-hungry humans…that no amount of 21st century updates will fix.
9 – He cites making “…progress over the last 5 years”, talks of “historic investments in our veterans”, yet fails to recognize that, though VA medical spending over the last 14 years has increased 193%, the number of veterans served in that same time rose 68%.
10 – Obama closes by recapping ‘achievements’ of spending, expanding coverage, reducing claims backlogs, reducing homelessness, etc, etc, as if somehow those were the issues in question, but the issue is VA medical treatment…and mistreatment.
We emphasize: Obama delivered PREPARED remarks.
His remarks did nothing to address the (in some instances) fatal MEDICAL issue of falsified waiting lists, that caused suffering and death of our American veterans.
The only thing HIS remarks focused on was political damage control, to veil the lost 5 years when Obama, and his Democrat cohort, could have done something…
…but didn’t.
Shinseki may be breathing easier, but should be looking over his shoulder. Democrats up for election this year will not let him affect their chances.
Yesterday’s press conference was Classic Obama…say nothing, while shedding tears.
And, when it comes to crocodile tears…
…the Walrus of Looking Glass fame has nothing on Barack Obama.