GOP Hypocrisy: Republicans Deny VA Funding, Then Blame Obama For VA Issue

[napkinz]

May 22, 2014
by Brad Hennigan

This past February, in their typical approach to “governing” while President Obama is in the White House, GOP Senators first voted unanimously to consider a bill that would have significantly expanded the Veterans Administration’s ability to do its job … then filibustered the bill when highly controversial amendments they insisted must be attached to it were not allowed. GOP Senators then killed the bill citing “budget concerns.” As Reuters reported:

Supporters said the measure would have brought the most significant changes in decades to U.S. veterans’ programs. For example, it called for 27 new medical facilities to help a healthcare system that is strained by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

And yet, in prime GOP hypocritical fashion, party chairman Reince Priebus put the blame for the issues at the VA squarely at the feet of President Obama. In a statement released Wednesday, Priebus said:

We’ve known about these problems for weeks … The Administration, we now know, has known about them even longer. Our veterans have had enough. They deserve results. And we all deserve more from our President. It’s time for an independent investigation.

An investigation? Would that investigation include bringing to light the FACT that $24 billion in new funds for the VA were denied allocation by, and ONLY by, GOP Senators?

read more: http://firebrandprogressives.org/gop-hypocrisy-republicans-deny-va-funding-blame-obama-va-issues/

[napkinz]

1. When Fox News Shrugged Over A Military Care Scandal (Hint: Bush Was President)

May 21, 2014
by ERIC BOEHLERT


The Obama outrage engines are revving up at Fox News and across the conservative media landscape as conservatives shift, temporarily at least, from Obamacare and Benghazi and set their sights on the unfolding scandal involving backlog waiting lists at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals. The serious allegations that dozens of veterans died while awaiting treatment from Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, and that VA managers there created a secret waiting list to hide how long men and women had to wait to see a doctor, sparked a resignation and Congressional hearings.

The Fox condemnations have been especially loud, and sweeping. And yes, they've been mostly directed at the president.

"If only Barack Obama's team treated our veterans as well as they treat the mega-donors to the Democrat [sic] party," lamented Laura Ingraham on Fox & Friends. For days, a parade of Fox talkers have condemned Obama for the story. One even accused the administration of "criminally negligent homicide."

The heated right-wing response stands in stark contrast to the muted coverage Fox News provided for the last major controversy involving failed medical care for returning soldiers. In February 2007, the Washington Post, following up on original reporting done by Salon, exposed shockingly poor conditions inside the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Those revelations also sparked resignations and Congressional hearings.

But back then, of course, George W. Bush was president and back then Fox News wasn't as interested in the story. (It took Bill O'Reilly six weeks following the publication of the first Post expose to conclude that the Bush administration had badly bungled care at Walter Reed.) And Fox worried journalists were paying too much attention to the scandal.

read more: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/05/21/when-fox-news-shrugged-over-a-veterans-care-sca/199406

[napkinz]

2. Maddow slams Republicans for complaining about VA scandal after passing budget cuts

By Arturo Garcia
Wednesday, May 21, 2014

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow argued on Wednesday that the problems currently surrounding the country’s Veterans Affairs (VA) department predated both President Barack Obama and department Secretary Eric Shinseki’s administrations, and were fueled in part by Republican budget cuts and inaction.

“There is a modern American dysmorphia when it comes to veterans,” she said. “We see things that aren’t really there. We tell ourselves that we’re doing things that we’re not really doing. We have a poetry in this country about our love and respect for veterans that is not matched by the prose of how veterans are actually treated.”

Maddow noted that in March 2003 — the same month the U.S. began its second war against Iraq — the GOP-led House of Representatives approved a budget cutting $14 billion from the VA’s budget. Two years later, Anthony Principi, who was appointed by then-President George W. Bush, released a statement saying the department did not “require additional resources” despite the escalating cost of that conflict.

Lawmakers later had to approve an emergency $1.5 billion budget influx following reports that local VA facilities were instituting hiring freezes and lacking the ability to make necessary purchases.

Yet it’s Republicans who are now engaging in a coordinated effort, she said, to oust Shinseki amid an investigation into alleged record-keeping malfeasance in VA clinics in 26 cities.

read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/21/maddow-slams-republicans-for-complaining-about-va-scandal-after-passing-budget-cuts/

[Cha]

3. US Corporate Media.. call the republicans out on their LIES!

thanks napkinz~

[napkinz]

4. and here we go again ... they are calling for another investigation

The Republicans don't legislate, just investigate.

[Cha]

5. We need a Majority of Dems in Congress so repubs can sit down and stfu.. and Dems

can go about the business of the People.

[napkinz]

6. we can't have a repeat of 2010 ... we have to get the message out --->

[Cha]

7. Chilling and oh so true.. thank you napkinz! "Less Taxis"!

[napkinz]

9. respect ARE country :)

nt

[Cha]

10. Obama: Read the Consitution!111

[Rex]

8. And why do they get away with it? Because their voting block has a collective IQ of 64.

THAT is why the M$M likes to keep people dumb and uninformed about real news.