I have seen many comments on the resignation of one of the worst VA heads in the history of the Veterans Administration in this nation. The veterans of this nation deserve the best care and treatment we as a nation can give them, they were hurt or injured in service to all of us, (this nation) and instead of red tape and excuses, they deserve the benefits we promised them when they enlisted or in some cases drafted.
If you are hurt or injured while in military service we as a nation will care for you medically and financially as necessary or your family if you become incapacitated or deceased. We promised many of them college educations, home loans, vocational rehabilitation, etc, and we are delaying the payments in some cases by 6 months or more, this is not service, it is a dis-service.
At this time while the Republicans are applauding the job R James Nicholson (the VA Colonel) did since being named the Secretary of the VA, you don't hear them mention the one billion dollar shortfall of medical care funds for veterans in the first year of Mr Nicholsons appointment and his false statements about the VA didn't need it despite Bernie Sanders I-VT and Patty Murray and many other democratic senators stating the veterans needed the money, Mr Nicholson waited until June 2005 to go to capitol hill hat in hand to finally eat his words and told the Senate the VA needed the money for the veterans after all.
Not to end there, there were many problems during his tenure, the loss of personal data on 26.5 million veterans which cost 11-12 million dollars just to notify this nations veterans more than a month after it happened, because the VA kept the news from the nation.
Bernia Sanders had this statement on the news:
Sen. Sanders Statement on Veterans Affairs Secretary
WASHINGTON, July 17 – Senator Bernie Sanders, a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, issued the following statement on the resignation of Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson:
"The veterans secretary is one of the most important jobs in our government, especially during a time of war. In selecting a new secretary, I hope President Bush chooses someone who can handle the enormous challenges facing the department.
"Veterans in this country and their families need an advocate, not an adversary. They need someone committed to ending the waiting lines for health care and other services in Vermont and across this country, someone committed to opening the doors of the VA to all veterans, and someone who will make sure that service members returning from combat and their families get the care they deserve.
"As a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I will look very closely at the president’s nominee to replace Secretary Nicholson to make sure that these qualifications are met and that the nominee is ready to work with America’s veterans and members of Congress to improve the care that the Department of Veterans Affairs provides."
Contact: Michael Briggs (202) 224-5141 or michael_briggs@sanders.senate.gov
The website VA Watch Dog has many statements and opinions on this news
VA Secretary Jim Nicholson has announced his resignation!
My sincere desire is that the new Secretary will be a true veterans' advocate, not just another political hack who's being rewarded for taking orders.
But, I don't hold out much hope for that happening.
We have the official, self-serving "I did great deeds" VA press release...and then an early news story.
this statement was by Larry Scott
Then there is the statement from Paul Rieckhoff
"Secretary Nicholson's resignation should be welcome news for all veterans," Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said in a statement, adding that VA "has been woefully unprepared for the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans."
The nation has over 800,000 veterans that have been waiting on appeal hearings for their claims on compensation for injuries which occurred as a resilt of their military service, many of these veterans unable to work and not receiving any money. How many people do you know that can go for a year without a pay check?
Yet the VA gave over 3.6 million dollars in bonuses to their upper level managers during this period who DO get their paychecks every 2 weeks from this nation, yet can't fix the claims system that Congress has known to be broke since the end of WW2 and the VA continues to process the the claims in the same manner. Paper files some as high as 4 feet thick, I imagine some of the papers haven't been read in years, it is the evidence the VA claims they don't have. There are many veterans that are waiting as long as 5-7 years for court hearings at the Veterans Court of Appeals, why? Who among us can wait 7 years for a paycheck, is this how this nation wants the veterans cared for, I don't think so.
This is a shout out to the veterans of the First Gulf War remember that one in 1990-1991? There are over 500,000 veterans drawing compensation from the VA for various reasons, many of them for "undiagnosed illnesses" in other words the government knows something wrong happened to these veterans but no one is sure what, so they have dragged their feet in funding programs to find out exactly what it is, the Senate has this coming up for a vote please ask your senator to vote for it, thank you
Sen. Sanders along with Senators Byrd, Hutchinson, Feingold, and Kerry have filed the attached amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Act of 2008 that authorizes $30 million for Gulf War Illnesses research to be conducted by the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) (http://cdmrp.army.mil/aboutus.htm). The CDMRP is a DoD medical research program where a number of research programs already take place on a variety of health issues. $5 million in research funding that Congress appropriated for Gulf War Illnesses research in FY 2006 was conducted through CDMRP.
The amendment has the support of:
§ American Legion
§ Veterans of Foreign Wars
§ Disabled American Veterans
§ Paralyzed Veterans of America
§ Vietnam Veterans of America
§ AMVETS
There will hopefully be a vote on this amendment at some point this week.
The democrats and Bernie Sanders have showed this nation for the past 5 years how much they truly SUPPORT the veterans of this nation, proving it by funding for programs they and their families need, this is just one more link to helping them.
It is my opinion that the veterans and the military of this nation are begining to realize that supporting democrats in elections by voting for them is in their and their families BEST interests, they fund the veterans, they don't just BUY car magnets.