Fellow Veterans and Friends of Veterans,
For all those who think Veterans got a good deal when rookie VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald recently flew into Los Angeles, try again.
Mr. McDonald winged in on his personal government jet. He conned the ACLU attorneys into vacating the federal judgment against the VA to protect his wealthy friends who illegally occupy Veterans land.
He also was motivated to get his name removed as co-defendant from the lawsuit.
Read well the following editorial about the con-job he’s been doing on his alleged firing of corrupt VA officials.
Rest assured, Veterans got bamboozled big time by Big Mac.
ACLU attorneys need to withdraw the joint motion to vacate the judgment / lawsuit posthaste.
Otherwise, they will forever be judged for their failure to serve disabled homeless Veterans first by protecting their land as plaintiffs in the ACLU’s entrusted lawsuit.
If Mayor Garcetti promised to end Veteran homelessness by the end of this year, what was the purpose of vacating the judgment? Let the VA and mayor do what they promised. No need to vacate the judgment and lawsuit.
Anyone who didn’t see the big red flag go up was asleep. Anyone even half awake could see that Big Mac was aligning himself with Bobby Shriver, who, after 10 years of complaining about three empty buildings at the VA, has not done squat for homeless Veterans.
In the same amount of time Bobby Shriver whined about nothing being done about three empty buildings, the United States built the Panama Canal and his uncle Jack promised to send a man to the moon 250,000 miles away and return him safely back to earth. All of that was done.
Bobby Shriver lives 2.5 miles from the VA in the 21st century. He never put one homeless Veteran on these grounds.
Moreover, when Bobby Shriver was City Councilman/mayor of Santa Monica, the ACLU sued the city for the mistreatment of all homeless people in the ritzy beach enclave.
What an embarrassment to have non-Veteran Bobby Shriver as a spokesperson for Veterans. He couldn’t even get elected County Supervisor, which should tell you that even his own constituents don’t trust him. Why should Veterans?
Time for Big Mac to resign as quickly as he flew in on his government jet and conned the ACLU.
God Bless America and the Veterans Revolution!
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at RRosebrock1@aol.com
An Editorial From the Las Vegas Review Journal last week:
VA Chief Stretches Truth on Scandal Response
For years, Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ employees across the country falsely reported patient wait-times. They covered up systemic malfeasance so they could collect bonuses at the expense of veterans’ health. The scandal made national news, cost VA Secretary Eric Shinseki his job and laid bare the complete absence of accountability within the agency.
When Bob McDonald took over as the new VA secretary last year, he told CBS News’s Scott Pelley that 1,000 employees needed to be fired. Cleaning house is no easy task in Washington, D.C. VA employees can’t be fired until the agency builds the cases necessary to support their termination, and until their cases are reviewed by an administrative judge. Until all the reviews — and, we almost forgot, the lengthy employee appeal process — are completed, problem employees get what amounts to an extended paid vacation.
But at least Mr. McDonald was being honest about the hassle. Finally, somebody from the agency was shining a light on the situation and was going to do something about it.
Not so fast.
Fast forward to Feb. 15. Mr. McDonald appeared on “Meet the Press” and gave an update on the embattled agency. “Nine hundred people have been fired since I became secretary,” Mr. McDonald asserted. “We’ve got 60 people we fired who have manipulated wait-times.”
His response was impressive. Real progress was finally being made.
Except that it wasn’t.
Michelle Ye Hee Lee of the Washington Post did some digging. She discovered that Mr. McDonald was flat wrong about the firing of employees who falsely reported short wait times.
Since June 3, 2014, disciplinary actions have been proposed for 75 employees related to patient scheduling, record manipulation, appointment delays and/or patient deaths. Of those employees, only eight had actually been removed as of Feb. 13, the Post reported. Cases involving 23 were pending, and five had resigned before a decision could be made on their case.
Others had been demoted, placed on probationary termination, received other disciplinary action or had no action taken against them at all. Mr. McDonald proposed the removal of five VA executives, but two retired before they could be removed. Only three were actually fired, and only one of those firings was related to the wait-time scandal.
The 900 employees Mr. McDonald said were terminated since he took over were let go for myriad reasons, including poor performance and absenteeism, and were not directly connected to those responsible for the scandal.
Mr. McDonald has not just an opportunity to clean up the agency and improve veterans’ care — and, hopefully, privatize most of its functions — he also has an opportunity, as a longtime business leader, to show just how hard it is to fire people from the nightmarish bureaucracy that American taxpayers fund.
The entire VA scandal was built on lies. Not only do Mr. McDonald’s lies further erode what little trust the public has in Washington, but they also serve as a powerful reminder of just how foreign a concept accountability is in our nation’s capital.
The only way for Mr. McDonald to change the VA — and for anyone to change the stifling nature of Washington — is to be boldly, brutally and consistently honest about its inefficiency. If Mr. McDonald won’t do it, somebody else needs to.
