Obama to Visit Walter Reed

With John McCain now blatantly trying to claim credit for the new GI Bill, Obama needs to outline what he will do for Veterans, not just on the first day of his administration if he wins, but what he will build to take care of them for the next twenty years--like, hospitals, counseling centers and service centers.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is scheduled to pay a solemn visit to wounded Iraq veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Saturday, Politico has learned.

The visit will be Obama’s third.

Obama’s staff is keeping his trip low key. It is not on his public schedule, and his campaign would not confirm it. A pool of reporters will go with him, but will not accompany him inside.

Obama will be in Washington to speak to the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. His opponent for president, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), will also address the group.

McCain occasionally visits soldiers at Walter Reed on weekends when he is in Washington, most recently May 31.

McCain’s visits are usually unannounced to the press, and sometimes he shows up without even giving the hospital notice. He tells friends it gives him a sense of peace and feeds his soul.

As usual, McCain is probably sincere in his appreciation, not so sincere when it comes to actually doing anything to help Veterans.

Not only has he refused to support the 21st Century GI Bill, which the Veterans of Foreign Wars endorsed last June, he has consistently voted against increasing funding for the Veterans’ Administration, which oversees all medical care for veterans:

– Voted AGAINST an amendment providing $20 billion to the VA’s medical facilities. [5/4/06]

– Voted AGAINST providing $430 million to the VA for outpatient care “and treatment for veterans,” one of only 13 senators to do so. [4/26/06]

– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.5 billion by closing corporate loopholes. [3/14/06]

– Voted AGAINST increasing VA funding by $1.8 billion by ending “abusive tax loopholes.” [3/10/04]

Typical straight talk express to oblivion--tell enough hazy, patriotic, loving stories, cozy up to the media, and hide from your voting record. And McCain couldn't even bother to show up and vote for legislation he's already flip-flopped on. That's the John McCain way of screwing Veterans. And Obama needs to point this out, every single day.

--WS

You say you support the troops? Fine...Where's your outrage?

You know that things are bad for the wounded when they get back stateside when the Marine Corps sets up an entire regiment just to help repatriated wounded deal with the issues they face as they negotiate the DoD and VA health and benefit systems.

And let’s just get this right out in the open – our wounded are getting screwed over– from the abuses of the 5-13 discharge to the veterans turning up in homeless shelters because they have been denied benefits. The outrages are pervasive, manifest and vast. At this point, when an allegation is made, I am assuming to the veteran the benefit of the doubt. When as many wrongs are verified as have been proven in recent weeks, the assumption of malfeasance on the part of the government agency is justified.

It is time to radically change the way we are treating veterans. It is time to fully fund the VA, and if taxes have to go up, well, that's the price you pay for supporting an unnecessary vanity war. Think about that next time. But instead of giving vets the run around, provisionally approve every claim, and hire and train adequate staff to review the cases. But shift the burden of proof to the government, and leave it there.

I am not the only one saying this. Linda Bilmes of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard says the same thing and backs it up with research data. If 86% are ultimately approved for benefits, why are we making them run a gauntlet of obstacles and homelessness and denying them necessary care?

While we are retooling the system to protect our veterans from the capricious whims of a feckless government, let’s change the rules under which the 5-13 discharge can be applied. Every 5-13 should have to be reviewed by a panel of civilian mental health professionals before it can be issued.

I want to challenge all of the war-supporting congress-critters. Will just one of you step up for our wounded veterans and offer legislation to give our wounded veterans the benefits I just described?

I’ll be waiting.

Pointing Up a Vital Distinction

In the fallout from the Walter Reed scandal, I am afraid that a vital distinction is being lost.

Walter Reed is not a VA hospital.

Walter Reed is an active duty military hospital.

Veterans Administration hospitals are operated under the auspices of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Walter Reed, like Brooke and Tripler Army Medical Centers, and the Naval medical facilities at Bethesda and San Diego, and Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB, and all other military medical centers treating the active duty and war wounded, operates under the auspices of the Department of Defense.

The VA health system, under the leadership of Undersecretary Dr. Michael Kussman, was a government system done right before they were overrun by a flood of Iraq and Afghanistan war wounded. The VA computer system is the envy of all civilian healthcare employees who struggle mightily with archaic HIS systems. I know from HIS platforms - I've been a Cerner Pathnet and Meditech "Super User" in every facility I have ever been employed by that used those data management systems. The VA system rocks.

It is an apostacy that the VA faces funding cuts at a time that the active duty services are rushing to dump their wounded off onto the VA system.

The VA is the largest provider of mental health services to the returning veterans of America’s current military actions. Over a million troops have rotated through Afghanistan and Iraq, with a quarter million of them at minimum needing counseling services because they face readjustment issues. Yet they are facing staff cuts and closing of the Vet Centers that provide these crucial services. As a result, troops are not getting the care they need - the care they deserve - sometimes to tragic ends.

It is high-time the VA be fully funded and the Vet Centers fully staffed.

A country that can not or will not adequately accommodate the needs of those it sends to war needs to stop sending its sons and daughters off to war.

Editorializing aside, it is vital to remember that VA Medical Centers and Military Medical Centers are two separate and discreet entities, answering to different cabinet secretaries.

The Military Medical Centers answer ultimately to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The VA Medical Centers answer ultimately to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson.

Remember the distinction and do not let the media or the politicians conflate the two.

Doing so is a disservice to those who serve and that is not conducive to accountability.

[Cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose]