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I'm not much for government spending, but asking soldiers to pay with private insurance for their war injuries would be about the last thing I would do... But...Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed...that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance...

In 2008 Michael B. Froman, then Citigroup executive, sends John Podesta a list of cabinet members. The email is dated Oct. 6, 2008 and bears the subject line “Lists.” It went to Podesta a month before he was named chairman of President-Elect Obama’s transition team. Froman’s list proved remarkably prescient. As it proposed, Robert Gates, a Bush holdover, became secretary of Defense; Eric Holder became attorney general; Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security; Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff; Susan Rice, United Nations ambassador; Arne Duncan, secretary of Education; Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services; Peter Orszag,...

It is easy to understand the “Messiah Complex” that envelops President Barack Obama and his White House. For years, Obama has been the Great Hope of the Democratic Party and liberal elites, including the likes of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, and even terrorist/liberal intellectual leader Bill Ayers. In fact, when Kennedy endorsed Obama in 2008, he called him a “a new national leader,” who would usher-in a “new generation of leadership.” Those early liberal delusions of grandeur have given way to a sordid record of incompetence and resignations under fire. Rather than marking a new era of leadership, Obama’s...

After less than four months at the Veterans Affairs Department, Sloan D. Gibson suddenly finds himself in charge of fixing the problems that led to the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. "Sloan, I think, would be the first to acknowledge that he's going to have a learning curve that he's got to deal with," President Barack Obama told reporters Friday after announcing that Gibson would replace Shinseki temporarily. A career banker, Gibson was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 11 as deputy VA secretary, just weeks before allegations of long waits for doctor's appointments at VA hospitals nationwide led...

For the past few weeks, the Obama administration has been the focus of attention as allegations of widespread corruption within the Department of Veterans Affairs continue to surface. All across the United States, employees in VA hospitals are accused of cooking the books and altering medical records to make the hospitals appear to be better than they actually were. Meanwhile, our military veterans were forced to languish in endless waiting lists, many of whom died while waiting to see a doctor for the first time. President Obama was briefed on this back in 2008 and even though he pledged that...

Trying to get details

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned Friday, after more than a month of battling criticism about access to care and tampering with official wait lists at VA health centers. At a meeting with President Barack Obama, during which Mr. Shinseki presented the VA's internal findings of improper scheduling procedures and long wait times across the VA health system, the retired general offered to resign to give a new VA leader the chance to fix the systemic problems at the department. His resignation marks his second departure from public service since his career began in the military in the...

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama said he will have a "serious conversation" with Veterans Affairs' Secretary Eric Shinseki about whether he's the right person to address the veterans' care crisis. The comment, made during an interview taped Thursday for "Live! with Kelly and Michael," was played on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Friday.With calls for him to resign hanging over his head, Shinseki on Friday will face representatives of people particularly vulnerable to his agency's medical failings.

The Obama administration said Saturday it will allow more veterans to get health care outside Veterans Affairs facilities, following recent revelations about long waits for treatment and purported secret lists that hid backlogs. […] Democratic and Republican lawmakers have pressed for the policy change as the VA confronts the allegations about employees falsifying appointment records to cover up delays in care and about veterans dying while awaiting treatment at VA centers. …

Flashback: Obama Wanted to Charge Wounded Veterans for Treatment May 22, 2014, by Rush Limbaugh BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Ralph in Omaha. Welcome to the program. Hello. CALLER: Thanks, Rush. It's a real honor to be speaking with you. I'm calling because I find Obama's outrage over medical care for the veterans IS MORE THAN A BIT DISINGENUOUS.I recall when he first was elected to office, that it was his thinking thatsince the military were all volunteers anyway,that they should be buying their own medical insurance.And if this was his thinking then, I don't see it being changed now. RUSH:...

It's "just the tip of the iceberg." That's what a congressional committee chairman investigating allegations of delayed care and cooked books at Veterans Affairs health care facilities told CNN. Rep. Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican who heads the House Veterans Affairs panel, on Thursday forecast more serious developments in the national program serving nearly 9 million veterans. "We've received some information and some tips that will make what has already come look like kindergarten stuff," he told CNN's New Day. The controversy has broadened since CNN first reported six months ago on allegations of alarming shortcomings within the VA medical...

Two Democratic congressmen became the first members of their party to call for Veterans Affairs secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation shortly after President Obama’s meeting with the embattled department head. While speaking on the House floor about a bill he co-sponsored to make it easier to fire VA officials, Representative David Scott of Georgia offered a passionate plea to address the problem and called for Shinseki’s ouster. SNIP Meanwhile, Scott’s fellow Georgian John Barrow also said Shinseki should no longer hold his position since he and the rest of the administration have “fallen short in providing the kind of care our...

President Obama makes a statement following his meeting with head the Department of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki. (Live feed at source link.)

President Barack Obama will meet this morning with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors at the White House as the VA Inspector General expanded the number of facilities under investigation to 26. The 10 a.m. meeting was added to the president’s public schedule Wednesday...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We've got veterans dying because they're not getting adequate medical care. Do you remember this name Shinseki, this guy that's running the VA. Eric Shinseki, do you remember why he's famous? Do you remember why he's even at the VA? Shinseki was one of the first uniformed military people to trash Bush and the Iraq war for the Democrats back in the second term of George W. Bush. And I'll never forget, John Kerry, who, you may not know, served in Vietnam, was running around quoting Eric Shinseki day in and day out. I'm gonna have one...

The abominable callousness demonstrated at the Department of Veterans Affairs is deadly serious, and warrants more than an all-too-familiar claim of “responsibility” from Eric Shinseki: ... Of course, Shinskei is just echoing his boss and other members of the administration: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s declaration that she takes responsibility for the failure to secure our facilities and personnel in Libya — with no word on any actual consequence of this failure — is the most recent example. But the approach began from the very start of this administration. ... Discussing the national debt in Virginia on Aug. 6, 2009,...

Yesterday, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki declared himself “mad as hell” over the allegations of wait-list fraud in Phoenix, where 40 veterans passed away before accessing medical assistance while the office falsified records. Shinseki also pronounced himself saddened by the consequences of the VA’s failures, and pledged to get to the bottom of them — and allegations at five other offices that arose from other whistleblowers ... At nearly the same time as Shinseki testified yesterday, the Ocala News (Florida) reported that a seventh VA office in Gainesville had discovered a secret wait list that had 200 veterans waiting for medical...

President Barack Obama is dispatching one of his closest White House advisers to oversee a review of the beleaguered Veterans Affairs Department as the agency grapples with allegations of treatment delays and preventable deaths at a Phoenix veterans hospital. White House deputy chief of staff Rob Nabors will be temporarily assigned to the VA to work on a review focused on policies for patient safety rules and the scheduling of patient appointments, officials said Wednesday. The move signals Obama's growing concern over problems at the department, particularly recent reports that hospital administrators in Phoenix kept an off-the-books list to conceal...

Recently, the National Commander of the American Legion called for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and other Under Secretaries in his agency to resign. It was the first time since 1941 that the veteran’s organization called for such a presidential appointee to step down. The American Legion Commander cited poor oversight and failed leadership in the VA when explaining his position. He listed a number of recent high-profile scandals which have “infected” the VA system as reasons for his public request. (1) According to the VA, the agency is currently involved with administering services for: * 8.9M veterans enrolled in...

The announcement that retired Army chief of staff Eric Shinseki will be President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of veterans affairs has energized one of the most enduring myths of the Bush presidency. Among the media coverage in recent days: Gen. Shinseki "clashed with the Bush administration on its Iraq war strategy" (Associated Press). In "questioning the Pentagon's Iraq war strategy" (The Post), Shinseki "warn[ed] that far more troops would be needed than the Pentagon had committed" (New York Times). For his candor, he was "vilified" (Boston Globe) by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Shinseki has a chance during his confirmation...