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Donald Trump made a promise and he delivered. In October, the Republican presidential candidate made a commitment to U.S. Army First Sgt. Todd Landen (Ret.) very, very personal. In front of a large crowd at a Sioux City, Iowa, event, he promised the wounded veteran and his family that he would get action to end the runaround Landen was getting from the Veterans Administration. "I am going to put pressure on the VA like you won't believe," Trump said then. "As president, I can guarantee it. As Trump I can say, 'I'll probably be able to pull it off anyway.'"...

The Denver Veterans Affairs hospital has taken tremendous fire for cost overruns of a billion dollars, but a new report shows that, had the VA engaged in better planning and real-time accountability, the facility could have looked like the new Parkland hospital in Dallas, which finished almost on time and on budget. A new report from the National Center for Policy Analysis compares reconstruction efforts at the VA hospital in Denver with the redesign of the Parkland hospital, which has quickly become one of the busiest hospitals in the country. Parkland features the second-largest burn unit and ranks in sixth...

In life and leadership, accountability means consequences for bad behavior. In Washington, accountability means yet another congressional meeting about another government scandal perpetrated by tax-subsidized corruptocrats who get away with murder. Literally. This week, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs will hold the 999,999th oversight hearing (give or take a few) on the VA's homicidal, no-fault culture. "In the wake of the biggest scandal in VA history, in which 110 VA medical facilities maintained secret lists to hide long waits for care," the panel notes, "the department has successfully fired just three low-level employees for manipulating wait times. Not a...

The Department of Veterans Affairs network of health systems faces "crises in leadership and culture" in addition to other systematic problems, according to an independent assessment released Friday. The flaws rampant in VA hospitals demand a "system-wide reworking" of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The independent review was mandated by the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act signed into law by President Obama in 2014 following revelations about secret waitlists at VA hospitals that led to dozens of veteran deaths. The report sheds light on the "systemic, critical problems" currently facing the VA's integrated health care system. "The assessments...provided evidence...

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs will not try to recoup more than $400,000 from two senior VA executives who manipulated the hiring system to get their jobs of choice and received hundreds of thousands in extra money to relocate. The agency has remained silent on questions about its decision to demote and transfer but not fire executives Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves, and whether it would collect repayment of those relocation benefits. The original statement from the VA announcing the decision said the women had the right to appeal their reassignments. But Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., who chairs...

Matthew was wounded during a suicide car bombing in Iraq, near the Syrian border, on Oct. 15, 2004. He was the sole survivor of the attack. Two members of his Army Psychological Operations team, a U.S. Marine accompanying them, and an Iraqi translator were killed. He suffered massive injuries, including a depressed skull fracture, several strokes and brain trauma from the explosion and impacts. He also had a fractured vertebrae in his neck, his jaw was broken in two places with severe tissue damage to the right side of his face, a fractured sternum, clavicles, and right arm, inhalation damage...

President Barack Obama’s Department of Veterans Affairs has banned employees at its facility in Salem, Virginia, from saying “Merry Christmas” to veterans.It started as a broader ban that included Christmas trees. Federal law recognizes Christmas as an official federal holiday (5 U.S.C. § 6103) and provides federal employees with a paid day off to celebrate the Christian belief in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.Every year, a White House Christmas Tree and a Capitol Christmas Tree grace those two respective buildings in Washington D.C., and a National Christmas Tree is also officially lighted outdoors for the public to enjoy during that time...

Remember when then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced in May 2014 that bonuses would be canceled in light of the systemic fraud involving wait lists at numerous VA facilities? What Shinseki failed to mention was that the cancellation only impacted a small number of VA officials. USA Today reports that the Veterans Administration paid out more than $142 million in bonuses for 2014, despite the fact that veterans are waiting longer than ever for care: The Department of Veterans Affairs doled out more than $142 million in bonuses to executives and employees for performance in 2014 even as scandals over...

Appearing on Fox's Special Report, Julie Pace opined that Hillary Clinton's poo pooing of the problems at the VA will haunt her through the 2016 election: "The Hillary Clinton comment, sometimes when you do this job you hear a candidate say something and you just know that that is something that is going to trail her through Election Day next year if she is the eventual Democratic nominee." https://youtu.be/7ULpWZBUhzoI think she's right and that this is a powerful issue. Clinton committed a huge gaffe and it opened a door into the real Hillary Clinton. Last month Clinton haughtily dismissed the...

The Department of Veterans Affairs VA shelled out more than $142 million in performance bonuses in 2014, the same year that the VA's healthcare scandal exploded and revealed the VA was systematically denying veterans access to health care. The average individual payout was over $900 for the thousands of employees. A total of 156,000 VA workers qualified for bonuses as a result of being rated them "fully successful" or higher at carrying out their responsibilities last year, including officials at delay-prone hospitals. But those ratings were later found to be inflated, as the vast majority of workers were getting rated...

MADISON, Wisconsin — As the nation celebrates its veterans and pays tribute to their sacrifices, it’s important to remember the promise made to America’s protectors has too often been broken. The headlines over the past few years in particular have screamed of neglect, ill-treatment and other abuses of too many veterans. That broken faith was no more apparent than in Wisconsin, at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center. While federal lawmakers have conducted a series of investigations into widespread over-prescription of opiates that led to the death of a 35-year-old Marine veteran at the facility and have pledged changes to...

A whopping 20 percent of Republican primary voters are military veterans. No wonder GOP presidential candidates are making the scandal-plagued Veterans Affairs Department a campaign issue. And the man frequently tagged as lacking substance - Donald Trump - just came out with the best reform plan so far. Under Trump's plan, vets of all ages who are eligible for VA care could get treated at any civilian doctor's office or hospital that takes Medicare. No bureaucratic hoops, pre-approvals or wait lists....Competitors criticize Trump for not estimating the cost. But the facts suggest his plan will be low-cost, because nearly half...

Michael Bloomberg lost a lot of money in the two Virginia elections in 2015 last night. Bloomberg's surrogate disarmist organization spent about 2.2 million dollars trying to buy a Virginia state Senate seat, and a Virginia House of Delegates seat.Bloomberg reportedly spent $2.2 million in the two elections.  He spent $700,000 in the Senate race.  From townhall.com: A day earlier, Everytown said it would spend $700,000 on ads for Democrat Dan Gecker, who is battling Republican Glen Sturtevant to represent part of Richmond and the surrounding suburbs in the Senate. That seat is being vacated by retiring Sen. John...

The National Rifle Association was victorious in Virginia last night after billionaire Michael Bloomberg and other outside gun control advocates attempted to influence local Senate elections. As Matt has already noted, this means long time Clinton ally and Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe will be forced to work with a Republican majority until the end of his term. Last month, McAuliffe issued a series of gun control executive orders after failing to get legislation passed by Republicans.

Two senior officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs have pleaded the Fifth Amendment in front of a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on relocation bonus corruption. Philadelphia and Wilmington VA regional offices director Diana Rubens and St. Paul VA regional office director Kimberly Graves pleaded the Fifth and refused to answer any of the numerous questions put forward by HVAC chairman GOP Rep. Jeff Miller. “Sir, I’ve been advised by counsel not to answer that question to protect my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,” Rubens repeated multiple times. The five employees from the VA involved in...

Video of speech at site.

October 31, 2015Veterans Administration Reforms That Will Make America Great Again The Goals Of Donald J. Trump's Veterans Plan The current state of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is absolutely unacceptable. Over 300,000 veterans died waiting for care. Corruption and incompetence were excused. Politicians in Washington have done too little too slowly to fix it. This situation can never happen again, and when Donald J. Trump is president, it will be fixed – fast. The guiding principle of the Trump plan is ensuring veterans have convenient access to the best quality care. To further this principle, the Trump plan...

Saturday, October 31, 2015 LIVE Stream Donald Trump Rally USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA - Oct 31, 2015

"Is the VA not doing the job?" For 21 years, a wounded veteran who served with the 101st Airborne fought for his nation. On Tuesday, in an emotionally charged face-to-face meeting, Donald Trump promised to take this veteran’s side in the ex-soldier’s current battlefield: the Department of Veterans Affairs. Trump was answering questions at a Sioux City, Iowa, campaign stop when a wounded veteran named Todd was given the opportunity to speak. “These are our greatest people. The wounded warriors. These are the greatest. The best,” Trump said before leaving his podium to greet the man and his family. “With...

Donald Trump will be having a rally in Norfolk, VA on Saturday October 31st aboard the USS Wisconsin at 12 noon Eastern time. Doors open at 10AM Eastern Must register for free tickets here: http://eventbrite.com/e/donald-j-trump-virginia-rally-tickets-19210998614