Posted on 07/22/2017 8:23:58 AM PDT by Oatka
President Trump is keeping his promise regarding one of the most bureaucratic agencies in the federal government.
Background:
The Veterans Affairs has long faced criticism regarding his care and service toward veterans. In the aftermath of the 2014 scandal in which veterans waited extremely long times in order to receive proper care, lawmakers in Washington D.C. have demanded that the agency accelerate firings.
Leaders within the Department of Veterans Affairs conquered with the horrific call to dump veterans off the waitlist for care, sending them off to death. Many veterans, as a result, have died waiting for care from the VA. Since 2014, it has been difficult to fix the way in which the system works due to the political motives that the union representing VA employees have in supporting the Democratic Party and prioritizing VA employees over veterans in desperate need of care.
President Trump partly ran on the VA scandal from 2014 in exposing the ineptitude of our federal government in providing the most basic care to those brave men and women who sacrificed and fought for our country to secure our basic rights and freedoms as Americans.
Trump remarked that “Some of the employees involved in these [wait list] scandals remained on the payrolls. Outdated laws kept the government from holding those who failed our veterans accountable.”
During the fiscal year period from 2000-2014, approximately 77,000 federal employees were fired in the government for performance or conduct issues, according to the Merit Systems Protection Board, an average of more than 5,000 a year. Out of a current workforce of about 2 million, that’s not much, but it’s not supposed to be. Plus, 5,000 is not nothing.
Trump’s VA Secretary David Shulkin was initially appointed by former President Obama as the VA undersecretary in 2015, who became increasingly frustrated at the direction that Obama’s VA was heading in. He was annoyed by the bureaucracy and slow moving staff that he was dealt with under the Obama administration, who told Shukin that it would take ten months to organize a summit on combat veteran suicides.
Shulkin told his staff that during that ten month period, 6,000 veterans will lose their lives. Because of Shulkin’s dedication and effort in the face of the Obama administration’s adversity, Shulkin was able to organize a summit in combatting against veteran suicide in just one month.
What’s Happening Now:
Since President Trump’s swearing-in in January, his administration has fired 548 employees of the the Department of Veterans Affairs, keeping his promise during the 2016 campaign to reform the VA taking out incompetent government employees that waste taxpayer dollars. Approximately 200 other VA employees were suspended and 33 were demoted, which included nurses, physicians, and police officers.
From the Daily Caller:
“Shulkin asked for new legislation that reduces the role of MSPB, especially when firing senior leaders. Congress passed the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act in answer, and Trump signed the bill in June.”
Additionally, President Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. tweeted Sunday in support of Secretary Shulkin and President Trump’s mass overhaul of the VA.
Something other to consider is my situation. They stored Agent Orange on Okinawa where I was stationed twice from the mid 70s. And I have one of the conditions that meets the government authorized maladies. and every time that I go to the VA, I commented that I was probably exposed to it then. They still balk when I bring it up
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