Free Republic

It took a global pandemic for the Los Angeles Veterans Affairs to offer a few vets temporary housing on a sprawling parcel deeded to the federal government over a century ago for the specific purpose of caring for disabled military veterans. Thousands of veterans have long lived on the streets surrounding the lush facility in West L.A., yet the VA has been derelict in its duty to help them. With the COVID-19 crisis deeply impacting the region’s vast homeless population, the VA finally erected several small tents in the parking lot of its healthcare system campus to accommodate a couple...

(NJ) Paramus veterans home in crisis mode: 37 people dead in 2 weeks, National Guard deployed

FORT THOMAS, Ky. -- Dozens of veterans were caught off guard Thursday when they were informed they were being discharged from an inpatient program at the Fort Thomas VA hospital. The domiciliary is being converted for use as an isolation space for COVID-19 patients.

The Justice Department announced today that Sterling Medical Associates Inc. (Sterling) will pay $1.85 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it failed to schedule veterans’ medical appointments timely at two outpatient clinics in Minnesota, resulting in the submission of false claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Sterling is a Cincinnati-based company that provides various services in the healthcare industry, including staffing, departmental operation, and outpatient clinic operation. “We expect companies doing business with the government to comply with their contractual obligations, particularly when they relate to the health of our veterans,” said Assistant Attorney...

The greatest thing I’ve ever found about the Army or the military in general is that we are all the same. Black, white, brown or striped. We are all the same. We were all people willing to give so much more than ourselves for a country we believe in. The greatest disbelief I have is how, our single nation, treats our Veterans. No one I know signed up for healthcare, yet it was a guarantee. Yesterday I sat in the VA Hospital for five and a half hours. I sat next to a Marine missing his leg. I saw an...

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke released his new proposal to tax non-military families via Twitter on Monday. O’Rourke’s “war tax” would require American families who make over $200,000 a year to pay $1,000 for each war embarked on by the United States. Military families would be exempt from the tax. The tax “would serve as a reminder of the incredible sacrifice made by those who serve and their families,” the proposal reads. It does not specify the types of military engagement that would constitute a war under the tax. Funds from the "war tax" would be deposited into a veteran's...

More than 100 House Democrats -- nearly half of the new majority -- have signed on to a new single-payer healthcare bill that supporters describe as "battle ready." If by "battle ready," they mean, "extremely controversial, deeply politically risky, and totally bereft of any acknowledgement of the proposal's eye-poppingly exorbitant costs," they're undoubtedly correct. Politico's story on the legislation is full of extraordinary tidbits and quotes. Here are some of the most important facts we've learned: (1) The bill "doesn’t include a price tag or specific proposals for financing the new system, which analysts estimate would cost tens of trillions...

WASHINGTON – On Friday, February 15, the Department of Veterans Affairs quietly posted that the agency now has 48,985 unfilled vacancies – up nearly 4,000 since the VA started posting vacancy totals in August 2018. The muted rollout of the data – which is only tracked and posted because of a push for transparency from the American Federation of Government Employees – follows Secretary Robert Wilkie’s recent announcement that the Department is outsourcing care and funding from the already short-staffed and underfunded agency.

The Continuing Scandal at the Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Office San Diego Plans to Hire “Immigration Affairs Manager” The Continuing Scandal at the Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Office You have followed our extensive coverage of Veterans Affairs officials in Los Angeles who are blatantly ignoring the needs of veterans and appear to be running some kind of business out of their offices. Despite our lawsuits, the outrages continue, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports . The Los Angeles Veterans Affairs (VA) facility that illegally rents its sprawling grounds to institutions that don’t serve veterans just evicted several groups dedicated...

President Trump on Saturday appointed Rear Adm. Ronny L. Jackson, his former personal physician who is under investigation by a Pentagon watchdog, as White House chief medical adviser and assistant to the president. Adm. Jackson was serving as the president’s doctor when Mr. Trump tapped him in March 2018 to become Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The nomination was withdrawn a month later amid allegations of drinking on the job, overprescribing medication and creating a hostile work environment. Since then, he has no longer served as the president’s personal physician, but remained on assignment at the White House. Navy Cmdr. Sean...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to shift billions of dollars from government-run veterans’ hospitals to private health care providers, setting the stage for the biggest transformation of the veterans’ medical system in a generation. Under proposed guidelines, it would be easier for veterans to receive care in privately run hospitals and have the government pay for it. Veterans would also be allowed access to a system of proposed walk-in clinics, which would serve as a bridge between V.A. emergency rooms and private providers, and would require co-pays for treatment. Veterans’ hospitals, which treat seven million patients annually, have...

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie did not disclose his associations with Confederate groups on a questionnaire submitted to the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee prior to his confirmation hearing last year, according to a copy of the form obtained by CNN's KFile. CNN's KFile reported in December that Wilkie, who was confirmed by the Senate as VA secretary in July 2018, gave a speech to a chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in 2009 and, in 1995, praised Confederate President Jefferson Davis in a speech at the US Capitol. Wilkie was also at one point a member of the Sons...

Veterans Affairs once represented everything wrong with big government. Its inefficiency and incompetence didn’t just waste taxpayer dollars, it cost the lives of many brave men and women who served our great country.That’s why Donald Trump promised to change the VA to ensure our veterans receive the care and respect they deserve -- and change he is delivering. As a veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, I’m proud to finally see our veterans receiving the care they deserve.Where career politicians failed, President Trump succeeded in keeping his promise made to those who have served our country. “We will...

The five flag poles that line the entrance sidewalk to the VA Northern Indiana Health Care System at 2121 Lake Ave. typically fly flags of the country's five branches of military:  Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard. On Tuesday, through, those flags were taken down and just one was flown in their place: an LGBT pride flag. -snip The VA Northern Indiana Healthcare System issued the following statement: "Logistically, we could not add a flag without removing a flag from the poles outside our VA. Rather than single out one military branch's flag to be temporarily replaced with the LGBT flag, we...

Vice President Mike Pence's physician, Dr. Jennifer Peña, resigned after derailing the nomination of White House physician Admiral Ronny Jackson to become secretary of Veterans Affairs with unsubstantiated allegations of professional misconduct on his part.“The vice president’s office was informed today by the White House Medical Unit of the resignation,” Pence spokeswoman Alyssa Farah commented Friday. “Physicians assigned to the vice president report to the White House Medical Unit and thus any resignation would go entirely through the Medical Unit, not the vice president’s office.”Dr. Peña was among those who claimed professional misconduct by Jackson. In memos obtained by CNN,...

A furious President Donald Trump on Saturday called for the resignation of the Democratic senator who assembled and released what he called “false” allegations that scuttled the nomination of the White House doctor who’d been in line to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Trump stepped up his criticism of Montana’s Jon Tester, top Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Committee, in two tweets days after asserting that Tester “has to have a big price to pay” politically in the GOP friendly state for his leading role in Ronny Jackson’s failed VA bid. Tester faces a competitive re-election race this year....

UPDATE: Jackson will resume his duties as the White House doctor. "Admiral Jackson is a doctor in the United States Navy assigned to the White House and is here at work today," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders released in a statement Thursday morning. ***Original Post*** U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and longtime White House Doctor Ronny Jackson will not become the next Secretary of Veteran's Affairs and pulled his name from consideration Thursday morning. He was nominated by President Trump for the position in March. "Going into this process, I expected tough questions about how to best care for our...

Since President Trump ousted Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, the question reverberating in Washington is whether Trump's new pick, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, is capable of heading a department with 360,000 employees and 9 million vets under its care. Senate Democrats carp he lacks experience running "a complex organization." Experience is overrated. President Obama's VA Secretary, Robert McDonald, failed miserably, despite having run Procter & Gamble. Vets died on phony wait lists on McDonald's watch. Jackson's last combat role was with a surgical shock trauma unit in Iraq. Sounds like good preparation for battling the killer VA bureaucracy. Jackson also...

Even as Democrats continue to obstruct and play politics, I have never stopped fighting for the people, and I have no intention of changing course. I promised Jan. 20, 2017, would be remembered as a new day for all Americans – the day the people became the rulers of this nation once again. For the past 365 days, that promise has been my guide. We are putting America first, making real change in Washington, and creating opportunities for all of our people. From coast to coast, there is a renewed spirit. Our country is roaring back more quickly than anyone...

The Social Security Administration made $37 million worth of benefit payments to dead veterans, according to a new audit.The inspector general for the agency reported more retirement and disability payments could be made to deceased individuals if action is not taken to correct the government's death record system.