VA WHISTLEBLOWER CALLS FOR SECRETARY’S RESIGNATION: The VA scandal continues. A whistleblower at the Phoenix VA, Jared Kinnaman, has written a letters to the interim director of the Phoenix facility and the VA Secretary, Robert McDonald, asking for their resignation:
According to Kinnaman, one of the most egregious examples of dangerous behavior at Phoenix is understaffing in the emergency room. The leadership has long known of the problem, having been informed numerous times that this long-standing scenario is like a ticking time bomb that threatens the safety of veterans and their family members.
The Phoenix VA has maintained from the very start that the ER is staffed 24/7 by a licensed social worker. However, The Washington Times recently obtained an email chain indicating the VA is scrambling to fill all the scheduling gaps, essentially driving their employees to the breaking point. Even officials appeared shocked. According to the emails, the problem was copied to Grippen, the current director, but whether any practices changed as a result is unknown. . . .
The response to whistleblowers raising the issue with leadership, Kinnaman says, has included gag orders, character assassinations and illegal office searches.
Not much has changed at the VA–except the media has lost interest and moved on. Obama’s solution was to throw more money at the VA, and Congress agreed, passing a “reform” measure about 9 months ago. But as Michelle Malkin recently observed:
Obama condemned the “inexcusable conduct” at VA hospitals across the country (and under his own watch).
He vowed to “do right by all who served under our proud flag.” He promised America’s veterans new “reform,” “resources,” “timely care” and an end to the disgraceful disability backlog.
The bill he signed, in case you’d forgotten, included $10 billion in emergency funding to pay for veterans to go outside the chronically dysfunctional VA system if they are facing long wait times or live 40 miles or more from a VA facility, plus another $6.3 billion to set up 27 new clinics and hire doctors, nurses and other medical staff.
So, how’s it all working out? About as well as every other “success story” Obama has signed his name to: abysmally, ineffectually and incompetently.
Read the whole thing.