Obama's West Point Speech: Cadets Were Left Asking Themselves---WTF?

The president takes no personal responsibility for a declining America. He blames his policies...Tweet by Jay Carnie

• Imagine if you will, you are a West Point cadet. You just completed perhaps the most vigorous academic and physical four years of your life. During your short 22 years, your country has been involved in two very long wars resulting in thousands of military casualties. Then imagine your Commander in Chief making a commencement speech that not only sounds like a typical politician's campaign speech (the president, once again, alluded to George W. Bush's policies) but he informs you what your country should NOT be rather than what it is...the greatest nation on God's green earth. After all, you're a West Point graduate. It's one of the reasons you chose to attend such a grand and honorable institution.
• So is it surprising that applause from the West Point graduates yesterday was conspicuous by its absence? It shouldn't have been, because many of those graduates were left asking themselves: WTF?
• Perhaps Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post said it best: "I think his speech was literally pointless. ...He didn't have a point. It was a defensive speech. It was an answer to the chorus of criticism from his side of the {political} aisle that it's been a weak, rudderless foreign policy, which it has been."
• But, with all due respect to Krauthammer, I don't believe his criticism went far enough. The president's arrogance was on display again and could be best summarized by Obama's reminding the world (and the cadets) that he's not the feckless leader many now believe he is even though the evidence is clearly otherwise. No where was this more evident than the recent manner in which Putin, Assad and other thugs responded to Obama's threats. They did what they intended to do anyway. In other words, their perception of America's weak leadership (yes including Congress) embolden them. And even more disturbing and just as dangerous, Obama's weakness in foreign policy has been disheartening to many of our allies.

Fixing The VA Health Care System: They Fought For Us. It's Time We Fought For Them

The problems at the VA "represents a case study in how a bureaucracy tends to its own interests, even at the expense of veterans relying on it for matters of life and death." Rich Lowry

Perhaps this is the stat that should concern most Americans. At Gitmo today, there are 1.5 health care providers for every terrorist detainee. At VA medical centers, the average is 1 health care provider for every 35 veterans.  (J.D. Gordon, former Pentagon spokesperson). In other words, the first recognition in fixing the problems at the VA is one of priorities. Treating the health of our vets should come well before treating the health of terrorist detainees. With the exception of a few misguided nitwits, few will disagree with that first step. But where do we go from there? I don't presume to know all the answers. But we have to start somewhere.  Let's examine some other reasonable corrections that can be made to this vast government program:

• Get rid of the entrenched and poor performers in the federal bureaucracy that manages the VA system starting with Secretary Shinseki.  Keep those who have been successful and recruit accomplished private sector executives with a good track record in managing health care settings. And yes, pay them well based on their performance.
• Establish clear and reasonable benchmarks for and of performance. For example, a 2012 audit by the VA inspector general found that many VA medical centers lacked any method for calculating staffing needs. 
• Get rid of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union most prevalent in the VA medical centers. Place the patient ahead of the employee. That union has also been the primary obstacle to enact the next step.
• As I promoted in an earlier post, expand the program to refer veterans to civilian medical centers using vouchers. From all reports, the VA is good at treating PTSD, TBI, Agent Orange, and other combat related health injuries. But why should a vet have to go to the VA if she or he needs treatment for a cardiac condition, diabetes, pneumonia, a variety of allergy conditions, etc.? Researchers at RAND reported that veterans often have a better chance of survival for at-risk cancer and heart surgeries at civilian hospitals. In short, civilian hospitals do those procedures more often and have more experience than most VA medical centers (NY Post). Allow referrals to the nearest community hospital to get treatment for those conditions especially those hospitals that have expertise in those areas of health management. This step alone would reduce VA patient rolls significantly and provide the veterans with immediate care (one of the major problems in the VA has not been the care itself as evidenced by veteran patient care surveys, it's been the waiting to get the needed health care. In 2012, the Government Accounting Office published a report on just this very problem entitled, "VA Health Care: Reliability of Reported Outpatient Medical Appointments Wait Times and Scheduling Oversight Need Improvement."). And this problem has been around well before 2012.
• Urge veterans on Medicare to use the civilian health system. Over 3 million vets uses the VA despite having Medicare. This would lighten VA's patient loads and would save them millions.
• Borrowing from Col. Allen West, he suggests developing regional "Centers of Excellence." In other words, setting up regions in the North, South, East, Midwest and West, and basing it on the composition of the number of veterans in a particular region. He also suggests developing relationships with local private hospitals. This is significant considering veterans now living in many rural and remote areas need to travel long distances to get to the VA medical center in their catchment area.

As Rich Lowry recently wrote, "The VA is an island of socialism in American health care." But it does not have to be. One of the major problems faced by returning veterans from our recent engagements  is their feelings of being disconnected from their local communities. What better way to re-connect them to the community than giving them the opportunity to use community hospitals? Moreover, this would give communities more opportunities to connect with their veterans. 

Let's get our veterans off that isolated island. They served us. It's now our duty to serve them. That's what a grateful nation does.

Progressives And The Politics Of A Warped Ideology

"If America was a house, the left would root for the termites."...Greg Gutfeld of The Five

Trickle Down Incompetence: The Only Thing The Progressive Political Class Is Good At Doing

"This is the great political failure of progressivism: They always go too far. They always try to rub your face in it." Peggy Noonan

• As I mentioned in my posting yesterday, this VA scandal crossed a threshold that even many liberals find offensive. I also believe the "low information" voters understand this scandal is beyond the pale. As Noonan also wrote, "They {the government} make citizens see Washington as an alien and hostile power." I would add to that an "incompetent" power. And power in the hands of incompetent ideologues like progressives is also dangerous and can---at times---turn deadly for Americans. We've seen that played out now in the VA and two years ago in Benghazi. It's also not inconceivable to believe we'll see it play out with Obamacare, if it has not already.
• The frightening aspect of progressive ideology is that the incompetence trickles down from the power structure. We've witnessed how these ideologues rely on intolerance, bigotry and deceit whether it's in our healthcare system or in our educational or in the overall culture itself. It also seeps into the management of foreign policy. 
• In NYC, one of the first actions taken by the new progressive mayor, de Blasio, was to wage a war on charter schools. By so doing, he was waging a war on poor children since they make up a large portion of the charter school population. It was so conspicuous that Michelle Malkin found it necessary to point out that "Ideologues will sacrifice anything to their ideology---including children." Just as disturbing, instead of focusing on the importance of personal responsibility and family stability, the progressive educational elitist will have us believe that only pouring more money into a problem will solve it. NYC spends $20B on education and over a 100 schools have zero children passing state exams. In fact, only 11% of black students in NYC are even prepared for a job or going on to college. But what they won't tell you or want you to know is that 45% of the children in NYC are born out of wedlock. In some parts of the city, the total hits 90%. NY Post.
• Not long ago, I wrote a piece essentially proclaiming that poverty won the War on Poverty. Not only do we now have record levels of Americans living in poverty, but since the War on Poverty began we've poured over $20T into it. As with education, this was yet another example of trickle down incompetence. The government created programs that made people totally dependent on it. In fact, in 1992, George H.W. Bush said, "Welfare was never meant to be a lifestyle...It was never meant to be passed from one generation to the next like a legacy." But that's exactly what happened and we see its victims today.
• Progressive ideologues are basically good at nothing and bad at everything. Even our urban landscapes, dominated by progressive ideologues for decades, are some of the poorest and most dangerous cities in America today. That's been their legacy. They always reset to failure. In many respects, they opt for failure. By doing so, it enhances dependence upon them and that raises the value of their political power. It becomes a never-ending vicious contingent cycle.

The VA Scandal--More Empty Rhetoric From Mr. Obama In The Face Of Reasonable + Apparent Solutions

It turns out that the president was unaware, yet pleasantly surprised to learn that he'd be working on the VA problems all along...Jay Carney Tweet

• We've heard this same speech {Pres. Obama's presser this morning re: The VA Scandal} many times. In response to Benghazi, the IRS, the NSA and other scandals, the rhetoric is always "I'm really angry" or "I just found out" {in this case from the news media when even CNN has been reporting on this scandal for about 6 months} and "I will be holding people accountable." In fact, while it was reported that at least 40 vets died from lack of timely medical care, only one person lost his job---Dr. Petzel---who had announced his retirement, as well as his replacement, last year anyway.
• So what are the take-aways from all of this empty rhetoric? For one, we know Obama rarely, if ever, holds anyone accountable unless he's blaming Republicans, former Pres. Bush or Fox News. We also know that bureaucrats have been left in their positions and even received bonuses. For example, the CEO of the Phoenix VA---where the veterans died--- was given a bonus in 2013 as did IRS officials. To add insult to injury, IRS employees who didn't pay their taxes still received bonuses. (Washington Free Beacon + PBS).  We also know he demands full reports conspicuously timed after the next election.
• The fact is nothing really happens. No one gets fired. And, as many reports indicate, they still get promoted, get raises and even get bonuses.
• But there is some good news. I have this gut feeling that this current scandal with the VA has elevated the conscience---the awareness---among more Americans. While the other scandals have been downplayed by many (especially the main stream media), in the case of the VA a red line has been crossed. Most Americans want our veterans---especially our sick veterans---treated with competent medical care and respect. It's clear the system broke down and too many in government paid little or no attention to it.

Thank God For TV: How Else Would Pres. Obama Find Out What's Wrong With His Administration?

During his trip to the White House yesterday, Uruguay's President said more Americans should be bilingual. Then Joe Biden said, "Thanks, but I'm happily married."...Fallon

• On several occasions, I wrote pieces thanking God for social media. I tried to point out that social media gives ordinary citizens an effective weapon in unveiling lies and defending the truth. In addition, I believe social media has helped us immensely in exposing the lies and deceptions of government and the main stream media. We've seen this played out in all of the scandals and blunders associated with this current government. We've also watched as protesters in other countries used this medium against their tyrannical governments. In fact, not long ago, the WSJ reported that millennials rack up 18 hours of media use per day with over 3 hours in social networking alone.
• So perhaps it should not have come as a surprise that Pres. Obama---according to Jay Carney, his press spokesperson---learned of the VA scandal from television. While that might be appropriate for an ordinary citizen, it should send shivers down the spine of most Americans. In other words, Pres. Obama learns about the scandals surrounding his administration from watching television. Who knew we had a "low information" president?
• Of course, none of this is true. Regarding the VA, Pres. Obama was informed of the systemic deficiencies in the system in 2008. In 2007, even before taking office, Obama said we "need a new sense of urgency" in targeting problems at the VA. So what has his administration done? It proposed cuts to TriCare for veterans.

The VA Scandal: Another Blunder In The Long List Of Progressive Policy Disasters

If Government Can't Even Treat Its Veterans Properly, How Can It Handle Health Care For Everyone?...NY Post Editorial Headline

• In October of 2013, I wrote a piece entitled, "How More Pain, Misery And Dysfunction Will Americans Tolerate From This Government?" That article was written shortly after the government shutdown and the closing of the WWII memorial to veterans. In that very same piece, I addressed the cutbacks to military hospitals and the unacceptable backlogs of disability claims at the VA medical centers (those claims have been reduced by almost 300k from a high of 600k but largely due to claims being denied). In addition, the ObamaCare roll-out proved to be a total disaster during that very same period.
• Today, Laurence McDonald, a contributor to Forbes, pointed out the following. In 2006, the VA budget stood at about $73B.  Today it's $154B. On the face of it, that may sound good: more money invested in the VA to treat our veterans. (Keep in mind, VA enrollment grew significantly because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq). 
• But wait! It's the following data points that should concern everyone. Even with the VA's budget being doubled, in 2008 the wait time for vets was 110 days. Today it's 360. Add to that, it now takes approximately 160 days for the VA to process a claim. Appeals can take up to four years or more. (A close friend of mine told me his appeal took over 5 years). Moreover, in the last two weeks, we've found out that as many as 40 veterans reportedly died because they didn't get the care they needed at the Phoenix VA.  In fact, almost 1,500 veterans at that facility were forced to wait months to see a physician. According to report, the VA kept a secret waiting list and also allegedly falsified report. 
• But it appears it didn't end there. There are now reports emerging that secret waiting  lists were also the VA medical center in Ft. Collins, CO and in two facilities in Texas. Today, the American Legion reported they are investigating similar cases in 16 other states.
• So as this most recent scandal plays itself out, we're left to ponder yet another casualty in the long list of Obama administration cluster f*cks that include, but are not limited to, the failed stimulus program, the failure in domestic economic policy, to the failed gun running scandal (Fast and Furious) to Benghazi (including the other blunders in foreign policy such as Syria, Iran, Ukraine, Egypt, etc)  to Obamacare to the IRS to the GSA to the NSA and now the VA.
• After addressing all of these scandals and more, I'm obliged to ask again: How much more pain, misery and dysfunction will Americans tolerate from this administration? If the polls are correct, we've already reached an upper limit to our threshold for this abnormal and unhealthy governing. But I'm also obliged to ask: how many more Americans need to die before a majority of the country wakes up from this nightmare and declares: We've had enough?

Postscript:  Since this was posted,  the VA Secretary likened VA waits to waits at Disney World.  Yo Pal!  Disney studies their wait times and improves upon them. We can't say that about the VA.