House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Friday that Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation “changes nothing” until President Barack Obama comes up with a plan to address problems with access to care at the agency.
“Until the President outlines a vision and an effective plan for addressing the broad dysfunction at the VA, today’s announcement really changes nothing,” Boehner said in a statement. “One personnel change cannot be used as an excuse to paper over a systemic problem. Our veterans deserve better, and we will hold the President accountable until he makes things right.”
Boehner also called on the Senate to immediately take up the VA Management and Accountability Act, which passed the House last week and would give the head of the agency more authority to dismiss senior executives.
Of course it won’t, and Dems who thought it would are politically (wilfully?) naive.
The “scandal” will continue, no new secretary will be confirmed, and Dems won’t have a thing to show for it, because they are all incapable (unwilling) to forcefully point out the dreadful GOP position on veterans.
The GOP got exactly what it wanted, and the Dems got nothing, except the sliming of an honorable and decent man tasked with cleaning up after the Bush Administration. In other words, SSDD.
Congrats!
What Boehner meant to say was “The resignation of Shinseki changes nothing until Congress decides to fund the VA at an appropriate level.”
‘For instance, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m still orange.’
Boner’s message started out sensibly but then it segued into the usual “holding the president accountable” blah blah. Forty-one members of Boner’s party in the Senate voted against VA funding in February, let’s hold them accountable instead.
With Shinseki’s resignation now the Obama administration has no more excuses. The problems at the VA are identified and clear, plus there is over-funding of the VA with huge budgets surpluses every year, now it’s time for Obama to get this right. Our vets have waited long enough, for Pete sake.