Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders conceded Wednesday that the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee “should have acted sooner” to fix the department.
During a televised town hall in New Hampshire, CNN host Anderson Cooper asked Sanders why it took so long to start fixing Veterans Affairs after there were multiple inspector general reports of problems plaguing the department.
“We should have acted sooner,” Sanders said. “We should have known what was going on in Phoenix. Those long waiting lines and the lies that some administrators were telling us.”
Sanders said that the Veterans Affairs committee, which he served on for eight years and chaired for two years, made other advancements in other areas, including those to fight homelessness and a G.I.-related bill.
It is obvious that this nation falls down on the job when it comes to a global-style system for healthcare for those who have served in the armed forces. It’s sad, sickening and a damn shame. Occasionally, I will run into a veteran at the UVA hospital in Charlottesville. The system is only marginally better now than it was a few years ago when it became a national scandal.
It’s not spoken of when we discuss our ideas for one-payer systems, but should the U.S. ever venture into a Medicare-For-All type of system where we’re speaking of a holistic/global sort of set-up, if it’s done well (it absolutely can be done but will be a major undertaking) then our vets’ care can be folded into that system. I’ve worked in administrative medical care for most of my working life, and I know it can be done – and done well. It only takes the desire to do it and a willingness to learn from the process to make it the best possible.
His tenure as chairman of Veterans Affairs was less than inspiring and a microcosm at to what his administration would be like. He went in hard charging asking for $35B in new money and ended up getting $10B which is about what the GOP would have given anyway, because there wasn’t a chance they’d defund the freaking Veteran’s Administration. And the money has to be asked for again in a short while, there was no “lasting agreement to protect our veterans” to borrow one of the flourishes do-nothing politicians love to use. “What we asked for was too much for Republicans” he ended up saying. One of his buddies was quoted as saying he had learned by playing with the “big boys” and he had struck an agreement that was one people could “live with for the time being.”
President Sanders: Change You Can Live With for the Time Being.
Speaking of vets, I’d like to know how he avoided the draft after his application as conscientious objector during the Vietnam War was rejected.
It’s a single payer type health system of which he was, if not in charge, certainly responsible. I’d like to ask him what he’s learned from this experience and how he’d avoid the many, significant problems when implementing single payer for the entire country. The VA’s performance hasn’t been inspiring.
Stop confusing us with facts, this is the internet, dammit!