Thank you for your service... (Part 2)

[Sava]

Yeah the VA was awesome and super efficient before Shinseki got there.

[DinoDoc]

Yeah the VA was awesome and super efficient before Shinseki got there.

The arguement here is that he's incompetent and should be shown the door. Not that the agency was a model of hyper-efficiency before he showed up.

[Sava]

The arguement here is that he's incompetent and should be shown the door. Not that the agency was a model of hyper-efficiency before he showed up.

Nope. It just says the whole organization is messed up regardless of who you have at the top.

In fact, by making up this bull**** strawman about his competency, you are contributing to the problem by diverting the conversation to an irrelevant tangent... thereby sucking valuable outrage away from the actual problem.

.... not getting bills passed in Congress because right wing extremists are acting like douchebags

[kentonio]

Firing the VA Head would be good for the president. I don't understand your suspicion here.

It's touching to see how much you care about the president and only have his best interests at heart. Given how good it would be for him, it's astonishing he hasn't done it already.

[pchang]

Perhaps the real problem is inadequate funding for the VA. But, then that would require raising taxes.....

[Sava]

Perhaps the real problem is inadequate funding for the VA. But, then that would require socialism.....

Nice try pinko.

[DinoDoc]

Perhaps the real problem is inadequate funding for the VA. But, then that would require raising taxes.....

When has the VA's budget not gone up? The problem here appears to be systemic incompetence (and in the case of these bonuses they executives recieved possibly malice) from top to bottom within the agency.

[DinoDoc]

It's touching to see how much you care about the president and only have his best interests at heart. Given how good it would be for him, it's astonishing he hasn't done it already.

Your paranoia here is quite amusing but I do agree with you on one point. It is astonishing that he hasn't been shown the door yet.

[Sava]

Your bar of astonishment is awfully low.

[pchang]

VA spending has not increased to match defense spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you don't want excessive waits at the VA, you have to increase spending in proportion with your war time activity (with a few years lag).

[DinoDoc]

Your bar of astonishment is awfully low.

Well in this case I am avoiding blaming the White House for this despite what ken (and the rest of the thread?) seems to be thinking. So yeah...

[Buster Crabbe's Uncle]

Has the VA started sucking MORE in recent years? I'm really asking, noting that I've always heard it sucked.

[Sava]

DD:I just love watching you try to spin this to your advantage somehow... considering the right wing alternative is the complete dissolution the VA and any other type of public health service.

It amounts to... "yeah things are bad! Let's make them worse!"

[kentonio]

Well in this case I am avoiding blaming the White House for this despite what ken (and the rest of the thread?) seems to be thinking. So yeah...

Indeed, sacking the head of a department who the president himself had previously nominated is a great way to make the administration look better.

[DinoDoc]

DD:I just love watching you try to spin this to your advantage somehow... considering the right wing alternative is the complete dissolution the VA and any other type of public health service.

Straw Men are indeed fearsome. I'm impressed you've made such an impressive caricature of what I've said in this thread which is about the need for accountability within the system.