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The real danger with the VA scandal...

Posted: May 30, 2014

Is there anyone who doesn't believe that what's been going on at the VA isn't happening in one form or another at virtually every agency in the federal government? I mean, we know about the IRS too, right?

But are we getting the picture? I mean, the BIG PICTURE.

Up and down the list of agencies and bureaucracies, there's been no accountability in this government for a long time, and this pre-dates Obama by a number of Presidents. Waste, mismanagement, "sweetheart" contracts, favoritism, cronyism, political appointments despite lack of executive qualifications, theft, fraud, deliberate "cooking the books" and flagrant abuse of power, etc. - all of that has been rampant since at least the 1950s and probably before that.

We know this, and yet there's still a sense that some people are astonished by what's been going on at the VA. Really? Not me.

To me, the danger is that the VA won't be just the beginning of a government-wide clean-out, but the beginning AND the end. If all you do is fix the VA (if you manage that, even) and you don't go on and clean house at the other agencies as well, you've just put lipstick on the pig in order to pacify the citizens.

The VA is not an isolated situation - a single "rogue" agency, or an "unusual" case. It is emblematic of the way that the government is run. And that means not only that fixing the VA doesn't fix the government, but that it's highly likely that the VA will only once again blend back into the same culture that didn't get fixed.

If we treat this VA scandal as though that's the only corner of the garbage dump that stinks and everywhere else it's roses, we're still in trouble. If we don't see what the VA is REALLY showing us, the opportunity will be lost. It's time to lift the lid on the whole pot of putrid corruption and feckless incompetence.

;

Politicizing This Issue Is Dishonorable - Seriously

[ In Reply To ..]
The focus should be on doing what is best for the Veterans and their families that have been affected. Pointing fingers at either party or both or blaming the government solves nothing.

It's a government agency and will remain a government agency. Stop the blame game and fix it.

Kinda like the way - candidate Obama...

[ In Reply To ..]
did during his election re: Walter Reed, backlogs, etc.? You're right, it is dishonorable.

So why continue it? - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
It's easy for anyone to watch and criticize and blame, regardless of party affiliation. It's also pointless and does nothing to help the Veterans and their families.

Focus all that energy in fixing it now and move forward.

I agree, but let's be sure next time to elect a - COMPETENT individual for president.

[ In Reply To ..]
Not some community organizer who has never held a job in his life.

Facts - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
- Obama served as a community organizer at the Altgeld Gardens housing project in Chicago in one of his first jobs.

- Obama served as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years.

- Obama was also a lawyer at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland (now known as Miner, Barnhill & Galland) for 4 years.

- Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996. He was reelected in 1998 and 2002.

- Obama then ran for the US Senate in 2004, serving from January 4, 2005 and ending on November 16, 2008. He resigned his seat in the Illinois Senate to serve as US senator and would resign that US Senate seat upon being elected as President of the United States.

So contrary to what gets regurged as the "truth" over and over, those are the actual facts.

Don't forget his job as... - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
...the next messiah. Even Barbara Walters thought he had that job nailed.

LOL - Sheeple

[ In Reply To ..]

You do realize you're perilously close to caring what a celebrity thinks.

Just kidding around!

You do realize you're perilously close to caring what a celebrity thinks, right?

Just kidding around!

HA! You got me there. - LOL...

[ In Reply To ..]
:-0

You second statement is not true - Nobody there remembers or knows him

[ In Reply To ..]

OMG!!! - That's funny!!

[ In Reply To ..]
TY!!!

They don't remember him and more misinformation - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
I couldn't help but notice his 12 years as an elected official in Chicago and the United States Senate was unchallenged. So how does that square with the statement "community organizer who has never held a job in his life." He also was a lawyer at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland (now known as Miner, Barnhill & Galland) for 4 years, and I even left that off my original list (which I've edited and added).

I guess if we just pretend that stuff didn't happen and make other stuff up in its place and live in an alternate reality, then we can just keep repeating inaccuracies and falsehoods and feel absolutely no shame at all in spreading misinformation.

Kind of like Fox News.

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/staff110408

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/faculty032209

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/050209facultyobamacourt

It really doesn't matter, does it? - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
No matter what he did or did not do, he's still NOT QUALIFIED to be POTUS. Period.

It really doesn't matter? Well, that depends. - John 8:32

[ In Reply To ..]
If being truthful matters to you, then yes. If it doesn't matter, then no.

IMO, you shouldn't expect the truth from others if you're not prepared to be truthful yourself.

If you'll read more carefully, you'll see that I - DE-politicized this observation.

[ In Reply To ..]
I specifically said that the problem of ineptitude, mismanagement and corruption in the federal government goes back across many administrations - which anyone would have understood to mean, both political parties.

It Was Not Partisan - Seriously

[ In Reply To ..]
The fact that your argument was nonpartisan is a valid point, but nonpartisan does not equal apolitical or "DE-politicized." Blaming government and suggesting a "government-wide clean-out" and "clean[ing] house at the other agencies as well" is extremely political.

Burning down a house because there's a leak in one of the toilets won't fix the toilet.

Politics is not the same thing as government. - Politics has to do with elections.

[ In Reply To ..]
The government exists apart from politics, and saying that we need to clean house across the board in government is referring to the system of governance, not the electoral process or even politicians per se.

I've worked in government for a good part of my life, and I do know what I'm talking about when I say that what we see with the IRS and the VA are by no means isolated situations.

Are we straight on all this now?

In What Alternate Universe Does The Government Exist Apart From Politics? - Seriously

[ In Reply To ..]
If government actually did exist apart from politics in the United States, I would actually totally agree with you, but as long as "politics has to do with elections" and those politicians/people we elect to office are the ones making the laws and are the ones responsible for the "waste, mismanagement, 'sweetheart' contracts, favoritism, cronyism, political appointments despite lack of executive qualifications, theft, fraud, deliberate 'cooking the books' and flagrant abuse of power, etc.," that you're concerned with in your post, then I respectfully disagree. I mean, who does all that "government" and "governance" and creating and staffing all those agencies and stuff if it's not our elected politicians?

Besides, whenever you seek to take focus off a particular issue like the VA issue--that's quickly become an election-year political football--in an attempt to focus attention on your own political agenda, that's politicizing the issue.

Excellent post. Well thought out and definitely - some thought provoking

[ In Reply To ..]
Very good observations and I definitely agree with you.

This scandel must to be swept under a rug. This is very serious.

Thanks for your post.

VA scandal - dazed and confused

[ In Reply To ..]
I admit I don't know the whole VA story, but it isn't a big secret that people who work for the government or unions think they can sit back and pick their nose all day and nothing will happen to them. I don't even know why this is suddenly a scandal. Like the poster stated, it has been going on for years and years and not just at the VA. Maybe this will open some eyes to government jobs. I am sure there are plenty of people that work hard in the government, but they are held back by the people who think they cant be touched (fired) so they don't do a thing making it twice as hard on the people who do work.

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