VA leaves veterans lingering as unprocessed claims tops one million

[madmom]

Posted by Howard Owens on June 27, 2009 - 1:10pm


The backlog of unprocessed disability claims at the Veterans Administration now exceeds one million and the pile grows daily. Veterans are waiting months to have benefits administered.

Congressman Chris Lee is taking up the cause of veterans waiting for claims to be processed.

“The VA’s backlog of unfinished disability claims is clearly unacceptable and unsustainable. With the VA drowning in red tape, our veterans are forced to go to extreme lengths in order to make ends meet while waiting on benefits they have earned,” Lee said in a statement released this week. “Whether it’s hiring and training more processors or updating technological capabilities, the VA needs to have a detailed plan in place to tackle this problem and expedite its implementation.”

http://www.thebatavian.com/blogs/howard-owens/va-leaves-veterans-lingering-unprocessed-claims-tops-one-million/7295

[bertman]

1. I'm going out on a limb here to say that this is a direct result of patriotic Republican

Congressional control of the budget for about ten or twelve years.

Sad thing is that President Obama could fix this dire situation if he were to scale back on the spending for Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Hekate]

2. Ah, you mean the privatized-by-Repubs, underfunded and understaffed VA? That one?

What. A. Surprise. Another stinking mess for the Obama Administration to clean up.

God I am so sorry for our vets.

Hekate

[msedano]

3. Obama & Shinseki's VA no better than predecessors.

In fact, given their mouthing off how "change" is coming to improve Veteran care and services, the Obama administration is worse.

Here's a story you do not see covered in your newspapers. Dig for more info, then, please, write your local federal representatives to take back Veteran land.

LA Times covers wrong story: the upside down US flag. But the issue is the land grab.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-flag27-2009jun27,0,3933157.story

This is one battle that will probably be decided by whichever side is most "distressed" -- officials of the VA Medical Center in West Los Angeles, or a group of protesting veterans.

On Sunday, demonstrators plan to gather by the VA grounds and display an upside-down American flag "as a signal of dire distress." They contend that agency policies have placed the VA property in "extreme danger."

But if that act upsets VA officials, protesters could find themselves facing off with federal police, who view the upended banner as a sign of disrespect to Old Glory.

Older coverage from a Vet blog introducing the issue the LATimes wants to silence:

http://vetspeakblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/veterans-groups-rally-against-va-land.html

120 years ago, on 3 March 1888, a plot of land was irrevocably deeded by John P. Jones and Arcadia de Baker to the United States for the “sole purpose of providing veterans a place to heal from war”. That property is now called the “VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System” and is managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In September 2007 the local VA entered into a “Shared Property” agreement with an organized group of Brentwood and Beverly Hills residents calling themselves the “Veterans Park Conservancy” to use 16+ acres of that land, rent-free, as a public park. The agreement runs for 20 years with an option for 10 more. The $6M - $7M worth of improvements are to be paid for through donations collected by the Conservancy.
X
It is clear that this amount of money represents the cost for permanent structures and not just planting trees on the property. Also prior to entering into the agreement the VA was pressured into spending $1M+ on a new cast iron fence to remove what the Conservancy termed an “eyesore”

Obama cares not a whit for Veterans.

[jody]

4. "Obama cares not a whit for Veterans." IMO you may have overstated Obama's interest in vets. n/t