{"id":9247,"date":"2014-05-28T18:17:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T18:17:17","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-05-28T18:17:17","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T18:17:17","slug":"obama_s_va_scandal_is_growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/28\/obama_s_va_scandal_is_growing\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s VA Scandal is Growing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: The VA scandal is growing. It is not abating. Bonuses went to the worst hospitals. One of the points I made last night on the show with Greta<\/a>, she asked me about the VA. I said (paraphrasing), “Do you remember when Obama was out sliming the doctors, surgeons specifically, accusing them of doing unnecessary surgeries just to pocket big bucks? Unnecessary amputations, unnecessary appendectomies, this kind of thing? And he was pointing out how we need the federal government to get in charge of this stuff to prevent poor, unsuspecting patients from being ripped off.” <\/p>\n

It was a total assault on everybody in the medical community, all surgeons. And it wasn\u2019t true. But what is true? Obama\u2019s own VA featured a bunch of bureaucrats massaging and maneuvering waiting lists while patients died, in order to get their bonuses. So, once again, what Obama accuses the private sector of encouraging and condoning, his own Regime is practicing. Investors.com<\/a> has the details. <\/p>\n

<\/a>“Freedom of Information Act requests by Illinois-based watchdog group Open the Books reveal that the VA spent millions on bonuses during the last three years at the Edward Hines VA Hospital in Cook County, Ill. … Eric Shinseki tried to bring closure to the scandal by firing the VA undersecretary of health, Dr. Robert Petzel,” who had already announced his retirement. Earlier this month Obama had already announced his replacement. They didn\u2019t fire anybody. That\u2019s more smoke and mirrors. <\/p>\n

They were gonna fill the position with Dr. Jeffrey Murawsky, the director of VA\u2019s Great Lakes Health Care System in Winchester, Ill. Since 2009, he had oversight responsibility of the Edward Hines VA Hospital in Cook County, Ill. And that is the hospital where the Freedom of Information Act requests by Open the Books discovered the VA had spent millions on bonuses during the last three years. “Worse, in 2013, only about one-in-four of Hines\u2019 4,230 employees were those providing the actual primary care: doctors (309) or nurses (about 800), Open the Books found.”<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what happens in the public school system. You\u2019ve got X-number of teachers, and all the money goes to liberal compatriots and union people in the administrative levels of education, which never once see the classroom. Exactly what\u2019s going on at the VA hospital. Top-heavy with administrators that don\u2019t do anything but collect a check, 4,230 employees at Edward Hines VA hospital, and only 25% of \u2019em were those providing actual care. And they got bonuses. <\/p>\n

RUSH: AP just posted a breaking news story<\/a>: “Veterans at the Phoenix veterans hospital,” one of the original whistleblower locations, “waited on average 115 days for their first medical appointment…” From the Washington Times: “‘We identified an additional 1,700 veterans who were waiting for a primary care appointment but were not on the [electronic wait list,]\u2019 the report from the VA inspector general said.<\/p>\n

“‘Most importantly, these veterans were and continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost in Phoenix [health care system\u2019s] convoluted scheduling process. As a result, these veterans may never obtain a requested or required clinical appointment.'” Now, I need to stress, none of this, none of these horror stories is due to lack-of-funding. The amount of money that has been allocated for the VA has skyrocketed in the last few years. <\/p>\n

For example, the budget is more than double what it was in 2005. It\u2019s $152.7 billion today, compared to $70.9 billion back in 2005. Now, how does the left deal with this? Like everything else! They blame George W. Bush. Pelosi\u2019s out there saying (summarized), “Well, you know, we fought two wars that were unnecessary. We didn\u2019t have to fight these two wars!<\/p>\n

“We sent these brave soldiers out, and they\u2019ve become maimed and injured and disfigured and wounded and harmed, and if it weren\u2019t for Bush, we wouldn\u2019t have these pressures,” and so forth and so on. So it\u2019s all Bush\u2019s fault, unnecessary wars. It can\u2019t possibly be the incompetence of the bureaucracy trying to handle this. <\/p>\n

Look, I may as well. Let\u2019s see. Let\u2019s see. Yeah, grab sound bites one and two, \u2019cause I talked about the VA scandal last night with Greta Van Susteren on her program. Yeah, we\u2019ll go up through number three here, and here is the first bite. She said, “Let me ask you about this scandal in Washington — actually, it\u2019s around the nation — with the VA health care system. How does this happen?”<\/p>\n

BEGIN AUDIO CLIP<\/p>\n

RUSH ARCHIVE: Well, I think there have been problems in the VA that you could probably chronicle since the beginning of the VA, and the overriding problem is that this is something government just can\u2019t do. Despite the best intentions, despite the best efforts, it\u2019s something that a bureaucracy just can\u2019t handle. And I think the ultimate solution to this is going to be farming out part of it, or maybe all of it, to the private sector. And the VA, I think the depth of this scandal, or the lesson of this scandal is just that: If you want to know where we\u2019re headed as a country with health care, take a look at the VA because this is the course that\u2019s been charted if we don\u2019t change it.<\/line>