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Sigh . . . . . Looks like it's time for another conservative ratfucking hypocrites parade:
MAY 22, 2014, 5:02 PM EDT
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Thursday became the first Republican leader to call on Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign, amid a brewing scandal involving dozens of veteran deaths while waiting for medical care.
He made his position known in a lengthy statement, saying he has received "countless complaints from my constituents of extended wait times and delayed benefits claims at the VA in Los Angeles" and that he offered legislation last October to "address these abhorrent failings in the VA." He allowed that the failings "are not new."
"General Shinseki, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, has served his country with honor and integrity. No one doubts his dedication to our nation’s veterans. However, the current state of the VA is wholly unacceptable and has become a national embarrassment – it requires immediate action," McCarthy said.http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kevin-mccarthy-eric-shinseki-resign
Listen, anybody who has family members or friends who are veterans knows all too well that the problems within the Veteran's Administration system have been around for a very, very long time, and have been in existence across both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Eric Shinseki is not the problem. The problems are systemic and there is no magic bullet candidate that will replace Shinseki and who can fix the problem. And when The Gadfly uses the term "systemic," he means that Congress, the Senate and the American people share just as much, if not more, of the blame for the shoddy treatment that is being afforded our military veterans as General Shinseki does.
Predictably, the GOP toady McCarthy goes right for the lizard-brain emotional jugular by noting the travesty and horror over reports of "dozens" of veterans dying while waiting to receive medical care. Welcome to the civilian world of American healthcare you pious fucking hypocrite.
Prior to the implementation of the ACA, a conservative estimate had calculated that somewhere around 45,000 American civilians were dying every year, for the years studied 2005-2012, solely due to a lack of access to basic health care. Those numbers were culled from a peer-reviewed study by Harvard Medical School and were vetted and validated by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Center for Health Statistics, the Census Bureau, and the Urban Institute.
And so only now, after reports that a few dozen veterans died waiting for medical attention, are the conservatives suddenly experiencing the urge to feel compassion for their fellow Americans dying unnecessarily? Really? Once again we see the conservative movement for the vapid, cruel ugliness that it is -- cherry picking those human lives, based on a value scale that hews to their twisted ideological standards, who apparently are more valuable and worthy of compassion and attention than others. And once again, The Gadfly will state for the record that this modern day conservative movement is the corporeal disease that is preventing this country from achieving a greatness beyond the dreams of the founding fathers.
And The Gadfly truly does just have to chuckle in bemusement at Rep. McCarthy's demand that this situation with the VA "requires immediate action."
You mean the kind of action like from February of this year where a Democratic sponsored bill would have "expanded federal healthcare and education programs for veterans?":
WASHINGTON Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:50pm EST
(Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans blocked legislation on Thursday that would have expanded federal healthcare and education programs for veterans, saying the $24 billion bill would bust the budget.
Even though the legislation cleared a procedural vote on Tuesday by a 99-0 vote, the measure quickly got bogged down in partisan fighting.
Supporters said the measure would have brought the most significant changes in decades to U.S. veterans' programs. For example, it called for 27 new medical facilities to help a healthcare system that is strained by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
With Democrats pressing for passage this week, Senate Republicans, backed by their leader, Mitch McConnell, attempted to attach controversial legislation calling for possible new sanctions on Iran that President Barack Obama opposes.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/27/us-usa-veterans-congress-idUSBREA1Q26O20140227
So basically, because the childish brat brigades in the GOP couldn't get their way muscling Obama into poking a stick in to the Iran hornet's nest, they stomped their little ratfucking feet, took their veterans benefiting legislative ball and went home to cry to mommy (Fox "News"). The conservatives talk a good game when it comes to seeing to the best interests of our veterans - but that is all it is - meaningless, shallow talking and games. The only true interest the conservatives have in veterans is using them as stage and propaganda props during election season.
And their excuse for blocking that legislation, which btw, they themselves approved of in the 99-0 procedural vote, being too costly to the budget, is a load of fresh, steaming hot elephant shit. These fuckers never seem to have any objections or issues when it comes to finding pallet loads of taxpayer money to give to their corporate cronies in subsides and to the wealthiest Americans in tax cuts, or even worse, to the defense industry -- the very same cocksuckers who are getting wealthy off of creating all of these veterans in the first place. And that is because, to the modern day GOP, those handful of wealthy, industrialist Americans are their one true constituency.
Having said all of that,
Here is how The Gadfly sees the GOP's differing standards when it comes to attending to their constituency's needs:
Joe and Jane American -- got no job?, got no health care?, got no access to education and training?, can't afford to feed your kids?, got no American dream?, got no hope?? Go fuck yourselves you lazy moochers.
Charles and David Koch -- need more corporate subsidies?, need more tax breaks on your personal income?, need us to look the other way as you stash ill-gotten gains in illegal off-shore tax havens?, need less regulation of your own industry and the banking and financial industries that launder your blood money?, need more loyalty oaths from us to do your bidding of keeping the common man's aspirations perpetually crushed?? Well here we are, on our knees, mouths wide open - shove that big oil-slicked dick and those gilded balls right in there man.
Ultimately, The Gadfly has a simple, uni-dimensional, long-term solution to this VA mess:
Stop fucking getting this country involved in wars of choice and wars that are nothing more than international natural resource grabs by the military industrial complex (Gadfly is looking at you oil, gas & mining industry fuckers). The fewer wars we have, the fewer veterans we will have, and therefore be free from having to provide lifetime care for. Fewer wars also translate to less taxpayer money being funneled in to the offshore bank accounts for the multi-national bomb makers, the missile makers, the gun makers, the tank and battleship makers, the chemical arms makers, etc, etc ...... and which can, and by all that is decent and moral, should be diverted to shoring up the VA system and providing the level of care that our veterans have earned, deserve and rightfully expect.
Gee - what a novel fucking concept huh?
----TFG
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