Transcripts For CNNW Crossfire 20140522 : vimarsana.com

Representative joe crowley, a new york democrat, and representative tom cole, an Oklahoma Republican. Is washington playing scandal politics . Or looking for solutions . Tonight on crossfire. Welcome to crossfire. Im Newt Gingrich on the right. Im Stephanie Cutter on the left. In the crossfire tonight, congressmen from both parties. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki was on capitol hill today briefing lawmakers on the investigation into reports of delayed care and coverups. Sh shinseki released a message to the nations veterans saying if any of the allegations are true, we will act. That hasnt stopped some republicans from rushing to judgment and trying to score cheap political points, newt. I suggest they follow the lead of john boehner. Today in effect he told everyone to chill out. This isnt about the secretary. Its about the entire system underneath him. And so i dont want people to get confused about what the shiny ball is here. The shiny ball is a systemic failure of this agency. This isnt about president obama or cheap political shots. This isnt about secretary shinseki. Its about fixing a system for decades has been failing men and women who put their lives on the line for our country. Some of the backlog problems were discussing today go back more than 20 years which means we all bear responsibility. So political grandstanding is unacceptable and republicans should be called on it. Newt . Well, as Speaker Boehner said, we are going to, in fact, follow the shiny ball tonight in the crossfire tonight, new york congressman joe crowley, a member of the House Democrat Leadership Team and Oklahoma Republican congressman tom cole. We are delighted to have you. Let me start with the challenge that the president has. You know, he is up in cooperstown and maybe at the hall of fame hell learn a little bit about scoring runs and hitting the ball because today a leading democratic columnist described him as president passive. If you saw yesterdays press conference, in a little bit of what shinseki said today which is after all that stuff, gee, if we find something, we will act. Arent you a little concerned at the pace at how far behind the news media the administration has been in trying to understand the scandal . I think the president is acting appropriately. He has dispatched his Deputy White House chief of staff, rob neighbors, to arizona to demonstrate his personal involvement in getting to the root of this problem. Finding out what took place, what happened and as he said, let the chips fall where they may and wherever this leads, action will be taken whether its criminal action that needs to be taken, legislative action that needs to be taken that i think we really to need to address. And that is the fact that we have almost 2 million more men and women who have served their country, come back to the united states, who need help and assistance from the va and we the Congress Need to make sure they have every resource they possibly need to take care of those men and women coming home. Congressman cole, i want to go back for one second to that political grandstanding that newt was discussing and actually took some shots on. And take a look at senator thune who said this. This va issue is a national embarrassment, and the president s response to it is an embarrassment. We just heard Speaker Boehner say this isnt about the president , this is about shin s shinseki. We need to keep our eye on the ball basically. Where do you stand . Do you stand with making the political pot shots or stand with Speaker Boehner where everybody should just remained focused on this investigation so we can actually fix the problem . Well, i think the speaker also is pretty emphatic, look, we have potential criminal wrongdoing, people who have died. The administration has been there five years. Five years. This actually isnt a congressional problem. When president bush was president we increased funding by about 100 , the veterans and weve continued to do that under president obama. In other words, congress will write the check. Republican or democrat. Its actually never been a flashpoint. We added 1. 8 billion more to the budget than what we passed in the house a couple weeks ago. This is a failure of administrative oversight. Im a big admirer of general shinseki. I served on House Armed Services committee when he was army chief of staff. This guy that left a piece of himself in vietnam fighting for this country. This is a guy what was right about iraq. So i have a lot of admiration. But five years, and were now finding what looks like systemic criminal you got to hold get to the bottom of this. Look, theres an investigation in place. When youre padding theres also some suggestion this goes back beyond the five years that president obamas been in place. So, and to say its not a congressional issue, it certainly is a congressional issue as to whether or not were giving the resources to the va to carry out the mandate that congress has set for them. That is to take care of the men and women who come back who leave a piece of them, physically or mentally, back in the country where they served. I disagree with the sense if were giving them enough money, why are these backlogs taking place . Why is it 125 days . Weve been giving them the money they asked for. Thats the point. Thats not exactly true. That actually is exactly true. You dont increase an agency by 100 under one president and continue on essentially the same clip. The idea, again, im not suggesting we shouldnt do more. If the answer came back, we need more, i think the congress in a bipartisan sense would do it. Wait a second. You guys yesterday had a bipartisan vote. You two voted together. That said that shinseki will now have the authority to fire 435 senior executives. That would certainly imply that prior to yesterday he didnt have the senator, of course, is leaving today without having picked this up. But certainly there seems to be some belief that theres a structural problem as well as a financial problem. And that the structure may well be incapable in this current form. Do you expect a significant are you comfortable if a significant number of those 435 dont have their jobs at the end of the summer . What im comfortable in, newt, is that the men and women who deserve the care that they need get that care. No matter whether you fire folks or not. At the end of the day, if it doesnt get the men and women who need their help that they need, then youre really not accomplishing anything. Why i voted for the bill was to gi the authority to the secretary to make the changes that he thinks he needs to make in order to make it a more effective and more efficient va and get the help to the people that need it. Let me have a specific example. Senator heller was here from nevada last night. He said the head of the reno va, a layer below the ones who would be fired, refuses to answer any call by members of the delegation. Now, isnt there some point at which there ought to be some ability to reassert control . Theres no we that something went wrong here. Theres no doubt about it. Even the president said that. General shinseki has said that. And we want to get to the root of this. I think calling for heads to roll without knowing whos responsible, and i tell you this, if there was criminal activity, they need to face criminal charges. And secretary shinseki did send out a message to veterans tonight on the eve of memorial day, and he repeated the details of the investigation thats under way. 200 senior members of the va are going through every single major facility. Theyre independent of these facilities, to get to the bottom of whats going on so they can take action to fix it. Are you satisfied with that . I think its a step in the right direction. Look, i also have to look at this is the fit yefth year. I dont recall the authority we gave general shinseki has been asked for before. This is a Congressional Initiative to lets give you more tools. Wheres the congressional oversight . Hes been there for five years. This problem goes way back. Wheres congressional oversight . Theres a lot of congressional oversight but you can only deal with the information youre given by an agency thats now producing statistics that we know arent true. You have to hold people in the agency accountable. Im glad we gave them the tool. Glad we did that in a bipartisan fashion. Politically, i think its going to be very hard to sustain the current leadership thats been there for five years and didnt discover the problem is now reacting after the facts. Listen, to be clear for a second, a lot of the stuff were unearthing is about lying. So when you have oversight with people who are lying, its a little tricky. Isnt that the same youre making the point on both the administrations point and kochkoch congress point. If somebodys lying theres no way for anybody to have advanced warning on this. There are facts here we need to remember. Congressman crowley, you talked about the 2 Million People added to the system. Just in the last couple of years. Thats a significant need in resources to deal with the health care. Let me offer a little bit different view of this which is i think a real secret here in washington, which causes massive problems at every federal agec y agency. Not just the veterans administration. Next, i will tell you what it is and tell you who agrees with me. I think youre going to be surprised. First, todays crossfire quiz. Which agency has the largest workforce . Is it the department of the army . Veterans affairs . Or Homeland Security . Well have the answer when we get back. Passion. Became your business. At t can help simplify how you manage it. So you can focus on what you love most. When everyone and everything works together, business just sings. I got more advice than i knew what to do with. What i needed was information i could trust on how to take care of me and my baby. Luckily, unitedhealthcare has a Simple Program that helps moms stay on track with their doctors and get the right care and guidancebefore and after the baby is born. Simple is good right now. anncr vo innovations that work for you. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. Welcome back. Now, the answer to our crossfire quiz, Veterans Affairs has the largest workforce accounting for 15 of all federal civilian employees. Next comes the army, the navy, Homeland Security, and the air force. But no matter which agency you work for, washingtons real secret is that congress has piled up so many rules and so many regulations it is nearly impossible to do anything innovative. Even if the people at google and facebook took over Veterans Affairs, they could not clean up the information mess. If you wont take my word for it, listen to this man. You may have heard, he had a few problems setting up a federal website for his favorite project. How we Purchase Technology in the federal government is cumbersome, complicated, and outdated. Youre going through, wroyou kn 40 pages and there are all kinds of laws involved and it makes it more difficult. I agree with president obama. If Congress Really wants to fix the veterans administration, it needs to change the law about buying Information Technology. And that is congress job. Not the president s or secretary shinsekis. In the crossfire tonight, congressman joe crowley and tom cole. I want to share, i was very struck by this, there was a poll today i want to put up this for a second, congressman crowley that asked the question, who do you blame most . I was fascinated when i saw it because it has secretary shinseki in the national va, the local va hospitals, or president obama. It didnt have the congress. And it struck me, and again, im a big, as you know as speaker of the house, i deeply believe in this. In all fairness, when you look at the systemic changes, when you look at this universal problem with Information Technology, doesnt Congress Need to take a really big bite at trying to figure out how to fix these things on a big scale . I think looking for the rainbow here because its a dark period right now. People have died because of denial of care where they ought to have gotten that care. We need to find out why that happened. The end of the day, how can we make this system a better system . Thats what its about. Getting the men and women who deserve the system to deliver the health care they deserve is what its about. In the end we need to find a way to simplify it, make it work in more efficient ways. I thing thats something the democrats and republicans would both agree upon is this is not about politics. This ought to be about getting these men and women adding to this the fact that you now take for granted if youre exposed in vietnam to agent orange thats right. You come with certain predisposed notions about how to take care of them. Thats also adding to them. We have to give them the resources, give them the doctors, real nurses they need to take care of these folks. Theres another piece of this poll, congressman cole, they did poll some veterans and heres what veterans said the problem at the va hospitals are. Not having adequate resources, 44 . Not properly managing those resources, 43 . So its pretty even in terms of resources and reform. Do you agree with that . Actually i do. Again, i point out the resources here actually have grown much faster than almost any other area of government. Theyve done it under a republican and democrat president alike. Theyve done it in republican and democratic congresses alike. So i think getting a handle on this thing in an executive sense is really critical. I think congress is prepared to do its part in oversight and we clearly, again, the tools that secretary shinseki just got were given to him by the congress. I mean, this is something, okay, we want you to have this. One piece of followup on that. You know, the va makes a budget request every year. The house underfunded that budget request 50 million for Information Technology and 368 million for services. So thats 0 for 2. Go back to newts baseball analogy, youre 0 for 2. You know, they have an increase demand because of the 2 million vets brought into the system. Yes and no, look and youre cutting their funding by hundreds of billions. Quite frankly, whats happening here, and its actually paradoxical, the va has expanded we put enough money in, more people that are eligible are using it now which is a good thing, but it does create an add mministrative prom in terms of catchup. Theres more people using it because the facilities in many cases are better. Yes, 2 million more. Believe me, i understand. Thats about 7 million. About 25 million in terms of veterans populations and people that actually use it. But, again, congress has been willing to do this. President s have been willing to do this. But there are a whole layers of protection for the bureaucracy. There are whole impediments here that frankly largely democratic built in many cases from a labor standpoint that need to be gotten out of the way. What about the funding . Were winding down two wars. I mean, its not as if these people arent coming home. They are coming home. Thankfully so. Theyre going to need additional help. People who have been exposed to roadside bombs and have traumatic brain injuries and have been exposed to theyre going to need help. We need to continue that and make sure they have every resource they need. Let me give you an example of why i talked about reform. We spent 2. 1 billion in the Defense Department on health Information Technology and failed totally. They spent a billion 200 million trying to fix the v. A. Defense department interface and announced in february they were giving up because they just couldnt figure it out. Now, it takes 183 days to transfer from the Defense Department to the v. A. It takes 11 seconds to get money out of your atm. This is why i cant tell you if we have enough people or not enough people because the system is so totally screwed up right now. I have no idea. It may not be just about money. Ill be willing to say that ill tell you, i have a bill that would require any doctor that when a person comes in and they ask this one question, have you ever served in our nations military. Because some vets dont want to go to v. A. For whatever reason. That one question in and of itself can direct the doctor towards diagnosing what the problem may be and really saving us all money and having a better system. One little simple bill. So i think there are things we can do to help make it a better system. But i think getting bogged down in the politics and the blame game isnt going to help anyone. I dont think we are bogged down in the politics. I dont know. If you look what is going on. You have you democrats calling for shinseki. Its not like its just a republican there are lat of members. Listening to john barrow earlier today talking about some of his constituents that he think died as a result of this. You know, youre going to be pretty upset. Making this into a republican witchhunt, its just not. You have bipartisan outrage about what has happened. You have an administration that frankly has been sort of caught napping here. This came up on them. They didnt see it. Weve been willing to write checks. So, again, i think at some point, and look, i dont think this is general shinseki. But clearly, weve got a whole layer of people between him and the truth. Ought to get fired. I didnt say it was a partisan issue. I say dpurlg the secretarys resignation and thinking its going to solve the problem, its not. I agree with you. Were both outraged. Okay. Stay here. We want you at home to weigh in on todays fireback question. Who do you blame most for the v. A. Scandal . We have added that missing category. Tweet sin saeki, obama or congress. Well have results after the break. We also have the outrages of the day. Im outraged at a Florida Republican who thinks that good education will make your child gay. Honestly, the offseason isnt ive got a lot to do. Thats why i got my surface. Its great for watching game film and drawing up plays. Its got onenote, so i can stay on top of my todo list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. With skype, its just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. Alright, russell you are good to go alright, fellas. Alright, russ. Back to work humans. We are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. Thats why Liberty Mutual insurance has your back, offering exclusive products like optional better car replacement, where if your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. Call. And ask an Insurance Expert about all our benefits today, like our 24 7 support and service, because at Liberty Mutual insurance, we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, so we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. Plus, you could save hundreds when you switch, up to 423. Call. Today. Liberty Mutual Insurance responsibility. Whats your policy . Dog what, what . Mattress discounters what, what . Mattress discounters Memorial Day Sale ends monday . But mattress discounters has the Largest Selection of memory Foam Mattresses under one roof. Comforpedic, icomfort, optimum, and wow, four years interestfree financing on the entire tempurpedic cloud collection, even a queen size sealy gel memory Foam Mattress for just 497. Better hurry the Memorial Day Sale ends monday. Mattress discounters trwith secure wifie for your business. It also comes with public wifi for your customers. Not so with internet from the phone company. I would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. But that would require wifi. Switch to comcast Business Internet and get two Wifi Networks included. Comcast business built for business. Welcome back to crossfire. Now its time for our outrages of the day. Experts and teachers in 44 states plus washington, d. C. Have come up with a set of standards that are supposed to ensure students are prepared for a College Level entry careers or job training programs. Its called common core. And whether or not you agree with it, im outraged by a Florida State lawmakers objection to it. Republican charles vanzandt says the people implementing common core have a hidden agenda, to, quote, every one of your children to become as homosexual as they, end quote. If basic education and intelligence is what makes you gay, then this guy has nothing to worry about. Mr. Vanzandt, you are safely heterosexual. Im outraged because obamacares socalled glitches arent limited to computers. Federal bureaucrats would not let a South Carolina woman get the medicine she needs because their website keeps telling them she is man. Shelby says she called healthcare. Gov eight times and talked with what she believed were real people. And she called the Insurance Company and talked to what she was sure were real people because they started hanging up on her. She could not get her medicine for three weeks because they kept saying she was a man. Finally she called a tv station which called the bureaucrats who claim they have now fixed the problem with obamacare. So you dont have to be a veteran to be abused by bureaucrats. Lets check on our fireback results. Who do you blame most for the v. A. Scandal . We add tweet shinseki, obama or congress. 38 say obama and 53 say congress. Hardly a surprise. But it does reveal why the president attacks congress when he thinks something goes wrong in his administration. Because were the easy guys to kick around. The reality is here two administrations have gotten almost everything they requested in terms of dollars from congress. Congress actually preemptively gave this week additional tools on a bipartisan basis, by the way. This is an executive failure of the first magnitude. Probably was under bush. Certainly is under this president. And frankly, i think at the end of the day, thats the way it will play out. I think the congress has a role to play here, obviously. Im not totally shocked by the results. We have been so focused on makebelieve crises like the irs scandal and benghazi. Here is something we really should be delving into in terms of our oversight responsibilities. And congress has failed in this particular case. Thanks to representatives joe crowley and tom cole. The debate continues at cnn. Com crossfire as well as facebook and twitter. From the left, im Stephanie Cutter. From the right, im Newt Gingrich. Join us next time for another edition of crossfire. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Next, breaking news. Tornadoes threatening millions tonight. Dramatic damage and extreme weather from coasttocoast. Plus a california girl missing for ten years suddenly found. She is now married to her alleged abductor and has a child with him. And another nba owner in hot water today over comments about race. Why mark cuban says he is a bigot. Lets go outfront. Good evening. Im Brianna Keilar in for erin burnett. Dangerous weather threatening