Page 33 - Va System News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

We have had this particular crisis. it's going to mushroom into something that has already been done. big government is part of the problem. >> we have to find what has prompted, you know, wait times for treatment, to go from 24 days to 100 days, even with all the money coming in, i think we have to get to the bottom of that before we start throwing more money. >> lack of accountability and bonuses for poor performance, which is rampant throughout the va system, and funding has gone up dramatically since 2005, and it's more than $57 billion annually, up 76%, the number of veterans being treate...

>> yes. >> shinseki. impossible. when there's trauma as long and systemic and problems for decades, not a day, not two days. impossible to tell me or anybody and the people and the veterans that they didn't know about this. it's nearly, nearly impossible. >> sally, i'm going to ask you, if there was one thing you think you would like to see changed, other than perhaps change in leadership -- >> yes. >> what do you think would be the most effective thing? >> first, today, yesterday and a long time ago, they need to give them a free pass to go to the doctors now. because if you go to the emergen...

Pump up your own bonuses, perhaps, and then in some cases allegedly it is okay to then try to hide that evidence when the inspector general comes around. so there needs to be an entirely new cultural change at the va itself. and for all the serious minded members of the senate and the house i talked about this issue, the va is overwhelmed, underresourced and don't think, again, there will ever be enough money to fix that. so they say there has to be alternatives provided to these veterans so that if they can't get immediate care, when they need it, where they need it, that they be be given the...

Departments at the va and to make sure that there was this paper trail, if you will, of people going out the door on the way out. how important is that? >> well, i think it's very important because he was very reluctant to go. and here we are talking about this is how things were going to end, i think is the way kirsten put it, this is how things are going to begin. it's going to take a lot of time, a lot of money to fix the va system, and i'll go back to the words of speaker boehner. he reserved judgment on shinseki. he didn't call for shinseki's resignation. he said that the president is the...

Part of what we have to do is figure out what are realistic benchmarks for the system and my suspicion is that with not only all of the veterans from iraq and afghanistan coming back but also the ageing of our vietnam vets who may have more chronic illnesses and may need more visits. we may need to get more doctors and we may need to get more nurses. that's going to cost some money which means that's going to have to be reflected in a veterans affairs budget which i have consistently increased even during fiscally tight times there's been no area i put more priority than making sure that we're...