PrairiePundit

 Fox News: An effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) process health care treatment for illegal immigrants despite a growing backlog of U.S. veterans led to uproar among several lawmakers, but one notable Democrat has been tight-lipped about the matter. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., has been largely silent about efforts by the VA to assist with healthcare claims made by illegal immigrants who are currently held in ICE's custody as the backlog for veterans' claims piles up. However, his office dismissed the claims about the VA giving healthcare to illegal immigrants. Tester serves as chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs , which has primary jurisdiction over the VA and works to address problems and issues related to veterans in the United States. The arrangement between the VA's Financial Service Center (VA-FSC) and ICE to process claims for migrant medical care is a longstanding one that actually...

 Just the News: Republican Sens. Steve Daines, Mont., and Bill Hagerty, Tenn., have signed on to an effort from Alabama GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville to prevent the use of the Department of Veteran Affairs healthcare resources for illegal immigrants. Tuberville in December introduced the " No VA Resources for Illegal Aliens Act " amid reports that the Biden administration was using VA resources to accommodate the unprecedented number of illegal entrants to the U.S., Fox News  reported . The Alabama lawmaker's office confirmed to  Just the News  on Tuesday that Daines and Hagerty had signed on as co-sponsors to the plan. GOP Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C., and Marsha Blackburn, Tenn.,  did so  in mid-December. During an appearance on the  "John Solomon Reports"  podcast last week, Tuberville insisted that, amid the influx, the VA was only able to accommodate roughly half of the nation's veterans, in part due to the use of VA resources for illegals. "Now we ha...

 Ted Cruz: In 2022, the Biden Administration used the VA to process medical bills for 161,000 illegal aliens. Every one of those claims represents a veteran whose care was delayed since an illegal alien was prioritized ahead of them. The VA is there for veterans who risked their lives for our country. The last I checked, someone who crossed into this country illegally hasn't done anything to defend our country. If anything, they are helping destroy our country and erode the rule of law. On Verdict, @benfergusonshow   and I blast the Biden administration for using the VA to serve illegal aliens while putting veterans on the back burner. https:// podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ver The main reason the illegals were in the country to begin with was Biden's failure to control the US borders.  It is another example of Biden's disgraceful presidency.  See also: Migrant encounters hit daily record at southern border, as Washington struggles to agree on solutions And: ...

  Hot  Air: Mayorkas looks to divert VA funding to illegal immigrants Just when you think the Biden administration cannot get anymore tone-deaf on illegal immigration they suggest diverting support to veterans that sacrificed for this country to people who have no business being here in the first place. 

Washington Post: VA unlawfully turned away vulnerable veterans for decades, study says, with 400,000 more at risk Systemic misunderstanding of the law within VA about which veterans to care for has triggered improper mass denial of care since 1980, a study has found. In August of 1968, I was wounded in a mortar attack in Northern I Corps Vietnam.  After several operations, it became clear that I would not be able to return to combat in the Marine Corps. Even then the VA had a poor reputation for dealing with wounded warriors.  I have since avoided using the VA whenever possible.  Since my hearing has deteriorated in recent years I was told that my current health insurance would not cover the fix and I should go to the VA. One of the reasons why I have not is that there are too many warriors with severe injuries who are still not being served well at the VA and I did not want to take a spot that would add to their burden of getting care.

NY Times: Treated Like a ‘Piece of Meat’: Female Veterans Endure Harassment at the V.A. Women say a culture of harassment, discrimination and exclusion lives inside the Veterans Affairs medical system as they try to use the government benefits they earned with military service. I am not making excuses for mistreatment of any veterans regardless of the chromosome configuration of their bodies.  They all should be treated with respect.  Unfortunately, the VA has become a warning sign of what can be expected from government healthcare.  It is a prelude to "Medicare for all."

Washington Examiner: President Trump signed into law a bill providing over $2 billion to open new Veterans Affairs department medical facilities and fund care for veterans seeking medical care outside the government system on Saturday. "This bill will ensure that veterans continue to have the ability to see the doctor of their choice," Trump said during a press conference at the bill's signing. "You're going to have immediate medical care for our veterans." The legislation, which passed the House unanimously, provides funding for veterans who seek treatment from a private doctor in certain cases. It also allows the Veterans Affairs department to lease 28 new facilities around the country, in an attempt to expand access to government-provided care. That makes it a compromise in the larger debate between conservative and liberal proponents of VA reform. ... This appears to be a fulfillment of a campaign promise which may account for the lack of coverag...

Washington Examiner: A dozen military and veterans groups are asking for the right to defend a law in court that makes it easier to fire corrupt and negligent officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs, because the VA is refusing to defend the law on its own. The groups filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit asking for the right to defend the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act. The dramatic move comes after the VA said in June that it would no longer apply the law, which Congress passed in 2014 in order to help the agency fire officials after the healthcare wait list scandal. That decision shut down the avenue Congress created in order to help clean up the broken VA. It may also allow Sharon Helman, the former director of the Phoenix VA, to escape her own firing. The notorious official sued after the VA decided to fire her, and because the VA and the Justice Department won't defend the law, there's no one to step in to ar...

Washington Examiner: Republican lawmakers slammed the Department of Veterans Affairs Monday after Sec. Bob McDonald compared the agency's long wait times for veterans seeking health care to the wait times for rides at Disneyland. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump used McDonald's comments to remind voters that his likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, said in October that problems at the VA were "not widespread." Trump's former rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, also weighed in over social media. "Healthcare for our veterans is NOT a visit to the Magic Kingdom," Cruz tweeted. "They EARNED quality care in a timely fashion!" ... The story has a lengthy list of Twitter responses from Republicans to the comments by McDonald.  Whoever thought up that excuse for failure at the VA was not thinking about the ramifications or the troops dying while waiting to be seen. Recently a doctor recommended that I see the VA about getting hearing a...

NY Times: Faith in the V.A. Clouded Sanders’s Response to Issues Bernie Sanders initially regarded complaints about the Department of Veterans Affairs as a play by conservatives to weaken one of the country’s largest social welfare institutions. I suspect he thought of the VA as a model for a single payer healthcare system he favored.   Liberals have far too much faith in government and are therefore not responsive to failures especially when they are in power.  If it had happened in a Republican administration I suspect Sanders and Obama would have been much more upset.

Sunday Telegraph: US military funds research into lab-grown testicles for wounded soldiers The politicians may need it more than the troops based on current leadership.

Washington Examiner: Thousands of combat veterans are still waiting to learn if they will receive health care benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, but the agency is refusing to answer Congress's questions about the backlog. The waiting list includes nearly 2,000 applications that are sitting at just one office in Atlanta, but that the VA refuses to acknowledge as actual applications, according to an agency whistleblower. Scott Davis, a program specialist at the Health Eligibility Center in Atlanta, said the VA is attempting to downplay the number of veterans waiting to be enrolled by ignoring the fact that those 1,833 veterans already applied. Instead, he said, the agency plans to send out letters asking them to apply again in a poorly-timed outreach campaign set for the week of Thanksgiving. ... The applications are unnecessarily complicated and in many cases the online forms do not work requiring Veterans to print them out and trying filing them in by hand ...

Washington Examiner: Anger at VA grows after employees plead the Fifth At best the VA is poorly managed and demonstrates the flaws of rationed healthcare that come with a single payer system.  Hillary's suggestion that the problems are overstated appears both tone deaf and inaccurate.  She will probably lose the veteran vote  in 2016.  She does not seem to respect the military and those who have sacrificed to defend the country.

Washington Post: Hillary Clinton’s misleading claim that ‘numerous surveys’ show veterans are satisfied with VA medical care Getting accepted as a patient requires a lot of time and effort and that apparently only gets you on a waiting list.  It is rationed healthcare at its worst in this country and an example of what could happen if the US adopted the single payer model of socialism. Veterans should take heed of Clinton's position when considering their vote and realized she is the least likely to improve the situation.

John McCain says veterans will question Clinton's qualifications to be President .  Clinton's problem is that she is a statist who would like to see a single payer healthcare system for the entire country and and she sees the Va as a model and not as a failure despite its incompetence. She still is out of touch on the issue as even more evidence emerges that more vets are dying waiting for an appointment .

IBD: Hillary Clinton's Icy Indifference To Veterans' Suffering At The VA I suspect that the reason why Hillary Clinton is downplaying the failures of the Va is because she would like to see the Va be the model for the single payer system that Democrats want for everyone.  Big government liberals can;t afford to admit it has been a disastrous failure for those dying before even making it to triage.

Washington Times: More than 300,000 dead vets still on VA’s active health care enrollment list They are part of a 860,000 backlog waiting for the government rationed healthcare program for veterans.  Just imagine what the back log would be if the US went to the single payer system the Democrats are still pushing.

Daily Mail: NHS waiting list hits SEVEN YEAR high with number of patients stranded for over 18 weeks up 40% Numbers waiting to be treated has increased by 300,000 in just two years  Those forced to wait for more than 18 weeks has also soared 40 per cent  Accident and Emergency is also struggling to cope, NHS figures suggest  Some 1.5million patients had to wait over four hours before being seen last year This is how most government healthcare schemes attempt to contain costs.  It is why the VA in the US has people dying before they are even seen by doctors.  Liberals call this "compassion."

The Hill: Report: One-third of vets waiting medical care already dead Would removing the dead reduce their backlog.  Probably, but that is a heck of a way to solve your incompetence problem.

Washington Post: House members angry over VA’s response to whistleblowers FEDERAL DIARY | A year after scandal engulfed the agency, those who reveal its failings still face retaliation from superiors. The superiors who are retaliating need to be fired.  Congress needs to find a way to deal with these people so they get the message.  It may require a change to the civil service rules, but so be it.