Some Democrats join calls for Shinseki to resign

[ProSense]

Last edited Thu May 29, 2014, 12:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Some Democrats join calls for Shinseki to resign

by Laura Clawson

Following an inspector general's interim report confirming long delays for veterans seeking health care in Phoenix, some congressional Democrats are joining calls for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign:

... Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), locked in a competitive reelection race against Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), became the first Democratic senator to call on Shinseki to go.

Udall’s statement prompted two other vulnerable incumbents, Sens. John Walsh (D-Mont.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), to issue similar statements. (Sens. Jeanne) Shaheen and (Al) Franken followed suit Wednesday night.

A number of House Democrats also called for Shinseki to step down. Shinseki, meanwhile, wrote an op-ed detailing steps he has taken and is taking to address the problems, and asserting that the report's finding are "reprehensible to me and to this department, and we are not waiting to set things straight." Shinseki—or his successor, should he resign—faces a major challenge. As Meteor Blades noted Wednesday:

Since President Obama became president, the VA budget has climbed 50 percent from $100 billion to $150 billion. While that may seem adequate to the austerity mongers, those eligible for veterans' benefits more than doubled from 400,000 to 918,000 in the same period.

At this point, to the problems at the VA we can add a media spotlight and highly politicized attention from Congress.
...

Pelosi defends Shinseki: "It rewards those who have been misleading the secretary to say he should go because they misled him." #VAScandal

— @WSJPolitics

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/29/1302804/-Some-Democrats-join-calls-for-Shinseki-to-resign

Boehner Suggests Privatizing The VA: ‘I Still Like The Idea, And Especially Now’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024995978

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Political expediency.

People worried about getting re-elected wanting to cast themselves in a light they think will allow them to stay on in Congress.

Sad to see Franken among that number.

[Proud Public Servant]

2. Two opposed thoughts

On the one hand -- as someone who works in Washington and who knows how Washington works -- I firmly believe Shinseki was not responsible for the behavior or individual VA hospitals, any more than Sibelius was responsible for teh healthcare.gov glitches or Obama himself was responsible for what went on in a local IRS office in Ohio.

On the other hand, I really can't stand the fact that nobody at the top in Washington, regardless of party, ever gets fired for anything.