This can't be right......(grrrrr)

[FormerOstrich]

:wtf: I can just hear the onslaught of * fans as they start throwing this info into the fray.

This is an LTEE in today's Arizona Republic authored by Maricopa County Attorney. Can anyone tell me how accurate these are? I'm thinking some of it seems to be spin (my remarks are emphasized within the text).


.....snip

Fortunately, we now have in George W. Bush a president who honors veterans and is committed to veterans' health care needs. It's time for some straight talk. The facts:

• Funding for veterans has gone up twice as fast under President Bush as it did under President Clinton. Is there a significant number of veterans added to the veterans count? Does the guard and reserve qualify as a veteran?

• Bush's policies have provided access to VA health care for 2.5 million more veterans. Same question as above

• Bush has enabled veterans to get their prescriptions filled by the VA if they cannot get a timely medical appointment. As a result, prescriptions filled for veterans have gone from 86 million to 108 million. Is it just me or doesn't this seem to imply that 22 million veterans are unable to obtain a timely medical appointment and are forced into self medicate/treat while waiting?

• Outpatient visits have increased by 10 million. What is driving this increase? Could it be they are turning out patients that previously they would have rightly admitted?

• There are 194 new community-based clinics available to veterans. Is this a response brought about by *'s hunger for sending troops as cannon fodder?

• The disability claims backlog has been reduced dramatically. The amount of time it takes veterans to receive claim compensation has gone from 230 days to 160 days. I'm not sure this is a benchmark worth bragging about....what is industry average for non-veteran claims?

• "Concurrent receipt" is now available to highly disabled and combat-injured veterans. ????

The president has pledged to continue his support by increasing veterans' funding in fiscal year 2005 by 40 percent from 2001 and to institute CARES improvements that will result in two new medical centers, the modernization of VA medical centers in 38 states, the creation of 156 community-based outpatient clinics and the creation/expansion of nine spinal-cord injury centers I just can't help but think this isn't for the increased demand placed on the system from *'s drive to endless war. Maybe it is the health care solution.. Make everyone a Soldier.. ????

...more rhetoric if you can stand it...

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1023satlet6-231.html

[ET Awful]

1. Geee, he provides NO supporting evidence for any of it. . .

He's spewing the RNC line which uses the same fuzzy math they use when they say Kerry voted to raise taxes 350 times. It's the same math they use when they say that home ownership is at an all time high, etc.

[tokenlib]

2. A most deceitful piece of crap that is...

The VA medical system is woefully underfunded and understaffed--and they hide behind misleading numbers. Some VA hospitals are no longer accepting ambulances or sending them to private hospitals. In an emergency--they are so understaffed in Minneapolis, that we were put on hold and transferred to a nurse in IOWA, bewcause they didn't have one to answer the phone. And this has happened numerous times--in EMERGENCIES!!. The ways some vets have been bounced around in emergencies, there have been deaths and complications as a result--the stories are out there. The republicans have blood on their hands.

This editorial is deceitful, misleading, lying crap. The VA medical system needs to be an entitlement, and needs full funding NOW.

[sherilocks]

3. I seem to remember that one increase was

made during the Clinton administration and went into effect during * tenure.

The VA hospital in northern Westchester County, NY (near Pataki's home town of Peekskill) has been shut down, leaving the nearest VA hospital in the Bronx, 40 miles or more away. A long haul if you're disabled or if you use public transportion. The nearest train station is down at the bottom of a very steep hill, with no direct public transport to the top of it.

I don't have links, just my memory, so you will have to research this a little.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. I strongly suspect that the increase in veterans being treated by the VA

Is due to many of them losing private health coverage. Nothing against the VA medical system, but it's pretty well known that it's a last resort for health care.

[China_cat]

5. This is NOT what I'm hearing

from friends who are retired, neighbors who are veterans and my son who retired from the AF 2 years ago.

I live in a military town. The Navy is gone but we still have an AF base, the Navy's nuclear power school and weapons station and everybody is bitching about the state of medical care. The VA hospital here has been cut back to a clinic, for cripes sake.

If there have been any increases, I'm sure these people would really love to know where.

[Julien Sorel]

6. It's true with an asterisk.

Spending has gone up because the number of people eligible has gone up. In a Bush economy, more people who don't have private healthcare use their VA benefits instead. This letter is basically the selective recitation of statistics to support an argument -- cherry picking. The information has been out there for some time; factcheck.org has a good analysis of it.