U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent, who was among the first to call for the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said the embattled secretary’s registration Friday was appropriate.
“As I said at the time, as a disabled veteran himself, I don’t doubt Secretary Shinseki’s dedication to the troops. His service to this country is beyond reproach and I sincerely thank him for that. But when the mission is this important and the results fall so far short of what the American people should expect, I don’t think there is any excuse left. General Shinseki was at the helm of the VA for five years and the problems were known to one degree or another when he assumed the office. Five years is more than long enough to change the culture of complacency within the VA and he failed to do that,” Nugent said.
The Republican Congressman who represents a large portion of The Villages said many have tried to characterize the problems at the VA as a lack of sufficient funding.
“Congress has routinely met or exceeded the budget request from the President. In the last 10 years alone, the VA’s budget has grown from $63.8 billion to over $134 billion. And if they needed more funding, all the Secretary needed to do was ask. If they didn’t have the resources necessary in Arizona and elsewhere, they should’ve spoken up. But they didn’t speak up. Instead, the VA stuck these veterans names in a drawer while they slowly died from treatable conditions and then went on to try and collect bonuses for their trouble. So, to try and excuse the wrongful deaths of our nation’s veterans in this way is just plain offensive on the face of it,” he said.
And to be honest, it angers me that so many in Congress and in the media keep parroting these blatantly misleading, irresponsible and undignified excuses.
Reaction from U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and has known the general for a number of years. He’s also been been an outspoken advocate for veterans.
“He did the right thing, and he’s putting his country first. This is a strong, patriotic general who stood up to Donald Rumsfeld about the length of time that we were going to have to be in Iraq. Now that he resigned, we can get on,” Nelson said.
“There ought to be a lot of heads rolling, because there is something in the culture of the VA that is not responding to serve our veterans the very best that they deserve.”