Duckworth Dishes Misinformation to Disabled Vet
Speaking off the cuff is something everyone in the Teleprompter Administration really ought to avoid. Earlier, we had Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggesting (correctly, actually) that the national debt that’s gone out of control under Obama is a threat to our national security. She was right, but that’s surely not the party line. What Veterans Affairs assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs Tammy Duckworth said while campaigning for Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias in Illinois today may have been closer to the party line, but it was farther from the truth. Duckworth, a combat injured Iraq veteran herself who unsuccessfully ran for office before being appointed to her high Veterans Affairs post by President Obama, told a fellow disabled vet that in the VA health care system, she’s more equal than he is.
One of the veterans at the session, Jason Wheeler, 39, of Champaign, was injured eight years ago in training at Fort Polk, La. In a wheelchair, he still suffers from a nerve condition that makes it feels as if his hands and legs “are on fire,” he said.
“There’s not the same help for the guys who were injured stateside,” Wheeler said.
“This unfortunately is the result of dollars. It’s money,” Duckworth said. “I think that we as a nation would want to take care of all of our veterans. But it means that we’re going to have be willing to get the folks in Washington to spend the dollars on all of our veterans. And as long as there aren’t enough dollars, then they are force to prioritize veterans.
“And combat-connected, disabled veterans are the highest priority. That is why when you and I go to the VA they will take care of me first because I am combat-connected,” noted Duckworth, who lost both of her legs when the helicopter she was co-piloting in Iraq in 2004 was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
“The difference is how did you get hurt. Unfortunately that’s just the way that … it’s a bureaucracy that was put into place in previous administrations in order to prioritize veterans because they didn’t spend enough to take care of everyone,” Duckworth told Wheeler.
This is Grade-A Bravo Sierra, and it shouldn’t come from anyone with any actual knowledge of how the VA works. Assistant Secretary Duckworth has such knowledge, but here she is actually engaging in a sort of passive-aggressive, rank partisan “Blame Bush” attack, with the whole “previous administrations…didn’t spend enough to take care of everyone” line.
This crazy administration suggested soldiers return and file it on their employers health coverage. pay it out of pocket. It seemd like a good idea to obama but it never was passed into law.
“This is Grade-A Bravo Sierra,”
That’s the B.O. administration in a nutshell. And typical of the elitist attitude that permeates this entire administration.
What can we expect from this Administration? They are the same ones who put returning veterans as number one on the possible terrorists list to watch and also that they should be denied firearms for possible Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
what is she …a wise latina ? another “I” won.
these progressives are the most intolerant envy driveny greed people one could possibly meet.
almost make sharia law look good.
Duckworth is not a latina. Shes half-white, half Thai
IN order to pitch socialism, you have to have VICTIMS who are suffering because of the cruelty of some inequity in the system “the way it’s always been”.
Most of the time, our modern leftoids have to INVENT the victims and tell lies to MAKE them victims. This nauseates me and does not surprise me.
Welcome to ObamAmerica.
Everyone is equal, but the well-connected are more equal than others.
Kinda like it was in the old Soviet Union. The Party members and those connected to them lived in luxury, everyone else lived in squalor.
Typical…..
Semper mediocritas
Believe it or not, there are many people in this country stupid enough to believe that Obamacare will be different. There is only so much money available, so somewhere in the government there will be an affirmative action employee determining what care you get if any, and if you do get it, when you get it.
Hopenchains!
It’s amazing how many people are stupid enough to believe Obamcare will be any different then this. There is only so much money available which means sooner or later, some affirmative action government employee will determine what care you get, if any, and when you get it. To top it all off, we’ll reduce the budget deficit in the process.
Liberals keep drinking the Kool-Aid. When you’re done, tie a plastic bag over your head and follow the space ship behind the comet.
Hopenchains!
Now you could reasonably expect to have some leeway when you place blame for something complex and intangible like “the economy”, but when you are a bureaucratic administrator you cannot blame “a bureaucracy that was put into place in previous administrations” without also offering an explanation for why you haven’t changed it after being in office for 18 months….
http://charliefoxtrotblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/its-bushs-fault-part-xxiv.html
What Duckworth claimed is an outright LIE. Every disabled veteran gets the same care for any injuries received that are service connected without any co-pays or other payments whatsoever. There is absolutely no distinction between combat and non-combat injuries. Furthermore any veteran with an ounce of integrity would never make an issue of another veteran’s combat status. Only despicable lying liberal cowards need to make that distinction.
I thought Congress decides spending, and has the constitutional power of the purse. And, that the Democrats have controlled Congress for, what, the last 8 years? And, that Bush never, once, vetoed a spending bill.
Duckworth. What a hack.
Just a thought, tit for tat, Bush said I will not veto if you ok funding for the war on terror. The dems could care less about our safety, however for the right price they will sell their souls.
“… it’s a bureaucracy that was put into place in previous administrations in order to prioritize veterans because they didn’t spend enough to take care of everyone,” Duckworth told Wheeler.”
Yeah, that’s a load of hooey as well. The level of care I have received over pushing 30 years in the VA system has been uniformly good/bad (depending on circumstance) for that entire time. There has been no “Bush changed the entire system to screw us Veterans, and Obama has fixed it.”
However, come election day 2012, I will certainly remember certain *Democrat* statements and policies: proposing making Veterans pay for their care for combat-related injuries, comments such as Alan Simpson saying Veterans are greedy and should hand their compensation checks back to the government, etc.
She heard, “You get priority.” After that, she stopped listening, of course. THAT is all she needed to know… that she is SPECIAL. It’s the Status, stupid.
Tammy should just take her titanium leg-shaped shame and wobble off to a new career, maybe in the amgry and immature MSM
Saw a interview with Duckworth while she was recovering from those injuries. Heard her story. Then heard she was planning to run for a Democrat seat. That not only set off alarm bells, but it also made it seem like all a waste.
Why lose your limbs for your country, only to join the Left and destroy it further? At least be consistent.
I kinda feel the same way, though my thoughts will always be with her service above all.
“And combat-connected, disabled veterans are the highest priority. That is why when you and I go to the VA they will take care of me first because I am combat-connected,” noted Duckworth, who lost both of her legs when the helicopter she was co-piloting in Iraq in 2004 was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
“The difference is how did you get hurt. Unfortunately that’s just the way that … it’s a bureaucracy that was put into place in previous administrations in order to prioritize veterans because they didn’t spend enough to take care of everyone,” Duckworth told Wheeler.
Actually she is right. Until I was awarded VA compensation related to my combat injury, the care I received for my duty related, non-combat disability was in fact less than what I receive now. For one, I have a higher disability rating, so my VA compensation is greater, and two, I do not pay for any of my prescriptions now.
VA needs to contact the Veteran, give him correct information, and then maybe an apology.
Wow, I’m amazed this woman is that stupid! my husband is a 70% disabled non-combat veteran, and he has exactly the same access to medical care through the VA as a 70% disabled combat veteran -either way, they were disabled in service to the USA.
BTW – there are no co-pays at the VA.
The disgrace of the VA is the difficulty and length of time it takes to get a disability rating – it took my husband 3 years after retirement for the VA to get around to his case. And that only after he got the help of a Veterans group. Others, who don’t know that help is available to them, go even longer to get rated.
Wonder how this “wise latina” would consider someone with both combat and non-combat servvice connected disabilities? Since she’s obviously supremely conceited – excellent observation jdkchem – she’d no doubt be so conflicted by that scenario that she’d have a melt down. I firmly believe that such inappropriate (what experience did she have to be placed in such a high position within VA – she couldn’t get elecetd, after all) appointments by the Obamanation, as well continuing inaction by our elected part time employees in DC have merely forestalled any meaningful reform of the VA benefits bureaucratic nightmare that does not adequately or fairly serve disabled veterans.
Tammy Duckworth is not qualified to serve in any capacity caring for the needs of veterans in this country. Her story of surviving a helicopter shoot-down in Iraq is inspiring, but no more so than the stories that literally thousands of injured veterans throughout the country can tell. The difference between her and them is that she has exploited and capitalized on her service injuries in a way that most veterans would never dream of. She is a vapid, vacuous speaker, but she has been given preferential status-based treatment by Illinois politicians and has enjoyed a free ride to top administrative positions at the state and federal levels. Being wounded in the line of duty is honorable, but it does not magically convert a person of limited administrative capacity into a bureaucratic genius. From what I have seen of her work in the state and federal veterans affairs organizations, she is in over her head.
Shame on Tammy and on the Democratic party for their cynicism. The veteran who quietly struggles to put his or her life together after physical injuries or PTSD is far more honorable–more “special”–than she is.
Dovetailing on 16: Ms Duckworth has two things going for her which explains her rapid ascension to higher office: She is a minority “protected class” and she is female. That’s it. She is the perfect white progressive affirmative action candidate. And her background is eerily similar to Dear Leaders. As is her desire to run for office in IL. Hmmm.
Her race and gender allows her to feel nothing but contempt with white Americans and Americans who are not ideologically pure like her. It allows her to act as though she is privileged and elitist. It allows her to look down upon us all.
Name me one black in his administration who is not of this caliber of person?
i used to work in a va hospital. it was many years ago (1975-80) when i was in my surgical residency. every chart was marked sc or nsc. stood for sevice connected and non-service connected. i assure you, it made a difference as to what care the vets could get.for example, a non-service connected vet might have chest x-ray requests refused. i once had a vet with headaches that i couldn’t get studies on. then i discovered that he was service connected for a head injury sustained in tank action in italy and i had no more problems. i have no idea what the va system is like now, but i assure you that it used to make a difference. and it wasn’t always in the favor of the combat vets. i still get angry about the bureaucratic mistreatment of some of the guys that i took shrapnel out of.
Major Duckworth, (USAR, ret.) Has paid in blood, but still suffers from liberal derangement syndrome, something that many of her fellow veterans of this WAR have overcome.
But she is a liberal (or Progressive) Leftist, first and foremost and has loyalty to Party first, and the veterans her Department serves second (third? fourth? Ninety Ninth?)
But she did speak the truth. Combat Service Connected is HIGHER in the priority than plain old “Service Connected.” (Ten years AFTER retirement I am still waiting on the VA for “Service Connected” disability ratings.) And the lowest rungs are the “NON-Service Connected” and the dependents.
It is RATIONED CARE, and has always been since WW II. America, welcome to the world of “Pelosi-Reid-Obama Care.”
JLW – there is a huge difference between non-service related and non-combat related. Non service related might be injuries due to an accident while on vacation. Non-combat related means injuries from being on the job – just not in a combat situation. For example, someone who has a training accident while at the NTC would be a service related, yet non-combat related injury. They get the exact same care that someone with the same injury that was sustained whilst in combat.
-There is another factor to this but it pertains to retirement and compensation. If a retired veteran receives both a pension and a disability check the pension, until recently, was reduced by an amount equal to the disability check. This changed (under Bush 2) and the pension reduction is being phased out. It phases out quicker for vets with combat related disability so, in that sense, there is a priority to the vet with a combat related disability. There is a big HOWEVER in there: if the non-combat related injury was the result of specific training for combat that disability will be treated the same as if it was incurred in combat.
-Of course all of this is very bureaucratic and Byzantine.
-And it has nothing to do with priority for medical service at the VA.
There’s be plenty of $$ for ALL our injured vets and all our real (American) priorities if billion$$ were not being spent on tyrannical Marxist priorities.
duckworth is a shill for this junta that rules the country. wounded veterans are an impediment to the revolution; the money that their care takes could be put to better use, buying votes, and bribes!
hello there
i have a comment ,i had seen you on oprah last week talking about what you are doing for our viets it was a real good act i had been sending you many email letters and faxs on our proposal and so far not even a letter in return so let me again tell you what we can do the white house spends over $10,000,000 a day on the issues that we can do for free. and they are
1) we will put millions of americans back to work
2)we will end illegal immigrations
3)we will kick start our economy
4)we will save the nation billions of dollars
5)we will house 100s of homeless viets
i know that much of this is not in your area but you do have the means to send it up hopefully to the president our proposal had been seen by most in washington and i only have gotten a few letters in return,all the letters that we had gotten back were all in favor of our propoal so why havent you wrote us back but you will go on a talk show telling america that you are trying hard to help this angers me the answer to a lot of v.a.had fallen on your lap and you still wont read our plan this shows us that you realy are not interested in realy finding a answer in helping our viets
my name and address is
johnny gonzales
478s. nathrop dr.
pueblo west co. 81007
phone# 1-719-647-0394