BALTIMORE, Maryland May 21, 2014 - Gen. Eric Shinseki, despite a bundle of bad news about the VA Administration he oversees, and a 6 am call from the White House, ordering him to come there to meet with President Obama at 10 a.m., has confounded critics by holding on to his job, but has been given demanding marching orders from the President as efforts to turn around the VA's flagging reputation now must reach that goal in a very bright spotlight.
Obama met with reporters after meeting with Gen. Shinseki, and he raised eyebrows when he said improving the VA was one of the most important goals of his administration, and that he has been working "very hard" on its problems ever since being first elected in 2008. This was his first words on the VA Crisis since his last foreign trip, a period of over 20 days. During the interim, there have been allegations that no fewer than 40 American Veterans have died while waiting for care from the VA.
Obama said Shinseki, whom he called "Rick," was "a great soldier." He said no one in America wants to improve the VA more than Shinseki. But he also said he would no tolerate the current problems. But, like he often does, he went on to minimize the problems and say that they are the only ones that remain from a long laundry list of problems when his adminstration came to power. And yet, he told the reporters and a nationwide television hook-up that if Shinseki could not improve the problems in short order, he, himself, would not want to continue.
No comments:
Post a Comment