Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, when I foolishly believed that this administration couldn’t do anything to even further neglect, abuse, and pretty much spit on the veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush went and one-upped me with a gem of statement given during a press conference today and covered by ABC News. 

Bush spoke to the press this morning after meeting with the panel that he put together five months ago following the Walter Reed scandal, known as the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors and consisting of former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, former Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson (who resigned while working for this commission) and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.  He commented on the recommendations the panel made regarding the improvements needed in the treatment veterans receive.

"We owe our wounded soldiers the very best care, and the very best benefits, and the very easiest to understand system," Bush said. "And so they took a very interesting approach. They took the perspective from the patient, as the patient had to work his way through the hospitals and bureaucracies. And they've come up with some very interesting and important suggestions."

How very interesting indeed.  However, the most interesting thing of all is that our sympathetic president does NOT feel the need to take any action right away to ensure that the “very best benefits and the very easiest to understand system” are made available as soon as possible.  In fact, according to the ABC News report, “White House press secretary Tony Snow said that Bush would not be acting immediately on any of the recommendations.”  Go figure. 

 

Here’s another interesting thing.  While Bush was meeting with the panel whose recommendations he has decided to ignore for the time being (now why does that sound familiar?) the Senate decided that noting the level of interest that the current veterans affairs system can inspire isn’t enough.  The article continues, “The Senate on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue passed sweeping legislation to expand brain screenings, reduce red tape and boost military pay.” At least one of the three branches is trying to support our veterans properly. 

I’m not going to go into a laundry list of everything that’s wrong with veteran care in this country.  It’d make this post far too long.  You can get a basic rundown courtesy of a Campus Progress Crib Sheet here (a bit of a shameless plug, I'll admit).  What I cannot fathom for the life of me is how there isn’t more outrage at the horrendous lack of attention the troops are getting from this administration when they come home.  These soldiers are our mothers and fathers, our brothers and sisters, our friends and coworkers.  We’ve yet to hold Bush accountable for knowingly sending them to war based on flawed information.  It’s about damn time we hold him accountable for bringing them home to flawed care.

I'm not holding my breath.