In case you missed it yesterday, the Department of Veteran's Affairs Inspector General released a preliminary report not only confirming veterans died as a result of long wait times, but showed the problem is much worse than we first thought. Guy has you covered with all of the details here.
We identified an additional 1,700 veterans who were waiting for a primary care appointment but were not on the EWL. Until that happens, the reported wait time for these veterans has not started. Most importantly, these veterans were and continue to be at risk of being forgotten or lost in Phoenix HCS’s convoluted scheduling process.
Last night the House Veterans Affairs Committee held a rare evening hearing on Capitol Hill grilling VA Assistant Deputy Undersecretary for Health and Clinical Operations Thomas Lynch, Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs Joan Mooney and Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs congressional relations officer Michael Huff about the ongoing misconduct and inexcusable problems inside the Department.
Meanwhile, bipartisan calls for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign are growing louder as President Obama continues to show little concern about his failure of oversight or to fix the medical wait time problem throughout the past six years.
Former Governor Mitt Romney sat down with Fox News' Megyn Kelly last night to discuss the ongoing scandal and called for Shinseki to resign or be fired and replaced immediately.
"He [Shinseki] needs to be removed or replaced by the President," Romney said. "We don't really have time to have someone take that position any longer who has been there. We need to have someone new who will take responsibility for what has been an unbelievable mess and a tragedy for so many people."
"He has not demonstrated the kind of leadership that you would hope to see in a circumstance of this nature."
"This is inexcusable."