CONFIRMED: Top House Spending Official Knew Of Walter Reed Squalor

[tinknocker44]

Congressional Quarterly confirms today that senior House conservatives, including the chairmen of the appropriations and oversight committees, knew about the neglect and deplorable conditions at Walter Reed years before they were exposed by the Washington Post.

Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL), former chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said he stopped short of going public with the hospital’s problems “to avoid embarrassing the Army while it was fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan”:

“We got in Gen. Kiley’s face on a regular basis,” Young said, adding that he even contacted the commander of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda in the hopes of getting better care there for the patient with the aneurysm, though doctors at Walter Reed declined to transfer him. …

“We did not go public with these concerns, because we did not want to undermine the confidence of the patients and their families and give the Army a black eye while fighting a war,” Young said.

Young claims he regularly “got in Gen. Kiley’s face.” But Kiley never responded to Young’s complaints. Nevertheless, as ThinkProgress noted last week, Young was publicly praising Kiley during a congressional hearing as recently as January:

YOUNG: Well, Mr. Chairman, I want to join you in welcoming our guests and our witnesses today, having known especially Don Arthur and General Kiley very, very well over the years. I thought they’d get tired of seeing us in their hospitals. And we haven’t had as much opportunity to visit with the Air Force, General. But I know that these gentlemen are committed to providing our war heroes with the very, very best medical care that is possible.

Also, while Young claims he didn’t want to go public with the problems at Walter Reed, he was more than willing to use wounded veterans publicly as a political cudgel. Here is Young on the House floor on 11/18/05, speaking against Rep. John Murtha’s (D-PA) redeployment plan:

YOUNG: So tonight, Mr. Speaker, we need to send a strong message to our troops and to their families. For those families who are dealing with the loss of a loved one, for those families who are dealing with a seriously wounded soldier or marine who might be at Walter Reed Hospital or at Bethesda Hospital or at Landsthul in Germany, we need to let them know that we are here to support them. (CR, p. H11009

[tinknocker44]

More inept pugs

[wen-sar]

"Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL), former chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said he stopped short of going public with the hospital’s problems “to avoid embarrassing the Army while it was fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan”

in other words.. Republicans chose to allow our soldiers to live in squalor and looked the other way while our soldiers received poor care..

just so they wouldn't see some generals get red faced with shame..

:D

[geerair]

Pathetic.

Support the troops indeed.

[aircooled53]

Well, I guess that Walter Reed got f.up during the Bush adminstration, Oh don't you think it was f.u. before Bush came to office?:eek:

I worked at V.A. hospital when I came back from Germany in Dallas ;1974 and they all are f.up. It's called not giving enough money in funds for the hospital to maintain there staff.If any of you have ever been in V.A. hospital you know what I'm talking about. They expect you to perform miracles.:(

So be careful who you lay the blame here on,they just use the commander who was in charge at the time as a escape goat.:mad:

[roymcoy]

Is the medical staff (doctors, etc.) in a typical V.A. hospital civilian or military?

[aircooled53]

civilian mostly, but there are doctors that are in the military and working in V.A. hospitals.

[chillbilly]

Apparently. the liberal democrat drones on this thread haven't ever visited a VA hospital and likely don't know any veterans either.
It's a political blame game for them while their local delegates and congressmen incessantly pick their pockets and nothing gets done.
These hideous creatures are doing nothing but running interference for corruption and charachterizing that corruption as honesty.
They suck down the whole republican/democrat game and they probably don't have a clue as to how their own candidates vote or have voted.

Poor, misguided, unchanging, monotonous drones.
:o :o :o

[geerair]

Well, I guess that Walter Reed got f.up during the Bush adminstration, Oh don't you think it was f.u. before Bush came to office?:eek:

I worked at V.A. hospital when I came back from Germany in Dallas ;1974 and they all are f.up. It's called not giving enough money in funds for the hospital to maintain there staff.If any of you have ever been in V.A. hospital you know what I'm talking about. They expect you to perform miracles.:(

So be careful who you lay the blame here on,they just use the commander who was in charge at the time as a escape goat.:mad:Bush has been in charge for six years.

The patients are victims of his optional war.

Republicans have controlled Congress for four years and have known about the problems at Walter Reed for years yet refused to do anything about it for fear of embarrassing Bush or the high ranking officers.

[chillbilly]

Bush has been in charge for six years.

The patients are victims of his optional war.

Republicans have controlled Congress for four years and have known about the problems at Walter Reed for years yet refused to do anything about it for fear of embarrassing Bush or the high ranking officers.

Aircooled:

See? greer must have missed your point. He's talking in terms of one party and six years. His motivation is to lay the blame of problems that have been rampant at VA hospitals for decades into a neat little package he can call "the George Bush package".

What a pathetic loser. This liberal garbage has no credibilty here.
He's an orator of misinformation.....and not a very good one at that.