Government-Run Health Care Fails Some Patients
Recent reports by CNN Investigations indicate that delays in basic medical screenings at various Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals or clinics may have caused serious injuries or led to the deaths of a number of veterans throughout the country. According to CNN, at least 40 died while waiting for appointments at the Phoenix VA Health Care System.
Many of those were reportedly placed on a secret waiting list, “…part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor...”
CNN noted, “It is unclear whether anyone responsible at the VA has been fired, demoted or even admonished for the delays in care and treatment.” Some may have even been given bonuses for their work.
These reports are deeply disturbing, and, if proven true, are unacceptable. It is imperative that the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and other committees with jurisdiction over the VA continue looking into delays in care, mismanagement, and lack of accountability at VA facilities throughout the country.
Failures of government-run health care programs like this are why many of us oppose Obamacare.
Keystone XL Pipeline – Delayed, Yet Again.
Record Ice on the Great Lakes
Despite years of delay, research, and scrutiny – including two environmental analyses in which the State Department determined that it would not significantly worsen carbon pollution – the State Department announced the afternoon of Good Friday that it is once again putting off making a decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
As Terry O’Sullivan, the president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), wrote in the Washington Post, “No one seriously believes that the Administration’s nearly-dark-of-night announcement … that the pipeline would again be delayed was anything but politically motivated.”
A recent Investor’s Business Daily editorial states, “The man behind this umpteenth Keystone delay is billionaire hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer, who is a radical green and has promised the Democrats $100 million this election season if they do his bidding. And so Obama is doing just that.”
“The evidence is clear,” LIUNA’s president O’Sullivan wrote. “It’s the politics that are tricky. And that’s where courage comes in.”
Regarding ice, the record may not be clear. But there clearly is record ice.
USA TODAY recently reported that as of Wednesday, April 23, “…ice covered 33.9% of the Great Lakes, the largest ice cover so late in the season since accurate measurements from satellites began in the late 1970s. Usually by this time, all but about 2% of the Great Lakes are free of ice.”
More specifically, “Lake Superior's ice cover was at 59.9% on Wednesday. This time last year, the total was 2.7%.” This causes shipping issues due to the inability of boats to carry goods across the lakes. It is reportedly leading to duck die-offs as the ice cover blocks the birds from their food source, and has delayed fish spawning.
So much for the report that former Vice President Al Gore cited in a 2007 speech warning that the North Polar ice cap may melt by 2014. We can’t even get the ice out of Lake Superior a month into spring!
Extended Deadline – House App Contest
High school students interested in participating in first Congressional Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Academic Competition – or the “House App Contest” – now have through May 31 to create and exhibit a software application (or “app”) for mobile, tablet, or computer devices. For more information or resources, please visit www.morgangriffith.house.gov or contact one of my offices.
As always, if you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office by email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov.
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