And to a still underfunded and often attacked especially by the peoples representatives who seek to privatize government's responsibility, i.e. the people served, the agencies of, Veterans Administration for the results of that underfunding instead of fully funding, especially as they rubber stamped war costs for defense off the books till the present admin. and all still borrowed, and only needing maintaining and upgrading which would make for smaller budget needs. He has done the solid work needed as he describes as well as bringing in dedicated, not political, administrative staff along with help from this executive administration it's cabinet when those agencies can fill the needs sought and those around same.
11/11/2012 - After Eric Shinseki took over a sleepy Department of Veterans Affairs four years ago, he decided some change was due. For one thing, those 154,000 homeless veterans living as beggars on the streets.
After some study, Shinseki, a decorated Vietnam veteran wounded twice in battle, ordered that the VA would not just reduce veteran homelessness -- it would end it. And end it by 2015.
The bureaucrats of the VA, a sprawling $140 billion empire that operates the nation's largest integrated health care system, sends veterans to college, insures their lives, guarantees their home mortgages and manages their burials, weren’t used to having someone over their heads barking orders. They certainly weren’t used to publicly announced deadlines.
"When I put that out, there was a lot of wind being sucked through teeth," Shinseki told The Huffington Post during a rare interview.
In combat, he explained, commanders never have perfect knowledge, never have enough time, never enough resources. "Sometimes you just gotta launch, and fight your way through the unknowns," he said.
That approach -- setting high goals, announcing them to the public, and then challenging and enabling people to reach them, marks Shinseki's tenure as VA secretary on this Veterans Day, nearly four years after he was drafted out of retirement by then President-elect Barack Obama. It may be that despite his many critics, the VA under Shinseki is nailing down reforms and expansion of services that have eluded previous VA chiefs for years. read more>>>
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