'No, Conservative, Shame' in Using Us Veterans' As Political Game Pawns

“We are dealing with veterans, not procedures—with their problems, not ours.” —General Omar Bradley, First Administrator of the Veterans Administration

How the Koch Network Exploited the Veterans Affairs Crisis

September 23, 2014 - As the scandal over waiting lists at Veterans Affairs hospitals exploded earlier this year, there was widespread outrage—and justifiably so, as the country learned that more than 100,000 veterans waited over ninety days for care or never received it.

An ever-present force in this debate was a group called Concerned Veterans for America. Its leader, Peter Hegseth, frequently appeared on cable news segments about the scandal, and CVA was often mentioned on the floor of the Senate.

Though the group doesn’t disclose its donors, it has for a long while been clear the group is funded in part, or perhaps even in full, by the Koch brothers. Any remaining doubt can now be erased thanks to audio from the secretive Koch donor retreat this summer, obtained by The Undercurrent and reported here.

Hegseth addressed the crowd and not only confirmed that the Koch network “literally created” CVA but explained giddily “the central role that Concerned Veterans for America played in exposing and driving this crisis from the very beginning.”

Most notably, during his roughly ten-minute speech, Hegseth outlined how the group was turning legitimate grievances over Veterans Affairs care into a political weapon to attack both the Obama administration and the idea of government-provided healthcare. read more>>>

“Why in 2009 were we still using paper?” VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers “When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we’ve been operating on a six month wait for over a decade.” 27 March 2013

They ran these ads in North Carolina against Sen Kay Hagan and her run for re-election. Thing is they showed they aren't a very bright group, neither are the Koch brothers already known for heavily funded failed election ads by their outside groups, as Hagan isn't on the Veterans Affairs Senate Committee while even though has gone to bat for Veterans on a number of issues as well as been a Senate vote on Veterans issues. While the senior NC Senator, Sen Burr, is the Minority Leader on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee so thus showing exactly what he Hasn't Done, his and his staff in knowing, or should, the problems that Congress is charged to help the agency with in the name of those represented and served, Poser Patriots!!

Sen. Bernie Sanders told Conservatives: “If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, than don’t go war. These people are bearing the brunt of what war is about, We have a moral obligation to support them.” February, 26th, 2014

Neither of these recent wars have yet been paid for, let alone the results from! As well as under deficits most of the, grossly under funded for decades as issues were ignored or outright denied existed, VA budget is still borrowed thus added, problem creating, costs that shouldn't exist!

"If military action is worth our troops’ blood, it should be worth our treasure, too" "not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013

ProPublica and The Seattle Times Nov. 9, 2012 - Lost to History: Missing War Records Complicate Benefit Claims by Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans "DeLara's case is part of a much larger problem that has plagued the U.S. military since the 1990 Gulf War: a failure to create and maintain the types of field records that have documented American conflicts since the Revolutionary War." Army Says War Records Gap Is Real, Launches Recovery Effort