Democrats spring to action to help soldiers at Walter Reed

[Rose Siding]

Democrats Tuesday reacted swiftly to reports that some soldiers recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center face desolate conditions.
...
Obama and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said they would introduce legislation to improve the ratio of caseworkers to recovering soldiers, ensure caseworkers are better trained, cut back on the red tape recovering soldiers confront and set a timeline for repairs to "substandard facilities."
...
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House Rules Committee, sent a letter to Department of Defense Secretary Robert Gates Tuesday, asking for an explanation on how Walter Reed, which the lawmakers describe as once being the " crown-jewel of military medicine," could become "a bleak and frustrating place for our wounded soldiers to recover."
...
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a powerful voice on military issues as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, called the Post story "disturbing."
"It is a disservice to those who have bravely sacrificed and it is a dishonor to their brave service to expose them to these conditions," Murtha said. "Those who are responsible must be held accountable and immediate rectification must be aggressively pursued."

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/021607/soldiers.html

and from Senator Murray's office-

Senators Demand Investigation of Deplorable Conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
(Washington, D.C.) - Today, U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Patty Murray (D-WA) wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, urging him to launch an Inspector General's investigation of the deplorable living conditions facing returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans at the Army's flagship military hospital, Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

"If conditions at Walter Reed, the crown jewel of military health care facilities, have degraded to the point where mouse traps are handed out to patients, how can we feel confident that our troops and veterans truly have the care and transition assistance they have been promised at any facility across the country?" the Senators wrote.

The Senators also asked for an investigation into conditions at the Navy's top hospital, Bethesda Naval Hospital.
...
Specifically, the Senators asked for:

an inspection of each outpatient facility to assess their quality and safety,
a report on the number of caseworkers and an assessment of their training and workload,
a review of the paperwork requirements for recovering soldiers,
a report on the accessibility and quality of psychological counseling for Soldiers and their families,
and a remediation plan, including a timeline and description of the steps the Department of Defense will take to improve outpatient care, and improve and simplify benefits for wounded military personnel.

The text of their letter follows:...
http://murray.senate.gov/news.cfm?id=269545

[goforit]

1. Make it happen Dems!!!

[OhioChick]

2. Good to hear.

Where the hell are the repukes on this?? Support the troops....?? Yeah, right.

[Hosnon]

4. I hope the Dems point out just who was in charge during the deterioration of the hospital.

But - before we jump too soon - has the hospital been on the decline for a long time, i.e., prior to 2000/2002?

[lancdem]

7. Anyway

[Monkeyman]

3. We need to hear from Bob Filner and Akaka

[JoFerret]

5. MSM (in this case the WaPo)

did a real service with the story. And of course Dems would be the first to spring into action.

[Purveyor]

14. Anyone know if Faux Noise is covering this story? n/t

[MikeNearMcChord]

6. Let us also raise taxes on the billionaires

and give these troops from this and other wars first class treatment.

[wisteria]

8. Senator Kerry co-signed this legislation today-without hesitation

because it is important to do right by our veterans.

[BlueIris]

26. :-)

Kisses Senator K.

[tblue]

9. Oh those traitorous defeatist anti-troop bleeding heart liberals

[IndianaGreen]

10. Compare the Democrats to our Glorious Commander-in-Chief

He was AWOL as usual, and left it to Tony Snowjob to come out with the extraordinary statement (later retracted) that Bush had known about the conditions at the Walter Reed annex for some months.

Support the Troops indeed!

[Democrats_win]

11. Where are the "real" patriot Republicans? Counting their money?

Richard Mellon Sciafe and Pete Coors aren't writing checks to cover their mistake of supporting moron Bush? When will THEY sufffer? Clearly Rush Limbaugh is searching the planet for drugs so we can excuse him.

Michael Coors continues using Coors family money to work on developing land for a snowboard park. It is the best of times for them. Someone should do something about that.

[wordpix]

32. I think we need legislation to wring the money out of oil & war profiteers to help our soldiers

Apparently, our taxes and $8.5 trillion in debt isn't enough.

[Purveyor]

12. This is a "huge" story and should dominate Congressional attention! n/t

[richabk]

13. My only regret...

is that it took so long for this to come to light.

[Gregorian]

15. While they play football with bricks of cash.

There's money for smart bombs. None for armor or medical care.

The PNAC war bankrupted this country. People don't realize the extent to which this folly cost America.

The media can't ignore everything. Some of the truth shines through.

This all falls onto the generations that follow. It's all a big hit and run heist.

The top priority of our tax dollars should go to those who need medical help. They are the most in peril and the most needy in our society.

There was no excuse for any of this to happen.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

17. RIDICULE AND SHAME ARE ALL THE REPUBLICANS WILL GET.

DRIVE THEM OUT OF AMERICA.

[anotherdrew]

16. remember, they intend to close the place by 2010, or they did want to at least

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-25-base-closing_x.htm

I think that's a bit outrageous, they need to remodel it and use it for long term care at least.

[lyonn]

20. When you have a war going on where 20,000 + have been

seriously injured, how could this govt. consider letting the hospital annex where those badly wounded have to live in a trashed out area and abandoning them to shuffle around the whole complex in wheel chairs, etc., without making the place livable and easy acces to their care and needs. Why is the bush admin. letting this place fall to the ground? Because they are going to abandon it in a few years? So what do our recovering soldiers do in the meantime? No details on the so called combined complex.

Who, or should I say what group will profit from the use of that land once it is abandoned? Isn't it extremely valuable land? This whole thing should be investigated. In deals like this you know someone is going to get filthy rich. Someone will probably build office space there once they get rid of that "old hospital" and lease it to the govt. Isn't that how it works?

[rodeodance]

18. Tony Snow said Bush was 'aware of the conditions" at WR: see here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3123976

[BenDavid]

19. Now this is something all

Americans can get behind, but I am telling you cutting funds for the war would be a bad idea. WHY? The Dems have to let George Bush's "last chance run out" and if they stop it before Sept. 1st. THE Democrats will collect ALL the blame for the failure of the Iraqi occupation.
This is Bush's War so it HAS to be His to lose. He and the right wing say they will know if it is working by the end of the summer.They have set their own end date.I can not see the Democrats cutting their own throats for the difference of a couple of months.

If they tamper with it, they own it.It will become the Democrat's quagmire if they assume control. Bush (and America's whore media) will say,
"We were winning until the Democrats stopped supporting the troops."BC

[Le Taz Hot]

29. And tell me,

how many more Americans and Iraqis will be injured and killed while we wait out the pResident. Fuck political expediency. BRING THEM HOME!!!!!

[niyad]

21. called my idiot DINO today and told him I expect to see his name on this legislation when I check in

the morning.
doubt it will do any good, but we have a lot of military here.

[wordpix]

33. good idea, we should all do this--my DINO is Lieberbush

[anitar1]

22. What is so strange to me is the fact that not a single

person in the entire Congress, seemed oblivious about this situation. This building is 5 miles from the White House. Very puzzling or could it be that none of them could be bothered. I am certain some of the families must have contacted their Reps.I am afraid that our Dems also have some explaining to do.Please excuse my cynicism.

[Habibi]

24. I agree.

Did Priest and Hull do the story because vet families contacted them in desperation? Seems to me that some vets and/or their families would have tried to get word to members of Congress before now--were they ignored?

[tom_paine]

23. Go, Dems Go! Protect our vets!

:toast:

[Vinca]

25. Somewhere I heard that some congressional staffers had been

contacted by the residents of the seedy building and apparently did nothing. We need hearings and heads have got to roll if this is true. I don't care what party it might involve, if anyone ignored recovering vets and allowed them to continue living with mold, mice and bugs, it's back to flipping burgers for a living.

[wordpix]

34. Dana Priest (writer of piece) was interviewed by Tweety on this last night & she said it

Said some staffers knew about conditions. I agree, this should be investigated.

[BlueIris]

27. And people ask me why I'm still a proud Democrat.

[GoldenOldie]

28. What has happened to our "representation?"

I am old enough to remember when....any military man/woman or their families who had a problem that could not or would not be taken care of through the military chain-of-command had only to contact their Congressional rep for support. As a civilian I worked with co-workers who asked for and received support from their congressional representatives when one of their military family members needed such assistance. I am a retired DOD civilian program analyst, who worked in an US Army Medical Hospital and also on a 7-year, US military medical functions project which required participants to travel and study/analyze each the services Medical Centers ie., Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 3 Military post Hospitals, 3-clinic. This study also required that we all analysts along with their military counterparts
attend sessions within the Pentagon, which was chaired by the US Army Surgeon General/MD who had been charged with this project.

Having worked for 15-years within a US Army Medical Hospital and having visited and toured various Military medical facilities, all housekeeping and maintenance at that time was performed "In-house," or federal/civilians. The housekeeping and maintenance employees were extremely proud of their facility and cleanliness and maintenance were of extremely high caliber. The Military medical facilities were also inspected by the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH).

Although I have been retired for many years, I still reside close to the Army facility where I worked and also close to an Air Force facility, I know that all medical facility housekeeping and maintenance are now contracted out and being performed by private contractors. Contracts have been written so as maintain the same high standards for JCAH and from in-house, but contractors are not being held to them.

I want to know, why each of the military patients individual Congressional representative not do something......were they not contacted???? Where were the 3-services, Army/Navy/Air Force, US General Surgeons????? Where was the Medical Commander, of Walter Reed US Army Medical Center???? Where were the voices for our injured/maimed military and their families, who have lost so much and now struggling so hard to survive and get on with their lives???? I want to know who has the contracts to maintain these buildings and who is the federal agent/rep responsible for ensuring the contract is complied with?????

I want to know, where is Their Commander-in-Chief?????

I want to Know!

[Zambero]

30. Pay no attention to that man (Bush) behind the curtain!

And while you're at it, pay no attention to those stories about dire conditions at Walter Reed.
Just slap a no-brainer yellow ribbon magnet onto your vehicle(s). Now THAT'S supporting our troops!
Any other approach reminds our troops of how badly they're being treated, which is BAD for morale.
So stop this nonsense, already. The war was a guaranteed slam-dunk. "W" and Congress didn't need to consider the possibility of any massive casualties that might result. No casualties = no budget request = no additional medical facilities. It's that simple! Our Commander-in-Chief visits Walter Reed regularly, at least annually for a minimum of 5 minutes per photo op, er...visit. He really CARES about our troops, or else he wouldn't show up, right? Gawd, has Sean Hannity weighed in on this yet? He'd be shocked to hear how the plight of our troops is being manipulated for pure political purposes.

[skipos]

31. KICK

[Doondoo]

35. K&R

[deadparrot]

36. Awesome (and special thanks to McCaskill, as she's my senator)!

:woohoo:

This shit needs to get taken care of, stat.

[MindPilot]

37. I was literally crying by the time I got home yesterday

listening to the stories on Randi's show. The story of the man who lost most of his sight and got a 10% rating made me just want to break shit.

I have a fucking 10% rating for fucking PTSD!! It's pocket change, $115 a month and--if I thought for a moment it would make any difference--I would gladly give it up to someone more deserving.

[Joey Liberal]

38. Republicans hate veterans n/t