Video- President Obama signs VA Budget Reform Bill

President Obama doing what Bush wouldn't

By GottaLaff

Let's compare and contrast. Here's what President Obama is doing today:

Expand the Veterans Administration's number of "centers of excellence" in specialty care:

The Obama administration's proposed 2010 budget outlines a plan to increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs by $25 billion over the next five years, starting with an 11 percent increase in discretionary funding next year.

According to a fact sheet prepared by the White House Office of Management and Budget, the president's Veterans Affairs budget "enables VA to create Centers of Excellence and provides additional veteran-oriented specialty care in areas including prosthetics, vision and spinal cord injury, aging, and women’s health."

Of course the Rushpublics will rant about socialism and government takeovers. They're such Compassionate Carls and Carols.

Here's something else they can scream about. Their bffs are now only going to make a measly $200K-plus a year. Waaah!

U.S. to Order Steep Pay Cuts at Firms That Got Most Aid:

Responding to the growing furor over the paychecks of executives at companies that received billions of dollars in federal bailouts, the Obama administration will order the companies that received the most aid to deeply slash the compensation to their highest paid executives, an official involved in the decision said on Wednesday.

Under the plan, which will be announced in the next few days by the Treasury Department, the seven companies that received the most assistance will have to cut the cash payouts to their 25 best-paid executives by an average of about 90 percent from last year. For many of the executives, the cash they would have received will be replaced by stock that they will be restricted from selling immediately.

And for the 25 best-paid executives, the total compensation, which includes bonuses, will drop, on average, by about 50 percent.

The companies are Citigroup, Bank of America, the American International Group, General Motors, Chrysler and the financing arms of the two automakers.

Obama: The UnBush. Suh-weet!

H/t: DAKGirl

Oops: GOP calls VA pamphlet a 'death book.' Experts say it isn't

By GottaLaff

As if we needed experts to verify this, but well, okay:

While Republicans are calling a Department of Veterans Affairs health planning booklet a "death book" that encourages veterans to kill themselves or forgo care, ethicists and legal and medical experts say it's a reasonable attempt to help America's veterans plan for the end of their lives. [...]

"There is nothing in this pamphlet or in any of the VA effort in this area that is aimed at asking that veterans be allowed to die to save money," said the University of Pennsylvania's Arthur Caplan, one of the nation's leading bioethicists. "To say otherwise is just an exercise in ludicrous, inflammatory rhetoric."

VA chaplains said "Your Life" is helpful. "I read it thoroughly again last night," said the Rev. Anthony Beazley, the chief chaplain of the VA medical center in West Palm Beach, Fla., and a Southern Baptist minister. "I was very meticulous. I would not say that it encourages suicide."

The booklet "did not sound negative to me," said Rabbi Lowell S. Kronick of the VA's chaplain service. [...]

Matthew Wynia, the director of the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association, said the statements are intended to get veterans thinking about their place in life — and to realize that family members often consider it an honor, not a burden, to care for them. [...]

Asked if it encourages veteran suicide, however, [Charlie Sabatino, the director of the American Bar Association's Commission on Law and Aging] said: "I can't find that anywhere."

"This is a pretty mainstream document — well developed, well-reviewed," said Wynia of the AMA.

The reviews are in, and they're all good. Top that, Levi Johnston.

VA Authorities Confiscate Tape of Journalist Reporting on Bad Treatment of Veterans

By GottaLaff

This cannot be tolerated. David Schultz, 26, works as a reporter for WAMU-FM, a local NPR station. He was stopped dead in his tracks, physically prevented from reporting a story about the shoddy treatment of a terminally ill patient, a veteran.

This is a story that is bound to get bigger, backfiring all over the VA. Somebody owes us, and Schultz, an explanation about what they're trying to hide, and why:

Schultz was working on a story about a veteran alleging bad treatment at the hands of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Tommie Canady, a 56-year-old veteran with a terminal pancreatic disease, says he gets horrible care.

Gloria Hairston, a VA communications specialist, along with two other employees and four armed security guards, stopped Schultz and wouldn’t let him leave until he handed over his equipment. After a confrontation, when Hairston warned Schultz it would get "ugly," he says, the young reporter gave her the memory card from his tape recorder.

Schultz told WTOP-AM radio:

["T]he story is not about me versus the hospital. It's about why is the hospital taking these measures to prevent Mr. Canady from speaking. What are they trying to hide?"

President Obama on mortgages, 21st Century VA

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Pretty much the complete speech he gave earlier today in the two parts.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Tammy Duckworth Headed to U.S. Veterans Affairs

By GottaLaff

Nodding my head in approval:

President Barack Obama will nominate Iraq vet and fellow Illinois-resident Tammy Duckworth to serve in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as assistant secretary of public and intergovernmental affairs, heading internal and external communications for the department. She now leads the Illinois V.A.

She will serve under V.A. Secretary Erik Shinseki.

VIDEO-- The ugly Bush stain: Late move on drugs by Bush FDA could be dangerous

By GottaLaff

Another deadly, typically noxious, ugly Bush stain that Bush's own Veterans Affairs Department disapproved of:

In the waning days of the Bush administration, the Food and Drug Administration finalized new guidelines to make it easier for drug manufacturers to promote "off-label" prescription drug uses, which can be deadly for patients.

The move came despite criticism from Bush's own Department of Veterans Affairs, which said the change "favors business interests over public safety" and could lead to a "decline in drug safety." It also was crafted despite efforts by state and federal law-enforcement experts to clamp down on off-label drug marketing. [...]

As the Obama administration reviews all the midnight rules that the departing Bush administration issued, it will have to decide whether to try to modify or reverse this last-minute change in the FDA's oversight of off-label drug marketing.

Congressional leaders from both parties criticized the guideline when it was proposed last year. [...]

In the House of Representatives, Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, called the guideline a "long-coveted parting gift" for the pharmaceutical industry that "fundamentally undermines" the FDA's authority.

Once again, BushCo's priority is profit, not people. "Pro-life" is a term that should never be exploited again. This bunch of thugs is anti-choice, anti-humanity, anti-American.

Shinseki: Six-Month Wait for Military Disability Unacceptable

By GottaLaff

(click on image to animate)

The ObamAdministration is making so many wishes come true that I've decided to celebrate by creating a brand new theme with a brand new graphic. Here's the latest sigh of relief:

President-elect Barack Obama's choice to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday that six-month waits to have a disability claim processed would not be acceptable under his watch.

Retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, 66, promised to modernize the nation's second largest agency. [...]

He told the senators he doesn't understand why veterans are currently waiting six months on average to have a claim processed. "We need to do something about this," he said.

Shinseki said another priority would be to ensure that new GI benefits are rolled out in August, as planned.

He promised to work to reopen benefits to many "Priority 8" middle-income veterans who didn't qualify under the Bush administration. Such "Priority 8" veterans, whose income exceeded roughly $30,000 annually, were blocked from enrollment in the VA system in January 2003.

Your turn: make a wish.