Tag Archives: Bob Kerrey

medical news, military news

Show us the bone spur records, Mr. POTUS

Bob Kerrey has pitched a perfectly logical notion for the president of the United States, who has been plagued by doubters who question his assertion that “bone spurs” kept him out of military service during the Vietnam War.

Show us the medical record, Mr. President. That is the suggestion offered by Kerrey, a former Democratic U.S. senator from Nebraska. Oh, I also must point out that Kerrey is a former Navy SEAL, a Vietnam War combat veteran and a Medal of Honor recipient who lost one of his legs fighting the enemy during that horrible time.

Bone spurs don’t heal themselves, Kerrey said. You need surgery to repair them. The president has never mentioned surgery.

The bone spur issue keeps recurring because Trump keeps yapping about military matters in ways that bring these questions to the forefront.

Such as his ongoing and crass attacks against the late Sen. John McCain, the former Vietnam War prisoner who died of cancer this past August. Trump once denigrated McCain’s POW status, saying he was a “hero only because he was captured.”

Trump got several medical deferments during the Vietnam War. He has cited bone spurs. Well, just like the tax returns he keeps saying are under audit by the Internal Revenue Service, he has not provided a shred of evidence that he even had bone spurs; he also hasn’t produced a letter by the IRS declaring that it was auditing his tax returns, which he said has precluded him from releasing those returns for public review.

The president also reportedly told his former lawyer/confidant Michael Cohen that he had no intention of going to Vietnam. “Do you think I’m stupid?” Cohen said Trump asked him. Kerrey has taken offense at that notion, saying that Trump “sees all of us who went to Vietnam as fools. We were the suckers. We were the stupid ones. We were the ones that didn’t have the resources to be able to get out of the draft.”

Kerrey said this, as reported by the Huffington Post: “While John McCain was flying combat operations in Vietnam, you were, I think, falsifying that you had bone spurs in order not to go to Vietnam,” said Kerrey, a 1992 presidential candidate who retired from the Senate in 2000. “Now I know lots of people who avoided the draft, but this isn’t what he’s saying. He said ‘I physically couldn’t go,’ Well, Mr. President, get your feet X-rayed and let’s see those bone spurs. I don’t think he has them.”

Frankly, neither do I.

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Kerrey can fix VA

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of bringing in a decorated former Navy SEAL to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs out of a major scandal.

Bob Kerrey’s name has been floated as a possible replacement for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, whose days as head of the massive agency clearly are numbered.

Shinseki isn’t saying he’s going to quit. President Obama isn’t saying he’s going to fire the retired Army general and former Army chief of staff. The writing on the proverbial wall needs no translation: Shinseki cannot stay on.

The VA has been shown to be negligent — perhaps criminally so — in its treatment of veterans. There have been deaths because of too-lengthy wait times for health care, fabricated records and what’s been called a “systemic” breakdown all along the way.

Bob Kerrey is a former Democratic senator from Nebraska. He fought in Vietnam — as did Shinseki. The one-time naval officer received the Medal of Honor for valor and heroism and lost a leg on the battlefield.

Kerrey is a bona fide war hero with many friends still in the Senate. He would be confirmed almost unanimously.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is in dire need of an extreme makeover. No one near the top of the chain of command can do it. They’re all tainted now by what’s been revealed.

Some fresh ideas, new sharp vision and some kick-butt attitude are what’s needed at the troubled Cabinet agency.

Why not give Bob Kerrey a chance to repair the damage?

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Shinseki has to go

It pains me to say this about a decorated, heroic veteran of the U.S. Army, but it’s time for him to leave the office he holds.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s watch is now scarred indelibly by a scathing inspector general’s report that chronicles horrible health care services being provided for veterans.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/will-shinseki-go-its-when-not-if-n117341

The IG report confirms that Veterans Administration health officials cooked up fabricated wait times for veterans, who were found to be waiting about 115 days for health care — far longer than VA standards. The result has been the deaths of veterans at the Phoenix, Ariz., veterans hospital.

All this happened under Gen. Shinseki’s watch. He’s supposed to manage a monstrous federal agency. He hasn’t done it. Veterans have suffered. This shoddy performance has angered Democratic and Republican members of Congress alike. The calls for his resignation are mounting.

It’s time for him to step aside.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is in a shambles and there is no way possible for Shinseki to clean up the wreckage.

Who should get the call?

I heard an interesting name mentioned Wednesday. Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., received the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Vietnam War. He lost a leg while fighting enemy soldiers as a Navy SEAL. Could someone with Sen. Kerrey’s credentials do the job? I believe he could.

President Obama has said two things about the mess at the VA: He stands by Shinseki and he vows to make changes if they’re deemed necessary. The IG report has been given credence by those who believe change is necessary at the top of the VA chain of command.

The president no longer can stand by his man.