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There are two sorts of congressional representatives in America - those who've visited Walter Reed, and those who haven't.
Both sorts are now rightfully screwed:
Imus: Have you been aware, even since 1981, of the state of treatment that veterans have been receiving throughout the Veterans Administration hospitals?He might want to visit the one in the capital city of his home State some day - especially now that he's been invited:Schumer: Yes, it’s gotten much worse in the last seven or eight years because the funding was just cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. I get stories all the time of veterans wounded in Iraq, they get good treatment over in Iraq . . . The Veterans Administration has just been decimated in terms of funding and it’s unbelievable because . . . we ask these people to serve us and in the DoD part, at least in Iraq, and initially when they are wounded from all reports they are treated well, after that they are just sort of forgotten about and the VA is just in terrible shape, terrible shape . . . It’s a little like FEMA with Katrina. They put the wrong people in charge. They don’t really care.
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Imus: Here’s another question. Have you ever been over to Walter Reed?Schumer: Ahh, not in a while, no.
Imus: How long has it been since you’ve been over there?
Schumer: Oh, before Iraq.
Imus: So, before Iraq since you’ve been over to see the soldiers. So, we have elected you — first in the Congress and now in the Senate — and you’ve got a bill now to do something we’ll get to in a minute; but you haven’t even been to Walter Reed Hospital.
Schumer: No, no, no. But I have visited regularly the veterans' hospitals throughout my state. That’s where I have focused on . . .
Imus: Well, you must have seen the state of affairs there . . .
Schumer: I did.
Imus: Well why didn’t you do something about it?
Schumer: We did . . . I did . . . I tried, I have been pushing . . .
Imus: Well nothing happened, Senator.
Schumer: No, nothing happened, I agree with you. It’s a shame. It’s a disgrace.
Imus: Did you vote to authorize the president to go to war in Iraq?
Schumer: Yes.
Imus: Good . . . So why wouldn’t you, once you voted for the president to go to war in Iraq, why wouldn’t you go over to Walter Reed — since the Iraq war has begun its been going on longer than World War II — to see the consequence of your vote. They are over there with no arms and legs, Senator.
Schumer: I did see the consequence throughout my state. I went to many, many veterans’ hospitals there. Did I visit every veterans' hospital? No, but I spent a lot of time; I mean, three weeks before this crisis happened, I was throughout the cities of my state meeting with guardsmen and reservists about the bad benefits they got in terms of health care.
Imus: But you need to go see the kids with no arms and legs . . .
Schumer: I am going to go to Walter Reed. You know, probably I should have gone there . . .
Imus: Without question, you should have . . .
Schumer: . . . but I did visit many veterans’ hospitals.
But Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany, the VA hospital used by most veterans in the Oneonta area, is a far cry from Walter Reed, said Stratton’s director and a current patient from Hobart.In fairness, there are 12 VA Medical Centers in New York, and several smaller facilities, so visiting them all is more than a day's work.
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Customer-satisfaction surveys continually show high marks for the 55-year-old facility, which serves 22 counties in the state, Piche said."The VA’s Albany hospital is not the stuff you see on 60 Minutes,’" said Peter Tiller, a retired Army reservist from Hobart who was wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2003.
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Schumer said he couldn’t specifically speak for Stratton."(Schumer) needs to pay us a visit," Piche said.
Of course, the Dems "new direction on Iraq" now includes $20 billion in pet projects not related to the war or its veterens.
