Political Quotes

“we had a hearing on this very issue recently in the Subcommittee on Hospitals and Health Care, and while those people from the VA and the administration said that we can streamline to the extent that we will be able to deal with this, that was not what we heard from the people who will be working to provide care for those veterans who need the care. They came and said we cannot streamline to that extent. We heard from the veterans' service organizations as well that it is not possible to streamline to the extent that the administration had said, and if in fact this cut does take place, we can expect there to be decreased service to veterans in the hospital and health care delivery system. Now, the administration is saying we want the VA to be competitive. The VA must be competitive. How can it be competitive if the administration is cutting the personnel that will be necessary to make that system competitive? It just does not add up. So I would say to the gentleman that if these cuts do not take place in the way that we have indicated that they ought to, that veterans will suffer.”