Political Quotes

“Madam President, the steady trickle of allegations surrounding abuses of our veterans has turned from a trickle into a monsoon. It seems every day that goes by there is an additional bad news story about appointment lists that have been cooked to look like the waiting times were not as long as they were, allegations such as those at the Veterans' Administration hospital in Phoenix, where allegedly there were secret waiting lists where 40 veterans died waiting to get health care, and the secret waiting list was being created to make the backlog appear not as serious as it was. As we discuss and debate all the numbers on wait times and backlogs, it is important as always, whenever we are talking about statistics and numbers, to remember these are real human beings and these are our veterans with real individual stories. They represent people such as Dale Richardson, who is a Vietnam veteran from East Texas who died of cancer after reportedly waiting 2 months to hear back from the VA about scheduling chemotherapy treatments. They represent people such as Thomas Breen, a Navy veteran who, similar to Mr. Richardson, died of cancer after a 2-month period in which he reportedly waited in vain to hear back from the VA about an appointment time. They also represent people such as Edward Laird whose story was written up in the Los Angeles Times this last weekend. Mr.…”