It is a concern to the Veterans Service Organizations, I know it is a concern to every Member of this Committee.

The average amount of time it takes to resolve an appeal... is clearly unacceptable.

So, what you are telling us is that everything being equal, if you get the budget that you need, you expect to achieve the Secretary's goals?

I think all of us have heard from veterans who are deeply concerned about the backlog.

General Hickey, your testimony contains some significant statistics.

We need to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, not give tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this country.

November is National Family Caregivers Month. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I would like to take a moment to discuss the important role caregivers play in the lives of our Nation's veterans as they cope with the…

Many of them do an extraordinary job, and they are all different.

If they do not have access to healthcare, if they do not have access to education, if they do not have access to jobs and affordable housing, we end up paying not only in terms of human suffering and the shortening of life expectancy, but…

investing in those programs and cutting back on the incidence of diabetes may actually not only ease human suffering, but save money as well.

the United States has, by far, the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth; it is 22 percent.

HRSA, HHS, announced they were going to spend $150 million in starting up 236 new community health centers.

I have worked very hard, with some success, to expand community health centers in the State of Vermont and throughout this country.

But as I looked at that map, sorry to interrupt you, if I look at that map, there is a lot of red in the southeastern part of the country.

I am one of those who believe, with Dr. Berwick, who used to run the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services, that waste is theft.

I am chairman of the Veterans Committee, and the V.A. actually does a fairly good job in addressing some of these issues.

I think what some of you are telling us is that that may not be the wisest course of action for some people.

I think centers, community health centers, can play a real important role in many places.

Why is it conceivable that in America--and in West Virginia among other places--women are actually living shorter lives than used to be the case?

it is actually in many cases, more than one-third; it is almost double what other countries are spending.

the stress of poverty is a death sentence which results in significantly shorter life expectancy.

I think that is a good point.

the stress pathways independent of those other factors, that operate really through neural endocrine mechanisms and neuro-immunological mechanisms that really puts the body under stress

What would it mean to this country if in every community in America, people could walk into their doctor's office when they needed to and get the broad counseling that they needed regardless of income?

The health of working-class and middle-class, and even upper-class Americans also rises and falls with our socioeconomic status.