The Picture of Poor Health

A plan to clear up the red tape of military and veteran's health care died two years ago -- just as President Bush's nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs took office.

The VA employee working on the "Congingency Tracking System" told ABC News it'd been approved already. But was shelved when Jim Nicholson became Secretary.

ABC reports that as a result, seriously wounded troops, released from the military due to the severity of their wounds -- were released into the VA's sea of red tape.

The program only cost $1 million dollars to set up. But Sec Nicholson reportedly nixed it as being too expensive.

Sec Nicholson told ABC, he can't even remember the program.

But then, he had other things on his mind at the time.

The VA was dealing with a flood of wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, had run up a $1 billion shortfall, and -- as the Washington Post reported at the time -- they had a different priority.

A memo at the time stressed that pictures of Sec Nicholson had to be hung immediately in all VA offices and hospitals. Amid the crises the VA faced at the time -- the memo called the pictures "highest priority" and demanded daily updates on the status of hanging pictures.

It's not a pretty picture emerging of Sec Nicholson.

And this is the man President Bush tapped to head up immediate reforms to problems at Walter Reed.

Heckuva job. (ABCNews/WaPo)

Nicholson Out -- New Photos Take Top Priority at VA

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson has resigned.

He presided over a $1-billion budget shortfall, miscalculations in the number of wounded vets coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan and the bungled handling of a lost laptop computer containing personal information of millions of veterans and active duty Service members.

Here at Watching Washington, he'll be best remembered as the guy who put that whole "we don't have enough money to care for vets" issue behind him to make sure his picture given top priority at every VA office and hospital. (NYT)

CYA at VA

The Department of Veterans Affairs reportedly gave permission for an analyst to work on data at home. That data was on a laptop stolen from his house -- jeapordizing personal information of around 26 million veterans and two million active service members.

The VA wants to fire the analyst -- and says he wasn't supposed to take the data home.

The analyst is fighting back, saying he had approval from higher-ups who want to scapegoat him. And the Associated Press has obtained VA documents backing him up.

That should make things really pleasant for VA Secretary Jim Nicholson when he testifies on Capitol Hill today. (AP)

It's Pat!

Noted conservative Pat Buchanan features a cover picture of a drag queen on the last issue of his American Conservative magazine (right).

The cover story is about hurricane recovery and the photo features children and a pair of adult "women" wading through the New Orleans flood.

One of the "women" turns out to be a local celebrity -- drag queen and bartender Jack "Lady Charles" Nicholson. (Page Six -- NYPost)

Moving On Up at the Department of Homeland Security

The Senate has voted to change the line of succession -- moving the Homeland Security Secretary from last in line to number eight to take over if the President -- and everyone else in between -- is unable to do the job.

The new line looks like this:

• Vice President Dick Cheney
• House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
• Senate President Pro Tem Ted Stevens (R-AK)
• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
• Treasury Secretary John Snow
• Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
• Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
• Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
• Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton
• Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns
• Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez
• Labor Secretary Elaine Chao
• Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt
• Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson
• Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta
• Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman
• Education Secretary Margaret Spellings
• Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson

But Sec Gutierrez was born in Cuba and Sec Chao was born in Taiwan. The Constitution requires the President be a native born American so those two would be ineligible. (WashPost)

VA Hospitals in Critical Condition

The Veteran's Affairs Department is as much as $2.5 billion short of operating funds for the year. They're shutting down services -- but hanging up pictures of their Secretary.

The VA system is being flooded with 250,000 new patients in a single year -- 40% of them veterans returning from Aghanistan and Iraq. The Washington Post sums up some of the cuts the VA's made around the country to save money:

"According to documents released at recent meetings of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs committees, the VA hospital in White River Junction, Vt., was forced to shut its operating rooms temporarily because of a lack of maintenance funds to repair a broken heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. Hospitals in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana and eastern Texas stopped scheduling appointments for many veterans."

There are delays for vets needing health care, too:

• Portland, Oregon: 6 months for non-emergency surgery
• Bay Pines, Florida: 30 day wait for 7,000 veterans seeking primary care appointments
• San Diego: 750 vets on a waiting list as the hospital cuts corners to pay bills

Just last month I told you how the VA had made it a top priority to make sure all their facilities had a picture of VA Secretary Nicholson hanging in the lobby.

With protests popping up around VA hospitals facing cutbacks or closures -- the Secretary might not want anyone to know what he looks like. By the way, that's him in that picture there. (WashPost, HT: T. McGhee) [Photo Credit: US Govt]

Maybe They Were Using "Fuzzy Math"

The Bush administration admits it seriously "misunderestimated' the number of troops coming home from the wars and needing some medical care.

They thought only about 23,553 wounded or sick soldiers could come home from Afghanistan and Iraq this year. They've upped that estimate to 103,000.

That means it's going to cost more to take care of them. Earlier, the Veterans Administration said it was $1 billion short. New documents show the Department is closer to $2.6 billion.

Just this week, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson went with hat in hand to the House Appropriations Committee to explain the $1 billion shortfall. Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) said waiting so long to tell Congress "borders on stupidity."

"Somebody was hoping they could hide the ball for a while and talk about it later, and frankly in this arena you can't afford to do that."

--Rep Jerry Lewis (R-CA),
quoted in the Washington Post

Republican Senators on the Veterans Affairs Committee chipped in an extra $1.5 billion to cover the earlier reported loss. Now they may have to come up with another billion. (WashPost, HT: Tracey Vail)

A Billion Missing Bucks? We've Got Other Problems First

The Veterans Affairs Department is coming up $1 billion short on what it needs to pay for vets' health care. So what was on the agenda for a weekly conference call over at the medical part of the VA?

The Secretary's picture.

You know, the Cabinet Secretary for each department gets his or her picture on the wall of every office under their charge.

And it turns out, some of those offices have been tardy in hanging up those pictures.

Al Kamen's In the Loop column at the Washington Post has an actual transcript of the conference call:

"Unfortunately, however," [Deputy Undersecretary Laura ] Miller continued, "there are many facilities that currently do not have the picture displayed. I am aware that the mailings of the pictures occurred on April 22, 2005." So that's more than five full weeks.

"Dr. Perlin" -- that's Jonathan B. Perlin , undersecretary for health, who revealed the $1 billion shortfall after being grilled by committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) -- "and I cannot stress the importance of this enough," she said. "We are asking that you give this your highest priority. We will continue to ask for daily updates on the status until we are assured that all of our facilities have a current picture displayed."

Not all VA officials put the picture as top priority. Mr Kamen talked to one who didn't want his name in print:

"And here we're trying to figure out where our next patient meal is coming from and what furniture to sell to buy drugs next year."

But just walking into a VA hospital and seeing Secretary Jim Nicholson's smiling face has got to make you feel better, huh? (WashPost)