John Boehner uses Fort Hood incident as an excuse to attack the VA
by David Atkins
This from the Republican leadership takes some serious shameless chutzpah:
House Speaker John Boehner today expressed condolences for the victims of the latest Fort Hood shooting and said Congress should explore ways to better prevent mentally ill people from acquiring firearms, as investigators continue to probe the mental history of the alleged gunman.
“There’s no question that those with mental health issues should be prevented from owning weapons or being able to purchase weapons,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said at a news conference. “We need to continue to look at to find a way to keep weapons out of the hands of people who should not have them.”
Authorities identified Army Spc. Ivan Lopez as the shooter who killed three people and wounded 16 others on Wednesday before committing suicide.
Lopez, who officials say had deployed to Iraq for four months but never saw combat, was reportedly being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Boehner said Congress has begun to address mental illness by funding “a pilot project addressing mental health issues and weapons” as part of the Medicare Doc Fix, which just passed Congress and is awaiting the president’s final authorization.
That program establishes an eight-state demonstration program for a two-year period authorizing $1.1 billion as an incentive to community mental health providers to offer a broad range of mental health issues, according to a senior Republican leadership aide.
But even after President Obama signs that bill, Boehner conceded, many veterans still are not getting all the support they need.
Boehner joined several veterans service organizations to call on Congress to pass the Department of Veteran Affairs Management Accountability Act of 2014, which aims at improving transparency and increasing accountability by granting the secretary new authorization to fire senior executive officials within the department.
“For our active-duty members, they ought to have access to high-quality care, just like what we’re asking for those who are now veterans,” Boehner said. “What we’re trying to do here, though, is focus in on the serious problems at the Veterans Administration. We’re spending $160 billion a year of taxpayers’ money, and it ought to be spent wisely to help those who’ve worn our uniform.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has sponsored a companion bill in the Senate, said “all Americans deserve and expect a government that’s both accountable and effective.”
“The enormous and vast majority of the 300,000 men and women who work in this agency work hard and do a great job, but like any organization there’s going to be breakdowns,” he said. “And when there are, people need to be held accountable, especially at the senior management level.”
In a statement, the VA strongly opposed the legislation, and contended it already has sufficient power to make personnel decisions.
No one would say the VA is perfect. But let's be very clear here.
The VA correctly identified and was treating an individual for depression. Individuals suffering from mental illness are allowed to purchase firearms. An individual explicitly being treated for mental illness by the VA purchased a firearm and went on a murder-suicide rampage.
The GOP reaction to this is to mouth platitudes about guns and mental illness that they intend to do exactly nothing to address, while pivoting to attacks on the VA and employment protections for government workers.
Based on what we know now, nothing about this incident was the fault of the VA. They were treating the individual in question, but no treatment can guarantee against a psychotic episode. Without the ability to purchase a firearm, however, there's no need for a psychotic episode to kill and injure over a dozen people.
But the GOP has no intention of doing anything about the real problem. They do, however, fully intend to dismantle even more protections for government workers in the eventual hope of privatizating the VA. Because they're shameless moral cretins.
Update: A reader writes in to note, correctly, that the shooter was being treated by military doctors, not the VA. The broader point remains, however: the shooter was getting medical attention for his mental health issues from the appropriate doctors.
.