An Afterwar in Waco (Plans to shutter a VA hospital near Bush's ranch)

[rainbow4321]

The article leaves out a SMALL detail...the Waco Tribune refused to endorse shrub pre-Black Tuesday because of what they called his "silence" over the possible closure of this the local VA hospital..they wrote an editorial about it a week or so before the election..saying "all politics are local" and they endorsed Kerry. Per the editors, they didn't care that chimp brings a gaggle of media/customers to the locals or that nearby Baylor would try to compete for the shrub library. ALL that mattered was shrub not intervening in the VA hospital. Is it any wonder shrub "delayed" a decision on it??


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6856955/site/newsweek/

Doctors diagnosed the 23-year-old vet with posttraumatic stress disorder, and arranged for him to receive round-the-clock treatment at the Veterans Administration hospital in Waco, Texas, the only VA facility in the state that specializes in PTSD.

It's not clear how much longer Perdue and the 39 other vets on the ward will be able to stay. The Waco hospital was one of several VA facilities slated for closure as part of a plan to revamp the aging health system for vets. In 1999, a government study found the agency was wasting $1 million a day on buildings it didn't need. Four years later, after a top-to-bottom study of the problem, a government commission recommended closing some older, underused facilities, including the one in Waco and another in upstate New York. They would be replaced with dozens of new clinics around the country, and new hospitals in Orlando, Fla., and Las Vegas, where vet populations are on the rise.

<snip>


VA head Anthony Principi was swamped with calls of complaint from Capitol Hill. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton protested closing the New York hospital. Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison weighed in against shuttering the Waco branch. "You don't want to be closing facilities that treat mental illness at a time when they're coming home," she said. Principi was prepared to take some heat. But when Texas vets began riding motorcycles up and down the streets near Bush's ranch in protest, the VA boss began taking flak from the commander in chief. "Tony, what are you doing in Waco?" Bush asked the next time he saw Principi. The two men talked about the pressures—a shifting vet population, returning troops, rising health costs. At the end of their chat, Principi says Bush told him, "Don't worry about the politics. Do what's right."


Faced with a gathering political storm, VA officials turned to a time-honored Washington tactic: delay. The agency announced it would continue to evaluate the problem before making changes to select facilities, including Waco. Earlier this month the agency hired PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct a $9.6 million study, to be completed in 2006. So the problem will be left in the lap of Principi's successor, Jim Nicholson.

[MidwestTransplant]

1. Gotta to boost those property values.

[teryang]

2. Waco VA is a goldmine for bankers and little else

The real estate values there will never go up due to the VA guaranteed and absolutely corrupt housing market in the area.

The office there used to have the dubious reputation of being the worst in the country.

[rodeodance]

3. $9 million for another STUDY!!!!!!!