Still more appalling corruption in the Bush Administration

[katinmn]

Veterans Affairs Secretary Principi awarded $1 billion in contracts to the firm he led before he was appointed by Bush. Then he returned as chairman. His company also engaged in price gouging, charging $$495.55 for a hearing exam, compared to $89.80 when the test was done in-house by VA staff. What a f****ing racket is this administration. It's a verifiable infestation!

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-contractor23apr23,1,6545931.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

VA Contracts Go to Ex-Chief's Company

Anthony J. Principi has held key positions at the Diamond Bar medical firm before and after heading the agency. Fees could exceed $1 billion.
By Walter F. Roche Jr., Times Staff Writer
April 23, 2006


WASHINGTON — A Diamond Bar company headed by former Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi could get fees exceeding $1 billion from the VA, much of it on contracts approved and amended while he ran the agency, records show.

Principi was president of the medical services company QTC Management Inc. before he joined President Bush's Cabinet in 2001. He ran the VA for four years, then returned to the firm as chairman of the board.

While he was VA secretary, Principi's past and future corporate home collected about $246 million in fees, according to VA records. Congressional Budget Office projections show the contracts could be worth as much as $1.2 billion through 2008.

Principi said he had no role in awarding, amending or administering VA contracts with QTC.
more

[barb162]

1. Yep, the party of fiscal responsibility at your service

I am almost becoming immune to this enormously wasteful stuff, you know?

[katinmn]

2. The veterans groups should launch an all out assault

[barb162]

5. I know some vets who have told me how under Bush the benefits have

been really slashed. That bit about lifetime care for anything is no more. They are not taking people right now unless they have war injuries which have been continuously treated as I understand. The vets are pissed as I understand but I don't know if they will go against the pugs

[Faygo Kid]

3. How can Bush turn over the presidency in 2008?

The level of corruption is unprecedented. If someone with a semblance of conscience gets in, it will come to light. Another reason I am not so sure that we will even have an election in 2008.

[katinmn]

6. Will we have an election in November?

The nuke attack will throw the whole world into dissaray.

[Faygo Kid]

12. Gawd, I fear you have a point.

If Rove determines that even he can't rig all the elections going on, a nuclear bunker buster may be just the distraction. You know they are going to pull something. I hope you are wrong. And that I am too.

[barb162]

7. by using catch phrases and lies like they did last time

that's what's so sad (and sick)

[LiberalPartisan]

4. These guys are utterly shameless!!

And they have the nerve to complaing about 'welfare'?

[peacetalksforall]

8. Dontcha know - Cheney showed him how and Rumsfeld and Rice

confirmed that it works.

I think a media blitz expose is in order.

[Botany]

9. Add that to the $9 billion halliburton lost in Iraq

or the money bush's uncle has made selling weapons to the DoD
or the 150 million to the Lincoln Group which bought propaganda in Iraq and
had 1/3 of kicked back to different repug groups
or Sec Snow's deal with Chessie Systems for the ports
or the money the drug, insurance companies, and HMOs made under the
law that Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert let them write.
or the money paid to Liz Cheney to help rebuild Iraq
or money Rummy's company (forget the name) has made and will
make for bird flu shots
or Neil Bush's software for education that is used in the No Child left Behind
testing
or the money various people made selling airline stock short prior to 9/11
or the billions that the oil companies are making
or the money the coal companies are making now that safety & environmental regulations
were loosened ..... what is a $50,000 fine for the miners in W.Va. when they have millions
more in profits.
or the money that GE (NBC) has made on the war in Iraq
or the tax breaks for the richest 1% of the people
or the money Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia is making on our debt.
or the money given to Fundy Churches by bush
or the ................

THESE GUYS ARE FUCKING CROOKS!

[cassiepriam]

10. What percentage of all this corruption money is being channeled back

to the repugs for the purpose of rigging the next elections, buying of the media, etc etc.

It is classic con artist sweetheart deal: I funnel the money to you, you funnel it back to me, and no one is the wiser.

[shraby]

11. I'm P.O'd....My father is a WWII vet and took shrapnel

in his knee. It's been bothering him lately and they wouldn't even x-ray it for him. This stinks to high heaven. Investigations should be mandatory.
He's 85 now and maybe they're just waiting for him to die.

[cassiepriam]

13. Bingo, I doubt seriously whether any of the vets will get good care.

Going to be too expensive. And most likely the care is already being
rationed. Any one over a certain age will not get certain procedures.
I bet no one will admit that, but has to start happening.
We simply do not have the money to take care of all the Iraqi war injuries
for the next several decades.

[katinmn]

14. kick

[DemonFighterLives]

15. K & R

As a peacetime vet with the old GI Bill, I feel it slipping all the time. Co- pays go up and they are threatening to take away some of the benefits.
I don't really have much wrong with me so far and no service connected disability, but a deal is a deal. I signed the contract for the schooling and medical benefits. They should not be able to renege on it now.
These buggers sure know how to put the screws to the little guy don't they.
:dem:

Not to mention the blood they love to spill. 8 guys dead this weekend for dubby and cronies war profits.
:argh:

[katinmn]

16. They sure do

My dad, who served during the Korean War, suffers from tinitis (constant loud ringing in his ear) as the result of a loud explosion right next to him. There's nothing they can do for it but give him a new hearing aid now and then. He has to drive 250 miles one way (since a closer VA clinic was closed a couple years ago), wait a long time to get check-ups and now there's a new yearly "fee" of $200 just to be in the system. I know a lot of older veterans who are a lot worse off. Kinda sucks the way they are treated.

I worry for the guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

[DemonFighterLives]

18. I feel bad for many of the vets.

I have heard many horror stories and vets not being able to get appts. and stuff. I feel guilty at times going when I feel fine. For some reason, I have had no problem getting "in".
The guys from dubby's ill conceived wars are in for more worlds of hurt than they have already been through.
:dem:

[katinmn]

17. dupe