Mission Un-Accomplished: Even Elizabeth Warren and Ted Cruz Agree We Must Fix the VA

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of Mission Accomplished, Rachel Maddow highlighted the continuing problem of delayed benefits from the Veterans Administration, pointing out that things are so bad that Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) signed on to the same letter, agreeing that we must fix the VA.

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Transcript from The Rachel Maddow Show:

Maddow: Ten years ago tomorrow, President George W. Bush pretended to land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier. He was wearing a flight suit. He went inside and changed into a suit so he could stand behind this podium and declare the month-old war in iraq essentially over. We have prevailed. It says so on the banner. The same day he was declaring victory in Iraq saying major combat operations were over, that same day, First Lt. Paul Rieckhoff’s platoon received their order to ship out to Baghdad. That was 10 years ago tomorrow, Paul served his tour in Baghdad and and served as house-to-house platoon leader. That’s what he was working on then. Here’s what he’s working on now. This is the average amount of time veterans have to wait for their benefits claim, their disability benefits claims to be processed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The problem is particularly acute for the veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The VA has been assuring everyone for years they’re working on it but the problem also a gotten worse the problem has continued to get worse not better year after year.

Well, this week 67 senators from both parties signed a letter to the president calling on him to personally get involved in fixing this problem. IAVA submitted tens of thousands of signatures a couple of weeks ago demanding the same thing. As we talked about on the show last night, there’s been a rash of top- level staff departing from the VA recently. The chief of staff and chief technology officer left in March, chief information officer left a few weeks later, the man in charge of day-to-day operations at the VA, they’re all gone within weeks. IAVA has been really good at putting the pressure on this problem, they have publicized the issue, put vets out there to tell their personal story…They got freaking Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell to sign on to a letter asking for the same thing. Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren signed on to the same letter. This is a lot of pressure being brought to bear, and seeing these high-level departures all at once, it like seeing a building with the bricking starting to pop off the facade. Look out below. Joining me now is Paul Rieckhoff. You no longer have hair. Do you think this will fix the problem?

Rieckhoff: We hope so. It’s a team game. It’s got to be a team game in Washington to move this ball forward. Our goal is simple, get the backlog to zero. If it takes two years, we’re not going to stop until we get there. In boston if you file a disability claim for benefits, you’re going to wait on average 517 days.

Maddow: To hear. not to get benefits but to hear whether or not you are going to get them.

Rieckhoff: And in New York and Reno, and LA, you’re looking at around 600 days if you file an appeal, it’s about two years. 67 senators don’t agree on anything ,but they do agree the president has to step in and fix this. The Department of Defense and the rest of the government agencies have to work together to fix this problem.

On March 29, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) lead a bipartisan charge to encourage the Department of Defense to work with the Veterans Administration to address the unconscionable delay in benefits for our veterans. According to testimony given on March 13, 2013 before the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in the Senate, the average wait time for a claim to be processed was 260 days in fiscal year 2012, with waits up to 506 days.

The Government Accountability Office did a 2012 study into the delays, and determined that part of the problem is the swelling population of new veterans. That, my friends, is a definite Mission Un-Accomplished, and something to think about as Republicans demand we take action in Syria before we get all of the facts.