VA & Federal Reserve Hated Even More Than IRS

Americans Rate Two Agencies Worse Than The IRS

 

 

 

 

” What’s America’s favorite federal agency? Apparently it’s the U.S. Postal Service. Beyond the rate hikes, job cuts, hemorrhaging finances, processing center closures, union tensions and persistent calls for reform, a large majority of people—72 percent—think USPS does an “excellent” or “good” job. That’s a significantly higher rating than the next highest runner up, the FBI, at 58 percent, according to a new Gallup poll assessing American’s perceptions of 13 agencies.

  Four of the 13 agencies included in the poll—Postal Service, the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Veterans’ Affairs Department—were rated for the first time.

  Perhaps most striking was the fact that two agencies rated lower in Americans’ esteem than the scandal-plagued Internal Revenue Service, which may have the most onerous mission among federal agencies—parting people from their money. While only 41 percent of respondents thought IRS was doing a good to excellent job, fewer thought the Federal Reserve Board or Veterans Administration were doing excellent to good work, 38 percent and 29 percent, respectively. “

 

Story continues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Confidence In Statism Is Plummeting Thanks To The Greatest American Statist

Doubts Chip Away At Nation’s Most Trusted Agencies

 

 

 

 

 

” Even as Americans’ trust in government eroded in recent years, people kept faith in a handful of agencies and institutions admired for their steadiness in ensuring the country’s protection.

  To safeguard the president, there was the solidity of the Secret Service. To stand vigil against distant enemies, the U.S. nuclear missile corps was assumed to be on the job. And to ward off threats to public health, the nation counted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  Now, in the space of just a few months, the reputations of all those agencies – as well as the Veterans Administration – have been tarred by scandal or tarnished by doubt. Maybe a public buffeted by partisan rhetoric and nonstop news should be used to this by now. But, with the CDC facing tough questions about its response to the Ebola outbreak, something feels different. Government is about doing collectively what citizens can’t do alone, but its effectiveness is premised on trust.

  A year ago, with Washington shut down and trust in government near records lows, the CDC still won a 75 percent approval rating, the highest of any federal agency, a poll by the Pew Research Center found. But when CBS News surveyed Americans in mid-October, just 37 percent said the agency was doing a good or excellent job.”

   There is no mystery to this lack of confidence in the State , When you politicize government agencies you immediately gain a near fifty percent disapproval right at the start . There is nowhere to go but down . 

” The Homeland Security Department won a 66 percent approval rating a year ago. But that was before the Secret Service, which is a part of the agency, was caught in a number of lapses: among them, the agency’s failure to stop a man armed with a knife from scaling the fence and running into White House and the unchecked entry of an armed contractor onto an elevator with the president. In the new CBS news poll, just 38 percent of those questioned rated the Secret Service’s performance as good or excellent and 43 percent did so for its parent department.

  The Veterans Administration was viewed favorably by 68 percent of those polled last year. But it too has since been swept up in a scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking care and records that were falsified to camouflage the problems. In the CBS poll, just 30 percent rated the VA as doing a good job.”

    While the trend is not exactly a new thing there can be no doubt that it has been greatly accelerated over the past six years by the King of Politicization himself .

   The trend away from big government and the subsequent move back towards local government control and  accountability , while certainly unintentional on Obama’s part , will turn out to be his greatest accomplishment .

    It takes a Statist to make people abhor the State .

    The magnitude of the shift is even more impressive when one takes into account the massive effort exerted by the MSM these past six years in carrying “Dear Leader’s” water . Imagine where public sympathies would be if they weren’t bombarded on a daily basis with Statist propaganda and instead were offered the truth .

AP News

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PTSD Suffering Vet Killed By SWAT Team After VA Tells Him To Wait 30 Days For Treatment

Soldier With PTSD Killed In SWAT Team Standoff Told To Wait 30 days For Veterans Affairs Care

 

 

 

 

 

” Iraq War veteran Isaac Sims was killed Sunday by Kansas City, Mo., police after a standoff at his family home. Sims suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and been told he could not get care from the local Veterans Administration center for another 30 days.

  Sims, 26, had gotten into an argument with his father Sunday and reportedly fired off a gun multiple times inside and outside the home. Police responded to reports of the shooting and subsequently called in the SWAT team. When Sims emerged from the house 5 hours later with a rifle, he was shot dead. Officers stated he pointed the gun at them.

  The soldier, who served tours in Iraq during from 2008 through 2010, had sought care at the Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center for his PTSD. Parents Adrian and Patricia Sims had been told by the center that Sims would have to wait 30 days for bed space, according to the Kansas City Star.”

 

Washington Examiner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Montel Williams: War On Veterans

 

 

 

 

 

Published on May 23, 2014

” Montel Williams gave a passionate, emotional speech about the need for congress and the administration to stop dragging their feet and being political with veterans problems and get them corrected. He was attending a veterans picnic in Myrtle Beach for Memorial Day.”

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VA Bills Double-Amputee 4 Grand After He Ragged On Obama

VA Sends $4,000 Bill To Double-Amputee Purple Heart Recipient After He Spoke Out Against Obama

 

 

” If you want to see where government-run healthcare gets you, look no further than what the VA is doing to Airman Brian Kolfage after he spoke out against Obama.  Our veterans who sustained injuries in combat deserve the best treatment we can give them, but the VA just sent Purple Heart recipient Brian Kolfage a bill for $4,000.

Here’s the letter he just received from the VA:”  More Here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Veteran’s Admin Blows $500k On Art In Midst Of Shutdown

VA Asked to Explain Blowing Half a Million Bucks on Art

 

 

 

” Some lawmakers are outraged that as part of federal departments’ use-it-or-lose-it spending sprees before the end of the fiscal year on Oct. 1 the Department of Veterans Affairs blew more than half a million dollars on artwork.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, today called on VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to justify the purchase that carried a $562,000 price tag.

“At a time when the nation’s crushing debt threatens the well-being of our veterans and all Americans, and when spending across the government is being reduced, I fail to comprehend the reason why this purchase was authorized,” Moran wrote.

“If the overall fiscal stability of our country is not of sufficient concern, then the VA should have at least prioritized service to veterans who continue to wait inordinate lengths of time to receive decisions on benefit claims,” the letter continued.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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No Money For Carriers , No Money For Fighters … No Money For Tours … Party/Vacation On

Reduced Flying Hours Forces Grounding Of 17 USAF Combat Air Squadrons

 

 

 

 

” REDUCED FLYING HOURS FORCES GROUNDING OF 17 U.S. AIR FORCE SQUADRONS BEING GROUNDED DUE TO REDUCED FLYING HOURS. See complete list below.

““Historically, the Air Force has not operated under a tiered readiness construct because of the need to respond to any crisis within a matter of hours or days,” Hostage said in the statement. “The current situation means we’re accepting the risk that combat airpower may not be ready to respond immediately to new contingencies as they occur.” — ACC Commander Gen. Mike Hostage”

From the AIR FORCE TIMES, link is below:
” WASHINGTON — The Air Force will begin grounding combat air squadrons Tuesday in response to forced spending cuts that have eliminated more than 44,000 flying hours through September, according to internal documents obtained by Air Force Times.

The Air Force’s budget for flying hours was reduced by $591 million for the remainder of fiscal 2013, making it impossible to keep all squadrons ready for combat, according to an April 5 memo signed by Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon, director of operations for Air Combat Command. The across-the board spending cuts, called sequestration, took effect March 1 when Congress failed to agree on a deficit-reduction plan.

Seventeen combat-coded squadrons will stand down effective Tuesday or upon their return from deployments, according to the documents. The Air Force will distribute 241,496 flying hours that are funded to squadrons that will be kept combat ready or at a reduced readiness level called “basic mission capable” for part or all of the remaining months in fiscal 2013, the documents said.

“Units will stand down on a rotating basis so our limited resources can be focused on fulfilling critical missions,” ACC Commander Gen. Mike Hostage said in a statement.

The grounding includes F-22s from the 1st Fighter Wing’s 94th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. The squadron is returning from a deployment to the Pacific where airmen participated in a high-profile exercise in South Korea.

Other squadrons to stand down when they return to the U.S. include F-16s from the 4th Fighter Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, which is returning from a deployment in the Pacific; B-1B Lancers from the 34th and 37th Bomb Squadrons at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.; and A-10s from the 354th Fighter Squadron, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

The other grounded units include B-52s from the 2nd and 5th Bomb Wings, F-15Es from the 336th, 492nd, 494th and 391s Fighter Squadrons; F-16s from the 77th Fighter Squadron, 555th Fighter Squadron, 18th Aggressor Squadron and the Thunderbirds; and A-10s from the 81st Fighter Squadron, which will close as a result of the fiscal 2013 National Defense Authorization Act.

Grounded associate units — active units sharing aircraft with Air National Guard and Reserve units — include the 158th, 169th, 187th, 442nd and 917th squadrons. Only active-duty pilots in those units are affected by the standdown.

Any flying hours not used by the grounded squadrons will be reallocated to meet Air Combat Command requirements. Additionally, all combat aircraft will stand down the last seven operation and maintenance days in September, the memo said.

“Historically, the Air Force has not operated under a tiered readiness construct because of the need to respond to any crisis within a matter of hours or days,” Hostage said in the statement. “The current situation means we’re accepting the risk that combat airpower may not be ready to respond immediately to new contingencies as they occur.”

Air Force officials had warned that mandatory budget cuts would lead to a reduction of flying hours by 18 percent, with readiness dropping to “sub-optimal levels,” according to information provided to Congress. The drop in flying hours would mean that it could take up to six months to repair the damage to readiness, the Air Force warned lawmakers in a February presentation.

Average aircrews lose currency to fly combat missions within 90 to 120 days of being grounded, and it takes from 60 to 90 days to conduct training to return aircrews o mission-ready status, according to Air Combat Command.

“We’re entering uncharted territory in terms of how we’ve had to take this year’s cuts and make adjustments to mitigate the most serious impacts,” Hostage said. “Remaining as mission-ready as possible for combatant commanders is our priority, and we’re prioritizing spending to ensure this imperative is met.”

Units and aircraft affected
Air Combat Command officials announced a stand down and reallocation of flying hours for the rest of the fiscal year due to mandatory budget cuts. The limitation of flying hours means squadrons will stand down or maintain readiness at the reduced “basic mission capable” level, while others will remain at full “combat mission ready.”

 

The affected aircraft and units, by airframe:

F-22
94th Fighter Squadron — Grounded April 9

27th Fighter Squadron — Basic mission capable through September

3rd Fighter Wing — Two squadrons combat mission ready through September

15th Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

49th Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

F-15 C/D
67th Fighter Squadron — Basic mission capable through September

44th Fighter Squadron — Basic mission capable through July, then Combat mission ready through September

48th Fighter Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

F-15E
366th Fighter Squadron — Grounded April 9

335th Fighter Squadron — Combat mission ready through September

48th Fighter Wing — Two squadrons stand down April 9

391st Fighter Squadron — Stands down April 9

F-16 C/D
8th Fighter Wing — Two squadrons combat mission ready through September

77th Fighter Squadron — Stands down April 9

55th Fighter Squadron — Combat mission ready through September

79th Fighter Squadron — Basic mission capable through July, then combat mission ready through September

555th Fighter Squadron — Stands down April 9

510th Fighter Squadron — Combat mission ready through September

13th Fighter Squadron — Combat mission ready through September

14th Fighter Squadron — Basic mission capable through September

51st Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

57th Wing — One squadron (Thunderbirds) stands down April 9

158th Fighter Wing — One squadron stands down April 9

169th Fighter Wing — One squadron stands down April 9

187th Fighter Wing — One squadron stands down April 9

354th Fighter Wing — One squadron stands down April 9

4th Fighter Squadron — Basic mission capable until redeployment

421st Fighter Squadron — Basic mission capable through September

A-10C
75th Fighter Squadron — Basic mission capable through July, then combat mission ready through September

51st Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

52nd Fighter Wing — Closing

442nd Fighter Wing — One squadron stands down April 9

917th Wing — One squadron stands down April 9

HH-60G
18th Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

48th Fighter Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

B-1B
7th Bomb Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

28th Bomb Wing — Two squadrons stand down April 9

B-2
509th Bomb Wing — Two squadrons combat mission ready through September

B-52
2nd Bomb Wing — One squadron stand down April 9

5th Bomb Wing — Two combat squadrons combat mission ready through September

E-3B/C/G
3rd Bomb Wing — Basic mission capable through September

18th Wing — One squadron basic mission capable through September

552nd Air Control Wing — One squadron basic mission capable through September

SE-4B
55th Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

EC-130H
55 Electronic Combat Group — One squadron combat mission ready through September

OC-135B
55th Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

RC-135S
55th Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

RC-135U
55th Wing — One squadron combat mission ready through September

RC-135V/W
55th Wing — One squadron basic mission capable through September

TC-135W
55th Wing (training) — One squadron basic mission capable through September

WC-135C/W
55th Wing. — One squadron combat mission ready through September”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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