Shinseki takes the fall for the president

I'll only defend the president to this point. The VA has systemic problems that existed before January 2009. We know this because he claimed it so during his first campaign, and we know how he can be trusted on campaign promises to clean up problems with complete transparency.  However, the VA medical system is our completely socialized medical component of government health care (we have four—Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP are private/public partnerships with government being heavy handed), and the failures are consistent with the philosophy of having the government own and run health care.

"Eric K. Shinseki resigned Friday as secretary of veterans affairs, taking responsibility for a scandal in the VA health-care system over excessive waiting times and cover ups of what he called “systemic” problems."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/shinseki-apologizes-for-va-health-care-scandal/2014/05/30/e605885a-e7f0-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-obamas-remarks-on-resignation-of-va-secretary-eric-shinseki/2014/05/30/92cd831a-e80c-11e3-afc6-a1dd9407abcf_story.html