Bernie Sanders Time in Senate wasted?

[MADem]

1. No, you're not saying that. Someone else would have held that committee chair--maybe someone

who held more meetings than Sanders did, and might have caught all the fraud, waste and abuse sooner.

Sanders tenure as chair was a failure of oversight. He knows it, too. That's why he quietly apologized for the delays and screw ups--because HE had the power to investigate, and he didn't:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/04/politics/bernie-sanders-veterans-affairs-delays/

(CNN)Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders offered on Wednesday night as close to an apology as he could when pressed on why he -- as the former chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee -- waited so long to act on the burgeoning wait list scandal at the VA.

When pressed by CNN's Anderson Cooper on Sanders lack of action, the Vermont senator responded, "We should have done better."
The admission came during a CNN town hall forum in New Hampshire hosted by Cooper, who confronted Sanders with the candidate's own record.
Sanders has been criticized for his lack of action during the two years he chaired the committee, all but ignoring the government's own investigations pointing out quality of care and wait list issues at VA medical centers across the country....Veterans groups and others criticize Sanders for what they call a lack of oversight of the VA, and for at times coming to its defense in the midst of the scandal that rocked the agency in 2014.

As a retired military member who is LUCKY--and I mean LUCKY--to not have to rely on the VA for care, I wish this topic would get far more attention than it has, to date. Sanders as the Vets' Champ is a Big Honking Lie. He defended the VA when the shit was hitting the fan, putting the patients at the back of the health care bus. He only held a third of the meetings on the Senate side than the House committee did, and he ADMITS that he fell down on the job.


Many of the problems are on HIS head, because he did not do his duty.