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| Obama under bipartisan pressure to oust Shinseki on heels of IG report - Fox News Posted: 29 May 2014 10:19 AM PDT President Obama is coming under heavy pressure from both sides of the aisle following a scathing inspector general report to tackle the problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs head-on -- first, by relieving VA Secretary Eric Shinseki of his command. More than a half-dozen Democratic senators are now calling for Shinseki's resignation, since the Office of Inspector General released an interim report on Wednesday finding "systemic" problems with clinics lying about patient wait times. Other influential Republican lawmakers, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also pressed Obama to clean house in the wake of that report. A senior White House official told Fox News on Thursday that there is currently "no change" in the president's prior position that he has confidence in Shinseki. But the chorus of lawmakers, and powerful organizations, calling for Shinseki's ouster is growing by the day, raising questions about how long the president can keep his current leadership team in place. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., among the latest Democrats to break ranks with the administration, said the controversy over the secretary has drawn attention away from the "real issue" of the need to reform the VA. "Gen. Shinseki has served our country with distinction," Warner said in a statement. "I now believe he should step aside in order to allow our focus and our efforts to be on making the critically needed changes to fix the VA." Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., on Thursday also called on Obama to appoint a new secretary, saying veterans "deserve nothing less than the very best service our nation has to offer." More broadly, lawmakers want the president to get more deeply engaged in cleaning up the VA. The administration is still awaiting a final IG report as well as the results of a separate internal review. Shinseki released a statement on Wednesday calling the latest findings "reprehensible," but did not offer his resignation. The interim report released Wednesday, though, was enough to trigger a new round of calls for Shinseki to leave. It disclosed troubling statistics suggesting workers under-stated wait-times in order to make their internal figures look good. The office, in its preliminary findings, determined that veterans at the troubled Phoenix office waited an average of 115 days for a primary care appointment -- far longer than the VA's official statistics showed. Such inappropriate scheduling tactics, according to the report, may be the basis for claims of "secret" waiting lists. McCain, who until now had held off on urging Shinseki to resign, said during a press conference at his Phoenix office Wednesday afternoon that "it's time for Secretary Shinseki to step down" -- and that if he won't, "then I call on the president of the United States to relieve him of his duties, fire him." The longtime senator and Vietnam veteran also called on the Justice Department to get involved, saying the allegations detail not just administrative issues, but "criminal problems." In the wake of the report's release, several Senate Democrats -- including Colorado's Mark Udall, Montana's John Walsh, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Al Franken of Minnesota and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire -- called for Shinseki to leave. House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., also called for Shinseki to "resign immediately." The report released Wednesday focused on the Phoenix VA facility, while noting that reviews at a "growing number" of facilities have exposed inappropriate scheduling practices throughout the VA system. According to the office, the investigation has now expanded to 42 VA medical facilities nationwide. The IG's office released figures showing the Phoenix office "significantly understated" the amount of time patients waited for appointments. "To date, our work has substantiated serious conditions at the Phoenix" center, the report said, claiming the delays have "negatively impacted the quality of care." According to the IG's office, about 1,400 veterans awaiting a primary care appointment were appropriately included on the electronic wait-list -- but an additional 1,700 veterans waiting for an appointment were left off that list. The omission, the report warned, raises the risk that these veterans will be "forgotten or lost" in the "convoluted" Phoenix system. Shinseki, in his statement, said he's ordered the Phoenix system to "immediately triage" each of the 1,700 veterans in order to "bring them timely care." The IG's office also said VA national data had claimed patient wait times among a sample of Phoenix veterans typically was about 24 days. But the IG's own review found the average wait was actually 115 days. The report would appear to substantiate allegations that clinics played around with the schedules to make it seem like patients were being seen sooner. The VA offices at Phoenix and several other locations have been accused of covering up the long waits by using improper scheduling tactics. About 40 veterans are said to have died while awaiting care in Phoenix. |
| Why the GDP Drop Is Good for the US Economic Outlook - Businessweek Posted: 29 May 2014 09:42 AM PDT The U.S. economy shrank at a 1 percent annual rate in the first quarter, but the red ink isn't nearly as scary as it looks. In fact, the downward blip sets the U.S. up for strong growth in the current quarter covering April to June. "As far as terrible reports go, GDP wasn't too bad," reads the headline on the report today by Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist of JPMorgan Chase (JPM). Most of the decline in gross domestic product occurred because companies slowed the pace of inventory accumulation, according to data released on Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In other words, output slowed because they weren't producing as much stuff to go on shelves. Now companies have an incentive to speed up production to rebuild those inventories. "The economy is in the process of reaccelerating," David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates (GS:CN), wrote to clients. He said his firm's model of the economy "suggests near-0% odds of recession for the coming year." Another not-to-be-repeated drag on the economy in the first quarter was poor weather. Investment in structures fell at a 7.5 percent rate, partly because construction workers couldn't work effectively in the unusually excessive cold and snow. Adding to growth was health-care spending, which, boosted by the Affordable Care Act, grew at a 9.1 percent pace. There were some not-so-good figures in the report. Corporate profits fell at a 9.8 percent annual rate, the biggest decline since the 2007-09 recession. "Our guess is profits rebound in Q2," Steve Blitz of ITG Investment Research (ITG) wrote to clients. IHS Global Insight (IHS) forecast that GDP would grow about 3.5 percent this quarter, while Blitz predicted "3%+." JPMorgan Chase kept its second-quarter estimate at 3 percent. Lindsey Piezga, chief economist at Sterne Agee, drew more pessimistic conclusions for the report. She wrote that unless business spending picks up, "the economy is going to not only fall well short of some of the more optimistic expectations for 3-4% GDP, but struggle to return to the average 1.5-2% pace of the past few years." |
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