President Barack Obama entered and departed Charlotte on Tuesday in the blink of an eye — but his 35-minute speech at the American Legion National Convention is facing scrutiny by politicians, veterans and voters alike.
Obama’s address to an audience of veterans was meant to illustrate his handling of a scandal in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which unearthed nationwide evidence of backlogged disability claims and health care delays. It has exploded into a national fire of political headaches for Obama and the Democratic Party.
In a hot-button election season, public statements made by Obama about veterans’ health care are being watched carefully by Republicans eager to wrestle control of the U.S. Senate from Democratic hands. Obama is also facing concerns from politicians within his own party, like Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., who said last week that the president hadn’t done enough to address the scandal.
Obama’s Charlotte visit was no campaign rally. There were no chants, no gospel songs, no cries of “Yes, we can!” Applause rang out among the veterans in the crowd, though the support was subdued, almost polite.
In this speech, Obama needed to ditch campaign rhetoric for specific VA solutions. For the first 15 minutes of the 35-minute speech, he didn’t mention the agency at all, other than introducing new VA Secretary Robert McDonald.
Obama languished on economy and jobs talk, touting his administration’s handling of the nation’s recovery. He also threw in education statistics — he said the U.S. has reached its highest high school graduation rate ever and added that more Americans are earning college degrees than ever before.
The specifics of Obama’s new initiatives to address veteran care were hammered out in the latter half of the speech. Obama broke down four key aspects of his plan to reform the VA: increasing VA funding in 2015, expanding suicide prevention training, attacking the claims backlog and ending veteran homelessness.
“What we’ve come to learn is that the misconduct we’ve seen at too many facilities — with long wait times, and veterans denied care, and folks cooking the books — is outrageous and inexcusable,” Obama said.
Veterans were waiting an average of 115 days to receive medical care, according to an Office of Inspector General review in May. Obama said about a quarter million veterans nationwide who were on wait lists have now been seen in VA clinics.
He added that the claims backlog has been cut by more than 50 percent. Moving the VA’s claims process from paper to an entirely electronic system will help eliminate “bureaucratic red tape” in the future. He said to the veterans, “so that you’re getting the benefits that you’ve earned a little bit faster.”
Obama also voiced a commitment to improving mental health counseling and support on military bases and in VA centers.
“They were there for America,” he said. “We now need to be there for them.”
Obama made concrete points about his overarching plan to remedy veterans health care. But it will likely take months before the success of Obama’s initiatives can be properly evaluated, and the President seemed to acknowledge the long road ahead for VA reform in his speech.
“We are very clear-eyed about the problems that are still there,” he said.
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