RONNY L. JACKSON IS NOT READY TO RUN THE VETERAN’S ADMINISTRATION

…The one-star Admiral & Doctor, Ronny L. Jackson

The dismissed head of the VA was extremely qualified to run the VA.

I’ll just say it up front.  The president’s personal doctor, the White House physician, is not an acceptable candidate to run the US government’s 2^nd largest agency that has 360,000 employees and an annual budget of $186 billion.  The doctor’s only experience has been as a single-star Navy admiral, and a combat doctor that has served three administrations as the White House physician.

How that makes him qualified to run the VA is beyond me.

The US Veteran’s Administration (VA) is a giant, sprawling health, benefits and cemetery system, and Ronny L. Jackson, is a former combat surgeon doctor whose résumé shows very little management experience.  For a behemoth operation such as the VA, not having any experience in managing a large organization is not something that I would want for taking such a large risk.

Unfortunately, the man that was fired from the VA job by the president, Darin Selnick, he was the White House’s most seasoned expert on veterans’ issues.  And President Trump has few aides with Selnick’s deep knowledge of how the agency works.  Selnick’s support from the White House started downhill after, as other Trump cabinet personnel have been guilty of, the questionable results of an internal investigation into his business travel expenses.  However, some have said, that the real issue of his dismissal from the VA was over his lack of commitment to outsourcing veterans’ health care.  This is a major goal of the Trump administration’s priorities.  Selnick is very aware that outsourcing US Vet’s healthcare to inexperienced, non-combat medical personnel outside the VA would be detrimental to the veterans.

But many of those on The Hill, both Democrat and Republican, are making it clear that Dr. Jackson is not prepared to take on the VA’s issues.

In recent weeks, the White House has sent senior career and political officials from different VA offices to brief Jackson on the key issues confronting the agency. But as usual with the Trump White House, the process was poorly coordinated.  This is according to current and former administration officials

“I can tell you we’re vetting out Jackson,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), the VA committee’s ranking Democrat. “I can’t get into specifics, but we’re doing our job [in trying] to make sure he’s fit for the job.”

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KA), another committee member, said he had raised concerns about Jackson’s lack of management background to the White House and he requested to speak with Chief of Staff, John F. Kelly on the matter.  “This job is so difficult,” Moran said Monday. “Nothing about this is easy, and it takes a very unique person to be able to lead an organization that is so difficult to lead, and I need to be convinced that’s the case regardless of the sense of his experience.”

“The White House is assessing whether questions that have been raised about Jackson have validity,”  a White House official said.

Committee Democrats gathered recently to discuss the issues surrounding Jackson’s nomination. Following the meeting, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CON) said in a brief interview that “there is a need for a very serious and exacting scrutiny, as with any presidential nominee.”

The concern has become so acute that Senate lawmakers have postponed the confirmation hearing for Dr. Jackson, for confirming him to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs.  All this occurred because top Republicans and Democrats have raised these concerns about his qualifications.

In recent days, the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman, Johnny Isakson (R-GA) called the White House to express his concern that Jackson was unqualified, this was according to  White House officials.  Isakson vouched instead for his ally and former top aide Thomas Bowman, the VA’s current deputy secretary.

“He [Jackson] is walking into an ambush,” a veterans advocate close to the White House said of the Senate hearing. “He is just not ready.”

Based on my limited knowledge of the situation, I agree with the veteran’s advocate.

Copyright G.Ater  2018