McNerney on VA nursing home: "We should be expanding, not cutting, veterans' services"

It's one of the most difficult issues facing veterans and their families in the 11th Congressional District -- what will happen to the Veterans Affairs nursing home in Livermore? 

A couple hundred veterans and other supporters attended Friday's final public hearing on the issue and heard Congressman Jerry McNerney tell the advisory panel that closing the Livermore facility was not the answer. Instead, as the Contra Costa Times reported, McNerney pushed for expanding services for veterans into San Joaquin County as well as preserving Livermore's unique facility:

However, the idea of abandoning the Livermore site does not make sense to everyone. Rep Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, said at Friday's meeting that he hopes there is enough room in the Department of Veterans Affairs' budget for nursing homes in both places. He said the Livermore area's large population of veterans warrants consideration of a facility there.

"We should be expanding, not cutting, veterans' services, and I'm hopeful that the panel will ultimately agree with me," McNerney told the panel. "As we look at future options for the use of Livermore, we must keep in mind that increasing numbers of veterans will be looking to the VA for care as overseas conflicts continue.

"Livermore is in an ideal location to support soldiers returning to life at home," McNerney continued. "This facility has stood the test of time and offers a welcome respite for men and women from the Tri-Valley area. I strongly urge this panel to preserve the Livermore VA, and expand health care options for veterans in the region."

Willie Monroe, from KGO-ABC7, was there as well and filed this report, including this brief televised interview with the Congressman:

Rep. Jerry McNerney, (D) Pleasanton: "You know, in the past several years, the relative money for veterans has gone down compared to the need, so they had to start making tough decisions, but I think with the new Congress, our determination is to meet the needs rather than to worry about cutting back."

To see aerial photos of the Livermore facility, check out eLivermore.com's Livermore History page.

If you care about this important issue, there's still time to register your comments with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Written comments can be submitted through Feb. 23 at www.va.gov/cares or to Livermore Site Study, VA CARES Studies, P.O. Box 1427, Washington Grove, MD 20880-1427.

Comments

[Peggy Deras]

I worked and donated to this guy for years to get him elected.
How does he thank me?
By doing great work!
Yeay!

[Joy Montgomery]

Thanks, Jerry! Keep up the good works.

[Andrea Bonnett]

You are absolutely right when you say we should be expanding veterans' services. In fact for every dollar spent on this war these lunatics in the Whitehouse took us into, a matching dollar should be set aside for veteran's benefits.

[Charles Glenn]

No Child Left Behind is a disaster and should be disposed of or ratically altered. It is an example of an underfunded federal blame game that makes teaching a highly regulated process that is miserable for teachers and students alike. No other business would tolerate this level of federal intervention.

[Judith Papas]

This administration can send our troops into battle to be killed, and at the same time close our VA hospitals. How is that supporting our troops? Everything possible should be done for our veterans, they earned it!!!
Good job! I supported you from Mendocino County and used to live in Contra County, and was in George Miller's district. I was going to move back to the area, so I could vote for you, but you did it!!

[Judith Papas]

You are doing a great job!!! I contributed to your campaign, and I'm proud that I did. Veteran's benefits should be increased, not decreased!!It's disgrace that our troops have such poor benefits.

[William Evans]

Congressman McNerney is right. We need nursing facilities in both Livermore and San Joaquin. He also stated the desperate need to provide PTSD medical care in Livermore. When the 2003 "Mission Accomplished" statements were made we did not have 400.000 Vets disabled in Iraq and Afghanistan. Already over 176,000 Vets have applied to the VA. (VFW Magazine, Page 12, January 2007).

Today the VA is already ill equipped to handle the present
workload.(see C. Adams McClatchy Papers 2/11/07). The CARES plan is based on old and obsolete information. It makes no sense to reduce Livermore to a stand-alone nursing home with the high numbers of Vets coming home with PTSD!

William Evans, VFW Life Member

[Eric Rader]

Over the next few decades, the nation’s fiscal outlook will be shaped largely by demographics and health care costs. As the baby boom generation retires, federal spending on retirement and health programs—Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—will grow dramatically. A range of other federal fiscal commitments, some explicit and some representing implicit public expectations, also bind the nation’s fiscal future. Absent policy change, a growing imbalance between expected federal spending and tax revenues will mean escalating and ultimately unsustainable federal deficits and debt.

This problem is outlined by the Government Accounting Office.
http://www.gao.gov/special.pubs/longterm/

Most recently on the TV show "60 Minutes"

"I would argue that the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan but our own fiscal irresponsibility," Walker tells Kroft.

What are you doing to solve this problem?

[Joy Montgomery]

I attended a meeting at the VA in Livermore a while ago. The VA spokesperson summarized the probable fate of the hospital and grounds. Apparently, the plan has to be for Veterans but will be bypassed by making the land available to private entities who will profit from providing housing for Veterans in a fairly remote location with a less than easy road separating the Veterans and their aging spouses from any services in town and no full service hospital nearby. It seems as if the VA has found a way to obey the letter of the law while completely violating the spirit of the law and failing to represent the needs of disabled and aging Veterans where this piece of property is concerned.