The Dole-Shalala Commission, or
alternate name Wounded Warriors
Commission, is receiving a lot of
attention right now, not particularly
because they have done anything
significant in the realm of findings
and recommendations from an outside
review source against the VA, but
moreso because the Commission itself
is headed by "household name" types
who have been on TV in the past
and are immediately recognized
as government celebrities by an
unsuspecting public.

This Commission for sure, has its
good moments and its bad moments
too. I don't doubt for one minute
that they came into this reviewing
authority with any other hidden
agenda other then to provide a
swift reaction to the OUTTED crisis
at Walter Reed Army Hospital.

But then after that, they have
travelled into other jurisdictions
which may or may not be the
best solutions or to the advantage
of Veterans who are trapped in the
immediate claims crisis right now
at the VA.

First of all, Donna Shalala is NOT
a doctor, in case all of you did
not know that. Donna Shalala is the
former Secretary of Health and
Human Services under the Bill
Clinton administration, and that
administration itself was incredibly
hostile to Veterans and their issues.
They did nothing for us then, and
now they want to come back all this
time later now and be seen as
revisers and rescuers to us from
a situation which they themselves
helped to cause from neglect and
lack of action. Donna Shalala is
nothing more than a Political
Science college professor by trade.

Robert Dole is also NOT qualified
to be sitting on this Commission.
The fact that he was wounded in
action in WWII does little or nothing
to bring to the table any kind of
medical or administrative expertise
that can be used in issues of
today and the modern crisis that
Iraq and Vietnam people are faced
with.

It can be said, in fact, that Robert
Dole has been the ongoing poster boy
for going around and "endorsing" the
existing VA system which all other
reviewing entities have now determined
is corrupt, incompetent, and malpracticed.

We were suspicious right off the
bat about the Dole-Shalala Commission
because it held 2 political operatives
instead of 2 highly esteemed medical
authorities. Those suspicions do now
seem valid because Dole-Shalala is
the only Commission receiving press
and Congressional attention when
in fact, a much larger, and more
credible Commission is coming up
the backstretch right behind them.

The Dole-Shalala Commission was a
panicked, knee-jerk reaction to the
multi-series expose article in the
Washington Post on the low life
conditions for medical patients in
part of the Walter Reed Army Hospital.

But few people focus on the fact
that at the very moment in time
that the Post released that article,
the Veterans Disability Benefits
Commission had already been in session
for a year and a half, and were woefully
locked into an October 2007 release
date of their own findings on the system.

The Bill that actually created
the Dole-Shalala Commission was
a mistep and convoluted mistake
and mish-mash of sorts, not only
to take on reviewing subjects pertinent
to the Walter Reed situation, but
then to also branch out and to
look into other topics which were
already or closely connected to
those which were already in the works
by the Veterans Disability Benefits
Commission, headed by Army Special
Forces General James Terry Scott.

In fact, I had launched a temporary
Opposition to the establishment
of Dole-Shalala because it was going
to cause confusion on recommendations
that came out of the 2 destinations,
and because the 2 jurisdictions
were drawn too closely together.
We were not about to stop our advocacy
at the VDBC and then start crossing
town to start all over again at the
Dole-Shalala site.

So just as I had predicted in those
early Opposition days, we now
have a congressional gridlock on
findings and conclusions about what
to do with the broken VA system
and how to implement the national
fixes which are called for by them.
The Senate, for sure, is confused
beyond words at this point. But
it's of their own bungled doings
and this is what happens when
the government is scared and panicked
into a course of action to a headline
news report without ever giving the
possible consequences of haste
even a second thought.

Dole-Shalala has come out with a lousy
6 recommendations on the broken
VA system, while the VDBC came
out with 114 and that alone should
tell you right there that one authority
had more time and budget money to devote
to the investigation of VA system
moreso than the other.

Dole-Shalala was in session all of
4 months before it started issuing
recommendations reports. And most
crucial of all, Dole-Shalala used
current and existing statistical
information, while the VDBC went
out and developed all new information
over the 2 years they were in session.
This new information included
independent, top quality surveys
done by the Institute of Medicine
and the Center for Naval Analysis.

So just with these facts alone,
you can start to see how this is
shaping up, and why we held strong
in staying with the VDBC instead
of Dole-Shalala.

By their own admission, Dole-Shalala
largely used "story telling" by
Veterans who came in off the street,
not exactly the best way to develop
national governmental policy. They
could have set up a hotline on any
day of the week and not even used
a Commission for that purpose.

The 6 findings from Dole-Shalala
are as follows:


1. Calls upon Congress to SIMPLIFY
the VA and DOD disability system.

2. Lifetime healthcare and pharmacy
benefits under TriCare for Veterans.

3. Clarify and revise the definitions for
current VA disability payments.

4. To give both Presumptive statusing
and lifetime treatment only for
PTSD cases connected to Iraq and
Afghanistan.

5. and 6. To expand benefits to family
relatives of Veterans to include
expanding the Family and Medical
Leave Act and to give them more
TriCare program coverage.



Yes that is ALL it is, a 6-point
plan and incredibly limited in scope.

When you hear all of them tout the
Dole-Shalala Commission, particularly
when it comes from the White House,
this 6-point list is ALL they are
talking about and it is up to the
rest of you Veterans to sort out the
true meaning of what they are saying.

Perhaps the most glaring problem
and moment of confounding and confusion
sits with recommendation #4.

The VDBC and Institute of Medicine
together, is about to overhaul both
the entire PTSD system on a national
scale, including a full revision
of the diagnosing profile sitting
in the DSM-IV manual used by practitioners;
as well as the entire Presumptive
statusing system itself, largely
put into motion by my own patient
group The Fort McClellan Veterans.

So then this sets up a quagmire
in the brains of the House and Senate
about how to reconcile and/or implement
both Commission findings who are
both talking on the same subject
but one is incredibly in-depth
while the other is incredibly superficial
and in no way probing of the root
problems in both at hand. The
VDBC findings are the most expensive
but also the most sweeping and
comprehensive to the advantages
of Veterans everywhere and not
just to a small segment of our
needy population.

Make no mistake here, if Veterans
and Activists are NOT keeping their
eye on the dialogue BALL out here
across the issues of these 2 separate
Commission authorities, then the
room for trickery, deception, games,
fraud, and just plain SCREWUP's will
be very much upon us.

The White House is already touting
Dole-Shalala as if it is somehow
the panacea end to the entire VA
crisis. It isn't. So be careful what
you endorse or support or get behind
when they are waving that flag in
front of your faces. Dole-Shalala is
a cheap, fast and dirty escape for
them at best, and it's a job half
done for us. It's a trickey way
for them to say "See we fixed your
VA problem" and then walk away and
do nothing at all on the VDBC which
is the Mother Of All Fixes.

Do not allow them to trick you
with a bunch of buffoonish word
games into thinking you are backing
one Commission authority when you
are really backing the one that
doesn't help you very much.

The VDBC Commission report holds
such other extraneous goodies such
as the full end to barriers and
offsets on Concurrent Receipt; the
full end to State courts seizing
Veterans disability pay for Alimony;
and the entire replacement and
revision of the current VA Disability
Rating system which completely leaves
out modern day diagnosis and crucial
conditions of interest such as
Traumatic Brain Injury.

So I have gone through the motions
of putting this in simple terms for
all of you to come and learn from.
The wheels of treachery and deception
are already in motion on this and
it will be up to each of us to
hold onto our positions that we
do INSIST upon the full implementation
of the VDBC, and whether or not that
includes also the Dole-Shalala plan
is only secondary to our interests.

This chat Blog should help you
navigate the advocacy process
much better now regarding the
conflicts of these 2 Commission
authorities.

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