And I am not exaggerating this either. When you read CQ’s latest article on the Walter Reed situation, you will also realize the same thing (if you haven’t already):

Senior Republicans who knew about problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center while their party controlled Congress insist they did all they could to prod the Pentagon to fix them.

But C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., former chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said he stopped short of going public with the hospital’s problems to avoid embarrassing the Army while it was fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Young and Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., the former chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, both acknowledged in interviews that they were aware of patient care problems at Walter Reed long before The Washington Post exposed them two weeks ago.

I blogged about Bill Young’s blatant dereliction of duty, not just as a member of Congress, but also as a human being. Young was one of the key republicans in a position to do something and he ignored it. Why wouldn’t he push the issue? The article gives us some details into that:

Young said he “separates my life as a member of Congress and the work I do on a volunteer basis,” visiting military hospitals with his wife almost every week.

Translation – I am on vacation so I can’t be bothered with it. This is a sad day for our nation, knowing that a member of Congress flat out refused to use his constitutional authority to try and correct this disastrous situation. Young needs to be replaced next year. Him and his wife need high public exposure for their sorry excuse of inaction.

The article does go on to say that the Democrats also knew of the problems, but did all they could as the minority party. I witnessed Democrats working to get the message out. Last summer, Debbie Wasserman Schwartz, also from Florida, was on the House floor after midnight yelling about what was going on. Of course the Republicans quickly dismissed the complaints. Why? Read the headline of this post again to figure that out.

The headline is best summed up by one paragraph in this article:

Davis, the former chairman of the committee with responsibility for oversight of government programs, said his options also were limited. He said his committee staff first learned in 2004 about problems with wounded soldiers’ health care while investigating their pay problems.

Only two possible answers to this piss-poor excuse; either my headline is 100% correct or the Democrats are just a lot smarter at handling problems than the Republicans. OK – there is a third answer; all the above.

The Democrats are now holding hearings and everyday more bombshells come out about this story. Every Republican in our federally elected offices need to take stock. They allowed this situation to not only come into being, but also continue for 4 years. They proved, without a shadow of doubt, that they do not care about the brave men and women in the United States military.