VA Programs - General Shinseki resigns, replaced by banker

For the past month, CNN and other news outlets have been preoccupied with attacks on General Shinseki.

Over the past week, this became backed by politicians in Congress who cave to political hypocrisy and to grandstanding just a few days before the June 2014 mid-term election.

As the decorated General resigned, the White House and Congressional offices supported the naming of a new temporary deputy.

see: https://news.msn.com/us/career-banker-to-take-over-veterans-department

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE of Associated Press (dateline May 30)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After less than four months at the Veterans Affairs Department, Sloan D. Gibson suddenly finds himself in charge of fixing the problems that led to the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki.

"Sloan, I think, would be the first to acknowledge that he's going to have a learning curve that he's got to deal with," President Barack Obama told reporters after announcing Friday that Gibson would replace Shinseki temporarily.

A career banker, Gibson was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 11 as deputy VA secretary, just weeks before allegations of long waits for care and doctor's appointments at VA hospitals across the country led to mounting bipartisan calls by lawmakers and others for Shinseki to resign.

VA home loans are a major source of money for big banks in the US. The US government basically backs the banking risk with the "credit" of the US government. These home loans are a major way that the residential mortgage crisis was handled over the past five years.

It occurs to me that an untold and unreported story might exist here. In doing searches for current data on home loan origination through the VA, it may be instructive if the VA home loan funding program had a significant decrease in applications, loan origination, and/or bonding over the past year.

The issue is that a new VA secretary might have been needed in order to fully participate in a bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This author now wonders if the General did not view banking as a legitimate raison d'etre for the VA. If the General was focused on the healthcare delivery, then the VA would have to redirect money from the hospitals to the bankers.

VA increased (according to Fox News Sunday today) physician supply by 9% and appointments by 50%.

Did the VA Secretary change from a general to a banker in order to move money on a massive scale?