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Disney park lines and veterans awaiting medical care are not two common points of comparison. However, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald placed the two side-by-side, earning the ire of several Republicans, from House Speaker Paul Ryan to Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
McDonald was talking to reporters on Monday, when he was prompted to answer unpleasant questions about the lack of transparency surrounding the issue of long wait times that veterans are forced to endure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat really counts is how does the veteran feel about their encounter with the VA. When you go to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what\u2019s important? What\u2019s important is what\u2019s your satisfaction with the experience,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018When you kill your first person, everything becomes a fraud\u2019 – US army veterans on war (VIDEO)<\/a> McDonald tried to downplay the reports exposing the long waits for veterans to receive care, saying that the average wait time is just a few days.<\/p>\n “We should be measuring the veterans’ satisfaction,\u201d<\/em> he told the media at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.<\/p>\n As of May 1, patients waited<\/a>\u00a0for primary care for an average of seven days. However, in some states, such as Colorado or Georgia, that time more than doubled to around 18 and 19 days respectively.<\/p>\n The VA secretary\u2019s comment immediately invited a wave of criticism. House Speaker Paul Ryan\u2019s office scolded McDonald in a spree of tweets.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not #Disneyland\u2014it\u2019s the #VA. This is about taking care of our #veterans,\u201d<\/em> one of them read.<\/p>\n Donald Trump, the GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee, also used the opportunity to poke fun at the Obama administration and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, to try to score even more support from voters.<\/p>\n \u201cObama\u2019s VA Secretary just said we shouldn’t measure wait times. Hillary says VA problems are not \u2018widespread.\u2019 I will take care of our vets!\u201d<\/em> he tweeted Monday.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s VA Secretary just said we shouldn’t measure \u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/div>\n Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus responded to McDonald with a statement<\/a>, calling his comparison \u201castonishing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cUp to 307,000 veterans have reportedly died waiting for care due to corruption and mismanagement at the VA, so it is astonishing that VA Secretary Robert McDonald would suggest wait times don\u2019t need to be measured,\u201d<\/em> said Priebus. \u201cDrawing comparisons to lines at Disneyland is ludicrous and shows the leadership crisis at the VA is far from being solved.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has referred to McDonald as \u201ca really smart businessman\u201d<\/em> who \u201ctotally lost touch with core reality.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis system is so corrupt now \u2013 corrupt, not in the sense of bribery, but corrupt in the sense of being dishonest about the facts,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n People on Twitter have also lashed out at McDonald, saying that the VA secretary should resign.\u00a0<\/p>\n The VA serves 7.8 million veterans a year. Disneyland, not the whole of Disney, sees 16 million people a year. https:\/\/t.co\/mWBvBuQeiR<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 23, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/div>\n UN F-ING BELIEVABLE. Comparing LINES AT DISNEY WORLD with lines at the damn VA killing vets??? WTF 😡😡😡😡😡 https:\/\/t.co\/xebkVWOQpj<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Montel Williams (@Montel_Williams) May 23, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/center><\/div>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Disney park lines and veterans awaiting medical care are not two common points of comparison. However, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald placed the two side-by-side, earning the ire of several Republicans, from House Speaker Paul Ryan to Donald Trump. McDonald was talking to reporters on Monday, when he was prompted to answer unpleasant questions about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":245554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-245553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire","8":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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wait times. Hillary says VA problems are not \u2018widespread.\u2019 I will take care of
our vets!<\/p>\n\n
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