That’s the mountain of paperwork at the Winston-Salem NC VA office, the weight of all that paperwork compromised the structural integrity of the building – they were worried the floor would collapse. Filing a claim for veteran benefits can be complicated, and can require a lot of documentation. Department of Veterans Affairs employees are urged to be advocates for veterans. Yet those same workers are also required to be stewards of the taxpayer money, required to distinguish the truly needy from the less needy from the fraudulent.  Is that traumatic brain injury from high school football or a roadside bomb in Iraq? Is that back injury a 10 percent disability or 30 percent? Is that post-traumatic stress disorder real? Medical questions without simple answers must be settled by overworked bureaucrats and doctors attempting to apply black-and-white rules to very gray ailments. Their decisions mean the difference between monthly checks of a few hundred dollars versus a few thousand. When veterans are not happy with the results, as is often the case, they can appeal, or reapply, submitting new documents and diagnoses to bolster their claims — and adding years to the process. But does documentation support a claim need to be submitted on piles of paper? Of course not, this is not rocket science. Here in Arizona we have an excellent AHCCCS medicaid system, and once covered you need to need to re-qualify every six months. You need to submit proof of income (or lack of), bank statements, proof of residency in Arizona, an accounting of your living expenses and proof of that. So, do you send them a 9×12 envelop 2″ thick with documents twice a year? No, you go to  HealthEarizona.org, fill out your application/re-qualification online and upload your documentation which is attached to you application, so when the state employee reviews your application/re-qualification they have everything they need right there to make a decision in minutes.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sinseki says they have “a fix”. That fix is the department’s “transformation plan,” which calls for a new training regimen that Mr. Shinseki says will improve speed and accuracy in processing claims; creation of special teams to handle complex claims; and new digital technology that will replace the current paper-choked system. When all those pieces are in place by 2015, Mr. Shinseki says that every claim will be processed in fewer than 125 days, with almost no errors — a pledge that veterans’ advocates view skeptically. I’m skeptical as well, and even if “the fix” is successful. I think 4 months is still too long. Because this backlog has a very tragic human toll.

All gave some, and some gave all

The Center for Investigative Reporting report details the story of Lincoln Capstick, an unemployed Iraq War veteran in Indiana, where the average wait for new claims is well over one year – 612 days. Capstick said his electricity was cut off three times while he waited for the VA to grant a disability claim for traumatic brain injury, headaches and a variety of leg and knee injuries sustained when a military contractor’s SUV ran him over in the desert near the Iraq-Kuwait border. Capstick said there were periods where he thought of killing himself because he felt so hopeless.  According to the VA, 22 veterans commit suicide every day.

Credit: IAVA.org

A group of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans met with senior White House officials yesterday to express the urgent need for the Obama Administration to fix the current backlog in Veterans Affairs disability benefits claims. Members of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) presented a petition to White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, calling for President Obama to “keep the promise we made to the millions of veterans who have served and sacrificed to defend our nation” by ending the benefit backlog. Over 36,000 American citizens have signed that petition, including 23 members of Congress, including Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, and the Republican Chairman of the House Veteran Affairs Committee and the ranking Democrat member of the house committee.  But NOT a single Congressman or Senator from Arizona. I urge every single member of Congress from Arizona to sign this petition and support the IAVA’s call for action. But I especially urge our two Congressmen from southern Arizona to do so, Congressmen Ron Barber and  Raul Grijalva.

My esteemed TucsonCitizen blogging colleague, Fort Buckley, is touting former Congressman Jim Kolbe’s advice on the Value of Voting GOP for Congress this Year.

Well, here’s the former Congressman just four years ago cheering Sen. McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as Vice President nominee as a “great selection”:

Question: What do you think about the selection of Sarah Palin?

Kolbe: I think it’s a great selection. It’s a changer, shakes things up in the right direction. I think it’s a great move by Senator McCain, shows he’s thinking outside the box.

Question: What do you have to say about her traditional conservative values?
Kolbe: Well, uh, you know, she hasn’t taken a position on any federal issues . . .

I stopped caring about what Jim Kolbe thinks about anything after he gave that brain dead partisan hack response.

Elect Richard Carmona to the U.S. Senate

Elect Ann Kirkpatrick to Congressional District 1

Reelect Ron Barber to Congressional District 2

Reelect Raul Grijalva to Congressional District 3

Elect Kyrsten Sinema to Congressional District 9

The right team for Arizona in Congress

A new poll conducted by Latino Decisions and America’s Voice released today reveals that 80% of Arizona Latinos plan to vote for President Obama, with just 14% saying they plan to vote for Mitt Romney; 6% are undecided. U.S. Senate Candidate Richard Carmona has nearly the same commanding lead, with 75% saying the will vote for him, with only 14% planing to vote for Jeff Flake; 13% are undecided. Especially interesting is that 69% said the were “very enthusiastic” about voting this year, and 60% said they were more enthusiastic about voting this year than they were in 2008. Why the surge in enthusiasm in Latino voter interest this year? Immigration reform and the DREAM Act were selected at the most important issue to facing Hispanic/Latino community by 55% of respondents, followed by the economy/jobs with 44% . Respondents could select up to two issues,  education/school reform (15%) and health care (10%) were the only other issues with double digit results. And it’s personal: 66% of Arizona Latinos know someone who is undocumented, and 55% know someone who may be eligible for the DREAM Act.

Can Arizona be the Nevada of 2012?

What’s especially interesting is that Latino Decisions asks the question: “Why Arizona may be the surprise of 2012 – the big Latino vote that you didn’t see coming”

In 2010, the average of 16 polls of likely voters in Nevada suggested Sharon Angle had a firm 3 point lead, and 538′s Nate Silver gave her an 83.4% chance of winning.  On election night, the results showed Harry Reid with a 5 point win — an 8 point difference from the poll averages.  Why the error? Almost every statewide poll in Nevada badly missed the Latino vote.  In the final analysis, Reid won close to 90% of the Latino vote, and Latino turnout was much higher than anticipated.

Matt Barreto of Latino Decisions suggested to Nate Silver of the FiveThirtyEight blog at the NY Times how the polls all missed the impact of the Latino vote in Nevada in 2010: All the major polling firms conduct their polls in English only, while Latino Decisions conducts their polls in both English and Spanish, with the respondent selecting the language in which they prefer the poll to be conducted. The major polling firms missed the Latino voters who prefer to speak Spanish. About 40 percent of Latino voters in California meet this description, with likely similar numbers in Nevada and Arizona. Mr. Silver compiled results from the eight states with the largest share of Latinos in their population: these are Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Texas. He found that in 10 of the 15 races, the polling average underestimated the Democrat’s margin by at least 2.5 points. He concluded that there was the beginnings of a pattern — and considering how rapidly the Latino population is growing, it’s one that pollsters are going to need to address. That was right after the November 2010 election. And less than a month away from the 2012 election, the major polling firms still haven’t addressed that, still conduct their polls in English only, and are likely under representing Latino voters in places like Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and elsewhere.

Do I think President Obama can carry Arizona in this election? Frankly, no – while I do believe the Latino vote is significantly under represented in polls, it’s still too steep a hill to climb for this year. Do I care? Frankly, no – this Presidential election will likely be all over before our votes are starting to be tallied, decided in places like Ohio, Florida, Virginia, New Hampshire and Iowa. But after a combined 32 years of Arizona being represented in the U.S. Senate by the likes of John McCain and Jon Kyle, I care very much about Arizona finally electing a Senator who will strengthen and protect our middle class, care about the disadvantaged, and represent all Arizonans, instead of electing yet another career politician deep into the pockets of corporations and billionaires. I care very much about Arizona electing Richard Carmona our next U.S. Senator.

I also care very much about, and am confident that after this election we will have two new Congresswomen, Ann Kirkpatrick (CD1) and Kyrsten Sinema (CD9), joining Ron Barber, Raul Grijalva and Ed Pastor for a 5/4 Democratic majority in Arizona’s Congressional delegation.