Over 11,000 veterans who received routine colonoscopies at three VA health centers are being warned to get blood tests for HIV, hepatitis, and other malignant viral infections in the wake of revelations that government-employed clinic staffers frequently neglected to sterilize the equipment between procedures.

Patients at the Veterans Affairs health centers in question — 3,260 in Miami (FL), 1,800 in Augusta (GA), and 6,400 in Murfreesboro (TN) — may have been exposed to “potentially infectious fluids,” according to the VA.

The fact that this is due to negligence on the part of the government-employed hospital staff is bad enough on its own, of course — but it gets worse, as some of those may have been infected with HIV or hepatitis as many as six years ago, and are just now being alerted about their possible infection and encouraged to get tested. (Thankfully for these folks, some Members of Congress who were concerned about their electoral viability in 2010 managed to talk President Obama out of charging them for the follow-up tests and treatment made necessary by gross negligence on the part of government-employed health care workers.)

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Throughout the course of the 2008 campaign we heard a relentless woof-woof from the Obama campaign of how they were going to take care of veterans and how John McCain, an actual disabled veteran, was going to screw veterans.

When McCain proposed allowing veterans to seek treatment outside the VA medical system by using vouchers, a blessing if there ever was one, he was pilloried by the Obama camp and the sycophantic group of faux veterans organizations that seemed to spring up like mushrooms after a rainstorm to support Obama.

Back in 2005 Obama professed to be incensed over the fact that troops in hospitals were being billed for their meals (even though those charges exactly equalled the tax free basic allowance for subsistence/separate rations allowance the soldiers were drawing).

He was serious, I tell you serious, about taking care of veterans. He was appalled, just appalled, at the insensitivity of the military departments and the VA. He appointed retired general and reputedly heroic truth teller Eric Shinseki to be his secretary of veterans affairs. General Shinseki was going to make it right:

“No one will ever doubt that this former Army chief of staff has the courage to stand up for our troops and our veterans. No one will ever question whether he will fight hard enough to make sure they have the support they need,”

Now in the midst of a $1 Trillion orgy of spending the truth becomes apparent. When it comes to veterans health care this Administration may be the most hostile to veterans since the Bonus Army was routed from DC.

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