mr. o'rourke and dr. roe had a gentleman waiting accessibly times of 75 days and continue to feel bad in one day couldn't take it anymore and drove to the mayo clinic where he was told he needed immediate prostate cancer surgery. the good -- that's the bad obviously that he the weighted accessibly times. the good is that we called and within six hours we had the fee-for-service agreement and the next day he was in surgery and two weeks later with his family and now in our country. the family is incredibly grateful but i am embarrassed that they are grateful to me because that veteran should've been able to do that on their own. i think we all know here that's one veteran whose wife called, called the congressional office and got some action but i think we should know the responsiveness and the cultural attitude on the fee-for-service. and it's a challenge and you were right mayo clinic said it was that he might not waited for us in that initial appointment appointment. there just has to be a way to triage

mr. o'rourke, is there no medical facility in his district now that currently trains the va doctors? >> that i can't answer. i can to you there's a shortage of mental health practitioners of psychiatrists and mental health, advanced practice nurses and social workers in the country in general. we went through enormous hiring process t the fuse ago hiring about 3000 mental health practitioners into the va organization to i live in oregon and i can say that i know we have recruited most of the mental health practitioners often times out of some of those counties. we have actually about a year ago took the kind of caps off of hiring a psychiatrist in terms of salary so that we could make much more flexible hiring decisions, competitive decisions with psychiatrists spent this whole issue is very salient here because there's a 60% chance, greater chance to position will locate where they do the residency. so it's important we don't prove it to pre-existing agreements of medical schools with of the hospitals that would look to alternatives so we ended decisions to locate into communities w

mr. o'rourke, dr. roe, had a gentleman was waiting, excessive wait time, 75 days, continued to field bad. finally one day couldn't take anymore. drove to the mayo clinic where he was told he needed immediate prostate cancer surgery. the good -- that's the bad. obviously he waited excessive wait time. the good is that we called and within six hours we had the agreement and the next day he was in for surgery. two weeks ago i was with he and his family and steve is now in recovery. the family is grateful but i'm embarrassed they are grateful to me because that veteran should have been able to do that on their own. as long as thee stories go -- i think we know here that's one veteran whose wife called with nowhere to go called a congressional office and got action. i do think we should note the responsiveness and attitude on the -- it's a challenge. the private sector capacity, mayo clinic said it's not that he might not have waited for us in that initial appointment. it's just that there has to be a way t

mr. last is joined by contributors p.j. o'rourke, jonah goldberg, christine rosen and more. this is a little under an hour. >> hello, everybody. welcome. what a virtuous crowd. got quiet -- so like robert's inseam, i'm going to keep this short. i'm jonah goldberg, i'm a fellow at the american enterprise institute. if that offended you, you might as well leave now. [laughter] i am happier than helen thomas at aha maas rally to be here. [laughter] i've been using that joke for a long time, but constancy of character is a virtue too. i'm delighted all of you could make it here tonight, at least most of you. but i'm, as a fellow american enterprise institute and host of this event, i want to say thank you all for coming, so thanks. the thesis of this book, "is ten deadly -- seven deadly virtues," is that the virtues have all grown out of fashion. perhaps no greater proof of this thesis comes in any other form than the fact that a book called "the seven deadly virtues" actually contains 18 virtues under discussion. [laughter] kind of reminds me of thoreau's famous dictum about ho