especially agencies such as the va. this has been tremendously important to the mission of taking care of our veterans. ms. lerner, i wanted to thank you for mentioning ryan hunnel in your statement. people like ryan truly make a difference, and in particular, he helped turn around what was happening at the va in tomah, wisconsin. after considering the testimony that witnesses have given and i apologize that i was quite tardy in getting here, but i have a few questions that i think get to the heart of some of the problems at the va. i want to talk about the culture that i have just seen that exists against whistleblowers. you said that no other federal agency has taken such a proactive approach to training managers on whistleblower protections yet complaints about reprisals are up. in fact your statement reads that the osc is on track to receive more than 3800 prohibitive personnel practice complaints in this year. and that more than 1300 or approximately 35% of those will be filed by va employees. you also make this poi

>> there are important steps that the va can take. we have to keep working the embrace with the blowers. changing the culture begins with an understanding that we need employees to come forward and report health and safety issues. we don't shoot the -- that's great. i understand the secretary tries to meet with whistleblowers when he goes and visits facilities, that's trerr -- terrific. after he leaves, they have to be told to recognize and support whistleblowers. they need to keep meeting with whistleblowers, listen to them and praise them and repeat it until it gets hold. they could do more training. they are training now. hospitals need to get trained in what whistleblower is important why whistleblowers are important, the more they are trained it will really help. >> i would love the rest of your statement in writing if you could, but i did want to give her a chance to respond oh to is -- to that question. >> thank you. it has to be tough. it has to be a point where somebody would take great pause to do that. i think you need train

we call it the my va transformation. because it's the way we want you to think about va. we want you to think about va as if it were your cell phone. personalized and customized for you, the veteran. to do that we've got five strategies. strategy number one is to improve veteran experience. we're working hard to train our organization in what great customer service is. we are working with ritz-carlton, disney starbucks and others to learn about how the best customer service organizations do it. strategy two is to improve the employee experience. we know we have no hope of improving the veteran experience until we improve the employee experience. because it's the employees who actually care for veterans. so we're working hard to provide the right training, the right leadership, and do all the things that we need to do to empower va employees. third, we need to improve our support services. our i.t. systems are often outdated. the scheduling system that got us into trouble in phoenix dates to 1985. when i was in phoenix, i sat down and worked on it myself. it's like working

the va must do a better job of predicting requirements. it is important that va starts planning, anticipating what our veterans will need and where they will need it. we have been hearing that this shortfall is due to the increase of veterans coming to get medical care, resorting in more veterans being treated outside of va. i also think it takes care of the veterans with hepatitis c. many of whom are vietnam veterans, who we recently honored in a celebration in the capitol, should be one of our highest priorities. but i wonder if this shortfall is fundamentally due to lack of planning and forecasting or for a variety of programs which would provide services to our veterans. so today let's figure out what we need to do to ensure that our veterans are getting the health care that they have earned and begin to figure out what steps we need to take to and prevent any more 11th hour budget crisis. in february the secretary began asking this committee for more flexibility to move money between accounts that would enable him to run his administra

the va. [ applause ] today the va is handling millions more appointments inside and ousds the va andore care. on average veterans are waiting just a few days for an appointment and that's all good news. vet rans continue to tell us that once they get through the door, the care is often very good. a lot of folks across the va many of them veterans themselves work hard every single day and we thank them. but we have to acknowledge our work is not done. we still have a big challenge. even with all these new resources, the va is still struggling to keep up with the surge of veterans who are seeking care. the fact is our veterans are get. ing older. when the end of the most recent wars, more veterans are coming home. veterans are seeking more care. veterans are get ingting the new life-saving treatment for hepatitis c. you put it all together and in some places wait times are higher than they were last year. so i want you to know i'm still not satisfied. bob is still not satisfied. we're focused on this at the highest levels. we are not going to let up and we're going to keep pushing forw

how about the va? you were on the front lines with the va. in salisbury, north carolina. >> that's right. >> relatively close to ft. bragg where i was with the 82nd. but what do you see now with the va? with those employees they represent, what's this crisis? looks like they're 41,000 jobs that remain open. >> clearly they are open. patrick, there is a real funding crisis in the va right now with the things that happened, the choice act that chairman miller introduced and it was passed into law. $10 billion was allocated for veterans to go out for private care. currently secretary bob mcdonnell is saying he has a shortfall of $3 billion in the va and without being able to transfer that money to care for veterans in the va, we're going to see a real crisis and a cutback on va services. this is not an additional appropriation. this is shifting money that congress has allocated. >> there was about 41,000 job opportunities that aren't being filled right now. correct? >> that's right. this $3 billion would help fill those jobs and care for veteran

was at the hines va in my home state. dr. lisa uncovered boxes and boxes of unread eco cardio grams leading her to discover dozens of unnecessary surgeries on our veterans. the truth about corruption in va hospitals was not easy to -- to reveal for kathryn mitchell, jermaine carno and dr. lisa nee. they have been through hell to give mistreated veterans a voice. because the system built to protect whistleblowers to fight corruption has failed them. the system is -- the va system is funded by this committee. we are here to ensure that those who wore the uniform get the care that they deserve. linda holliday the new acting inspector general of the va and carolyn learner of the office of special council are here today. together they will tell us why the system is failing our veterans. i'll turn it over to senator cohen for an opener. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. i would note that today is national whistleblowers day. so it is particularly appropriate that you have called this very important and timely hearing regardin

the va provides the best hearing aid technology anywhere. medicare does not cover hearing aids and most insurance plans have limited coverage, at best. choosing va for hearing aids saves veterans $4200. as it continues to improve access, more veterans will come to the va. because they want to and because it makes financial sense. it is a foregone conclusion that the cost of fulfilling our commitments will grow in the future. the axis crisis was a vietnam debt. we cannot be shortsighted. we have to respond today with a long-term view that underlines a commitment to va transformation. veterans who have preserved our freedom are watching us. service members are also watching us. young men and women are also watching us. they rightfully expect us to fulfill our obligations with the same degree of dignity and to let delhi -- and fidelity with which they put their lives on the line. we made a breakfast last week. i know we will honor all of our obligations to veterans and their families of every generation. we look forward to your questions. thank

the recommendations. in fact, over 100 recommendations we've made that va has not implemented just in the health care area alone. so -- so -- there are 22 recommendations, and i don't want to use all your time up but let me give you a couple examples. one is, we recommended that va keep track, wait times, for -- for veterans that went to non-va providers. they have not yet done that. we've talked to them about it. they still haven't done that. >> what's the reason for them not having done it? >> we don't really know. >> when you ask them you tell them, how -- >> i think what they're looking at. they want to close a case from the time the veteran starts the process of getting an appointment to the time the claim's paid. they want to do that in 90 days and they are tracking that. but for some reason they're reluctant to track the 30 days. >> why? >> good question. i don't know they've given us a great answer on that. >> what would be a good answer? is there a good answer? >> they probably don't have the systems to do it. it takes a lot of work. it does. it does take some good data. but that's not a good rea

while we will not penalize veterans for va's management, or transparency failures, the days when va can come to congress and just say cut us a check are gone. asking for flexibility without supporting information is not enough. similar to the way a large cooperation board of directors sets a budget and a corporate management implements that budget, the president, 535 members of your current board of directors set a budget and expect you and your staff to carry out the department's mission. that is, to manage the taxpayers' resources in a fiscally responsible manner. just as emerging circumstances in the private sector might cause a ceo to go back to the board armed with information supporting a request for additional resources or flexibility, we have the same expectation. despite unsupported hints of a problem by the department, that supporting information was not provided until extraordinarily late. we've already passed legislation to take va out of managing major construction programs. perhaps we need it to bring in an outside entity to manage the department's finances. i hope not. i

i had my friends who work in the va say they could see 25% more p! about the scribe. we are piloting a program with scribes. it's uneven right now but we are in the process of system. we had a lot of people leave for various reasons, and morale is a big issue. va people one-third of which areslllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll,ç somehow different and failing to perform. they yhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhayhahayhayhayayhayhyhayhayhayt single >> i yield back, mr. chairmah]k[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[rb!o================================================================================================================================m-c >> correctzq[zq[zq[zq[zq[zq[zq[zq[zq[zq[zq[zq[zq[zq[z

on the -- on the my va work that we're doing the transform va, we've set up an external advisory council. we have many doctors that are part of that including toby kos grove who is the head of the cleveland clinic, rich carmona a former surgeon general and a veteran. but i have to tell you, one of the things they're bringing is they're not only bringing their innovations and their ideas, but they're taking away our innovations. a couple of weeks ago, we published an article that was picked up in medical journals not broadly in the newspaper, about a new monte carlo simulation technique we can use to predict suicide. this is a break through. if we can validate this model of predicting suicide, this will be a break through for the va, but it will also been be a break through for the american public. a lot of what we've seen and you and i have talked about in the past has been innovations that start in the va, part of our $1.8 billion of research spending that you appropriate and we appreciate it that result in positive results for the american people. here is a copy of the article, mr. cha

you either waited in the va or went some place else. we chose not to have that happen but rather to continue to buy care for patients that could not get care through the choice program. and so today, because of that, we find ourselves not having money out in the field to be able to make payroll and stuff during the month of september. and that's really what we're asking today is to be able to use choice money set aside to buy care in the community to pay for care in the community. >> the last thing -- i know one of the discussion was -- i know we're having some problems in certain parts of the country. but some of the veterans particularly those in florida, they like the care that they've received from the va. and i don't personally want to see va just going to a specialty. we need comprehensive care in certain areas and i do know around the country it's a real problem with getting comprehensive care. but when you look at the approval rate veterans is like -- what is the percentage from 80 something to 90 something like the care that the

if the va is their choice, bill their insurance. get on the plan. they have insurance somewhere else. a lot of veterans don't use va because they want more funds to be there for those who need it more. so if they have private insurance, we do bill their insurance. sometimes that is medagap coverage. we don't get paid. but -- and we don't have the authority to bill medicare or medicaid or tricare. >> well, medicare and medicaid is robbing peter to pay paul as far as the big picture of taxpayer dollars. but private insurance is a different story. >> we do bill those. those collection rates are going up year after year after year. >> dr. abraham? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for being here, gentlemen. i guess a statement first on just fiscal responsibility. i was reading the nig's report last week. i think he said that the va didn't know they had $43 million in an account. all of a sudden it was just found. after just sitting there for three years. that's somewhat of an astounding thought. then i look at the choice act. i read the act. there ar

. >> no help for our heros the government trying to fix the va. ver forget who is getting in their way. >> remember this story? >> the cutest yorkys ever. >> johnny depp is told to get his little dogs out of the country or the york keysys could face death. ♪ have you ever thought, "i could never do that"? have you ever thought... you just didn't have anything left in the tank? well - you do. because the courage is already inside. teaching scien . . . g clean enough we did some experiments to figure out why. this detergent will it freeze? we discovered the bargain detergent i was using... was mostly water. it's frozen solid! so i switched to tide pods they're super concentrated so i get a better clean they can handle almost anything second grade can throw at you. 15% cleaning ingredients or 90%. don't pay for water, pay for clean. that's my tide. i am totally blind. and sometimes i struggle to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24. learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com. >> parents are fighting bac

take a listen. >> today the va is handling millions more appointments inside and outside the va and delivering more care. on average veterans are waiting just a few days for an appointment and that's all good news. veterans continue to tell us ha that once they get through the door, the care is often very good. >> it didn't take long for republicans to fire back. they are pushing a bill that is going to come up next week, which is the veterans accountability act. they think not enough heads have rolled and they want to give the va secretary the authority to fire any employee for misconduct. in addition to that it's worth noting that the president talked about the iran deal and looked at it through the lens of his philosophy of doing everything you possibly can in lieu of boots on the ground, in lieu of combat in lieu of war. so use this opportunity there to make that case again, as you well know. we are just inside the beginning of the 60-day period for congress to renew the nuclear deal. >> chris jansing at the white house for us, thank you. a programming note to pass along. it's a concern wh

the increased va care authorizations, including choice by 44%. that is 900,000 more authorizations than the devious year. in end of june last year and make, we have completed 56.2 million of ointment. in 4% increase over the last year. 1.5 million encounters during extended hours. a 10% increase. that is important to our women veterans. we have completed 97 percent of appointments within 30 days. and the percent within 14 days. 80% within seven days. any 2% same-day appointments. -- 22% same-day appointments. primary care cup wait times are down to an average of four days. we have an average of about three days for mental health care. we are making verifiable progress for veterans. va could be the best customer service in total government. important challenges remain. there will be more in the future as veterans demographics evolve. the crisis in 2014 was a matter of get mismatch of some fibers demand. it was exacerbated by greater numbers of veterans in services. that in balance predicts failure in any business, of the gore private compass especi

in other words, blessed by the va? i'm trying -- we're all concerned about what happened here and want to know the basic question of whether you're concerned and this think was appropriate or not. >> so the as we know, the office of inspector general recently reviewed unauthorized commitments, and the purchase card program. for those that were identified to the oig we did 100% wee viewreview of that sample and referred those to the head of contracting activity for review and ratification if appropriate. so that's where those are. now, those were, with respect to purchase card transactions above the micro purchase threshold. so if they were identified as being, we didn't have the authority, the va acquisition regulations, go to 10k, right? mr. frye will tell you about that. if they were above the $10,000 authorization for fee care

the va, so many, what has government done right? iggest thing i can think of to answer this is what have you done for me lately is there was a threat over the fourth of july holiday and everybody is still standing. so god bless the troops. other than that, a lot of money spending and not a lot get >> they notified everybody by snail mail to everyone and there is the slow bureaucracy of the post office in order to let everybody know that there is an imminent threat. >> you know, you brought this up. >> you brought up carly fiorina, this is where she can separate yourself from other candidates because she does have the business background. but that's all she's got. >> a lot of people think that's all you need because everybody knows that if the government were a business, it would fail and the president would be fired. if you look at social security, welfare, you just expect that they're not going to do well. kennedy: even at the irs, this has been quite honorable to hacking in their own right. and well, let's talk about conspiracy the

. >> the latest example of the va in disarray. it is all caught on camera. >> today is thursday the 2nd of july 2015. beefing up security ahead of july 4th. >> the call went out for increased attacks during ramadan which is why you see us maintaining a higher alert status. >> this as isis publishes a map for fbi command centers. how safe are we? >> two brand new sharks attacks as people are hitting the beach for the 4th of july weekend. >> airlines working together to keep prices sky high. what the feds are doing right now to make sure you aren't getting ripped off. "fox & friends first" starts right now. >> good morning if you are just waking up on this thursday morning i am ainsley earhardt. >> let's get to the fox news alert now. a man air lifted to the hospital after being bitten by a shark in the waters off north carolina. this is the 9th attack since may. beach goers are on high alert ahead of the 4th of july weekend. jackie ibanez is here with more. >> the latest of the 9 attacks coming out of north carolina a small island i

. >> the former chief of the va worried the new records won't be compatible with the va system or otherivilian records. >> many of these systems are proprietary, the vendors kept that data siloed and segregated and even sometimes charged their hospital clients or charged their provider clinician clients money to get access to the data. the defense department expected to announce the contract winner later this week. >> to learn more about this multibillion dollar defense project, head to our website nbr.com. >>> that does it for nightly business report for tonight. thanks for joining us. >> have a great evening, everybody, we'll see you back here tomorrow. announcer: "imagemakers" is made possible by the members of kqed.

. >> the former chief of the va worried the new records won't be compatible with the va system or otherivilian records. >> many of these systems are proprietary, the vendors kept that data siloed and segregated and even sometimes charged their hospital clients or charged their provider clinician clients money to get access to the data. the defense department expected to announce the contract winner later this week. >> to learn more about this multibillion dollar defense project, head to our website nbr.com. >>> that does it for nightly business report for tonight. thanks for joining us. >> have a great evening, everybody, we'll see you back here tomorrow. by barnes & noble, home of the nook tablet. where you can experience books music, games, and more. in our stores and at bn.com acorn proudly pres ents miss fisher's murder mysteries. yes, uncle. [ applause ] [ sighs ] did you see him? he was mugging upstage. if he tries that tonight... they don't appreciate a true artiste, mr. copland. [ breathing deeply ] do you smell that? like flowers. [ electricity crackles ] dorothea? it can't be.

the backlog at the va, did he satisfy what you wanted to hear and fellow veterans wanted to hear from the president of the united states today? >> i think it was a strong speech. there were a lot of specifics. unemployment, va reform backlog, women's issues, the messaging is right. we're digging out of a deep hole. we need the president to keep the focus on the va, keep the focus on vet rans issues and make it more than just a run off speech. his tone has changed. he's really learned a lot over the years. you can see he spent time in the veterans community. we're going to need the congress behind us, all americans behind us. we have to tackle a variety of issues that aren't going to go away after the speeches are over. >> it was interesting, michael steele as we await donald trump. we have a very crowded field now. we have john kasich jumping into the race. the president speaking out. and of course, john mccain controversy, more on that in a moment. the president and iran, he for the first time mentioned by name a all of the americans who were detained in iran. how high a climb is thi

the damage is already done. how should vade to one of the veterans. peter is here to join us this morning. >> he's a board certified psychiatrist at the veterans medical center in philadelphia and associated with a university as well. he says listen, i didn't mean to say this. i head a mistake. i apologize. the va said this is absolutely unacceptable. it is unacceptable. we know in the united states that there's an estimated 8,000 veteran suicides a year. by one count, 22 veterans kill themselves every day. 20% of the 2 million or so iraq or afghanistan veterans have ptsd. 7% have brain injury and post-traumatic syndrome. this is not a joking matter especially for a doctor that takes oath and says do no harm. the doctor's judgment has to be judged against the body of his work. is he a good psychiatrist? has he been passionate to veterans? has he made an obvious mistake? in the past, they've been slow and act against people of fraud and misconductall crimes. >> he deleted it and put out this statement. it's one of those moment

i want to read a statement from the va. s medical situation and determined if an appointment was available for him at another location or if he was eligible for the choice program and could be seen outside of the va. the message mr. dorsey was given as seen on the video is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. what's your response to that chris? >> my initial response to that is it's some strong statements but you are going to have to back up your words. there are, like i said hundreds of veterans locally that have been contacting me to share their stories about the same facility and, you know that's concerning because this is my hometown. i grew up in the gainesville, georgia, and some of these veterans i went to high school with and it's a shame that they are getting treated like this and it's all over the nation and with that being said i've also gotten contacted by veterans that are getting excellent treatment through the va in their locations. that tells me there's not a standard operating procedure system

that's on the va's own data a. a rising crime rate saying crime is going down because they're writing fewer jaywalking tickets. it's just not true. unfortunately it's misleading. it's what we've come to expect from this department of veterans affairs in this administration unfortunately. >> since the scandal broke where so many died waiting for care there's been staa -- been statistics given. according to leaked documents from the va one-third of vets waiting care at the va have already died. if they've passed on the president doesn't have to worry about those with statistics. >> that's absolutely correct. the last number you threw out is very alarming. we don't know how many of those people completed applications to get in the va. at the at least, it shows va is not keeping up with number of people applying for health care and can't properly project how many are going to need health care from the va in the future. makes it harder for us to believe when they come to congress asking for more money saying they're goi

in the va. >> changing the subject, remember when i interrupted, i talked about chris rock? chris rock several years ago had a comedy routine based on john mccain's service. his whole joke was war hero he was in jail he was captured. he can get away with that. there are some things that are truly sacred that you just can't violate. this is a very very big deal that cannot be minimized. this was a bridge too far. >> we have to expect more don't we? again, if eric holder had said this fox news, we would be covering it 24/7 and we would be demanding resignations which is why we have to hold donald trump to the same standards. >> we are. look at every show on every network and it is led by donald trump. >> i agree. >> i think he's being held to a similar standard. again, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. i'll speak for myself. i've said things that i wish i haven't said. >> what you've said to me you mean? >> no, i meant that. >> he's got too much pride. >> or it is just the way he is. people have signed on to donald trump because of who he is. he's not the standar

sent our soldiers into foreign adventures, covered up for president obama with the va scan. dal and has spent most of his time in senate pushing amnesty. so how long will trump allow to be trump on this no surrender political campaign on the right? >> the gop has no choice. they have to let him be himself because they can't stop him from running for president. they can't stop him because his poll numbers are good. they couldn't stop him even if his poll numbers were bad. e he can't get bad from the debate if he makes the qualifications. had if he does, it seems like you're cheating and not letting everybody speak their mind. what the republicans are doing with the gop is allowing him to sink his own ship. they are allowing him to say these incendiary remarks and they think he will go too far and tank in the polls. they think this is a big thing now, but they are so early in this game and it's a long race and ultimately he's just going to say too much and the voters are not going to like it. >> it's a marathon not a sprint and we'll continue to cover this. thank you so much. >

. >> the va blasted by lawmakers once again this time by a massive budget shortfall that could forcespitals to shut down. the va telling congress it will have to close the facility next month if law p americas don't make the $2.5 million budget hole. >>> illegal students from california are living the american dream without abideing by the law. ucla has a 10 week paid internship if focuses on immigration reform and healthcare access. >>> unlimited paid pay vation time. an employee's dream. it is becoming a reality for one of the largest companies. fox business is here to explain. joe? >> can you image taking a month off from work just because you want to? the unlimited kay vation policies used to be for 20 something billionaires and tech startups. general electric is offering almost half of the employees a policy that has no limits on the days they can take for holidays sick leave and paid time off. they can take days when they need it as long as their manager approves approves. it comes after richard branson and virgin implemented this for some of his employees. there is no need to

the couple told police they had been tied up and drugged in their mayor island home this march. her kidnappers dropped her off at her parents home. va lay how police says it was a hoax but now the fbi says it has evidence that the home invasion and kidnapping actually did happening. 38-year-old matthew mueller a harvard law graduate was arrested after he was linked to a similar home invasion in dublin last month. the fbi says mueller left his cell phone behind during that incident and dublin police tracked him down to south lake tahoe. >> once you put the pieces of the puzzle together it came out pretty good. it all adds up to him. >> it's not a hoax. it's what happened to two human beings. >> reporter: during a search of mueller's property they found goggles that were likely used to blindfold huskins. according to an affidavit, mueller is a former marine, harvard educated lawyer and he sent angry letters telling police to believe the couple and not discredit them. he also suffers from gulf war syndrome and bipolar disorder. they believe there are additional suspects in their client's case and they want authorities to track them dow

now they've got a moment to finally vote to bring real accountability to the va. party line vote. jeff miller didn't amazing job, an impassioned job. 14 democrats for, 10 republicans against. the american federation for government employees has secretly been working behind the scenes to get them to move against this bill. when they had a chance instead, they voted against. >> pete you're passionate about it. i want to show our viewers in stark terms who's for this bill and who's against it. on left side of the screen you see all the veterans organizations supporting this from vietnam vets of america. and veterans of foreign wars. the only ones supporting is the unions does that not tell you who's at stake? >> it telling you, va vet, am-vets, every single one. look at that list. it's embarrassing. on the other side american federation for government employees. they can't even come out publicly on this. they're working behind the scenes trying to remind them who writes the check. there are folks who should be ashame folks like tim walls. some who have have gone the

. -- the va. john mccain this chairman of the senate armeds services commissionee the va is under the senate veterans affairs committee to trump's historyien inaccurate. >> to the tragedy in tennessee the gunman in the shooting rampage in chattanooga had written about having suicidal thoughts and whether he wanted to become a martyr. that is what family representatives are telling fox news now. the representative says the fbi found the writings and others in the suspect's home, and that most of them are years old. and much of it is what they're calling, and i quote gibberish. a law enforcement source says investigators so far have not found any hard evidence that the shooter had ties to terrorism. but we are learning more about his personal problems. according to the family representative the shooter battled depression for more than a decade, struggled with drugs including prescription pills and was in debt and had trouble holding down jobs. his bosses fired him from a nuclear power plant in 2013 a

most everybody in the federal government is in a union. we found with van worker, who was working for the va in west virginia, who said you know what? not only do i want to do full-time union business at my day job for the government, i want to work on union issues 100% of the time, i want to do it from home. they're starting to work from home on union business. there is no accountability because federal unions basically eroded that. >> really does in many ways come to no accountability. >> yeah. >> as i said, at va secret lists were used to hide wait times and zero people technically have been fired. they found other reasons, people retired early or shuffled them elsewhere. ron reagan said closest thing to eternal life is government program. closest thing to eternal job security is union job. >> holding people accountable, a good way to start. but that is the problem right? one thing to see bad things happen and bad things done we expect that. we see that through history. but the lack of accountability today that americans have the biggest problem with he

we talk about what happened at the va. you talk about what happened the double books and these, you know these injured whether it is psychological or physical and they're hurting and the administration has basically left them without recourse. and donald trump wants to be the voice of reason. >> and that's why the question becomes what is he going to do for them? other than say i'm mad and nobody is good for them. he doesn't have the plan for what he would do. what are the specific policies he wants for veterans to back up his -- >> first thing he's going to do is ensure that veterans get the proper care and treatment that they're entitled to. >> how? >> he feels they've been betrayed. >> everybody does. how? >> john mccain has been in service now for 30 years. 30 years. and we're in worst shape for all veterans. >> so what is donald trump going to go? >> donald trump fixes things. you have to acknowledge that. >> how? he's been in bankruptcy? >> never. >> not personal bankruptcy but he's had the casinos go down. >> i'm goi

new hampshire, in many cases, have to travel three and four hours to go to the va. >> what about the problems at existing hospitals, though? >> there are no existing -- there is no va hospital. >> not in new hampshire. nationally. what about the problems at the existing hospitals? >> this is on substance because we read donald trump's opinion piece in the usa today and yesterday and it was all about the money. he's definitely no doubt thrown a lot of money at veterans' causes but to s.e.'s point, what are the solutions? substance or not, these are two big issues veterans issues and immigration. >> yeah. >> you see what has happened in washington or the lack thereof and in one week this man put the issues front and center. >> yeah. they are huge issues. the problem is most people in the press are going to spend the week asking other gop contenders if john mccain is a war hero. he comes out with these bombastic statements. he's not wrong. immigration is an important issue. i agree with the broad strokes that he wants to do about it. he's not wrong that the veterans affairs system is br

stewart pressed the president on everything from scandals at the irs and the va on the iran nuclear deal. >>> for in photographer playgrounds are a passion. he traveled the world taking pictures of the places where children relax and play and what he saw is striking. >> the playground project is 58 photographs of school playgrounds taken around the world during morning break or lunch break. the photographs come from england, which is where i started the project. i was fascinated by this kind of -- the different types of schools. then i expanded it to go to kenya, to america, to china and then also to the west bank and to israel. there was an incredible difference in terms of the locations and types of playgrounds and the landscape and the background from which the children came. then there was this incredible similarity between how children played. the differences between the playgrounds could be huge in terms of the facilities some of them very basic. other schools which had some kind of amazing equipment with different types of climbing framing, in china the school playgrounds stood ou

to another in order to avoid the va hospital's closing in august. that was a big concern. i want to remind everybody we are waiting on hillary clinton who is in maryland today in silver spring where she is meeting with the afl-cio. a lot of questions whether or not the union will come out in full support of her. they certainly have a lot of questions for her. we'll continue to monitor that. we want to get back to the issue of steve just rose, which brought up capital gains. her plan effectively to penalize anybody making more than 400,000 some odd dollars, or couples making, i believe it is 6 -- forgive me. we'll correct numbers on that. pretty, more penalizing actually for couples. this is marriage tax we talk about. but she wants to make it, so that people would actually hold their investments, steve, for six years, steve forbes, in order to get same kind of tax rate they get now 20%. >> what it does is freeze up the whole venture capital market. >> it does. >> get new companies tomorrow. we tried the nonsense this the '70s having high rate. it mu

trying on the today show to turn criticism of mccain toer use like the va scandal. >> i am not a fan of john mccain. he has done a terrible job for the vets. >> mccain himself took the high road this morning. >> does donald trump owe you an apology? >> i don't think so. but i think he may owe an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience in serving their country. >> reporter: trump's republican opponents jumped at the chance to denounce his comments. jeb bush. >> this is a legitimate hero that has served his country in lots of ways. and mr. trump knows that. he should just aapproximately jazz.approximately -- just apologize. and move it on to the next thing. >> marco rubio. >> it is offensive. absurd and disqualifier as commander-in-chief. >> lindsey graham joined by mccain this afternoon. >> to anybody that suggests john and his fellow pows are lacking in the title of being called american hero, you shouldn't be our commander-in-chief. because you don't know our military. >> ted cruz who stands to benefit if tru

people in the va and only three have been fired. it gets back to the root causes. it's too hard to fire a federal union employee. dr. hassell of the individuals at the dugway ground, what are the proven productions at that facility? >> i don't have that information, sir. it can get it to you. it's mostly civilian. >> and of the civilian what percentage are unionized? >> i'm not sure. >> i would appreciate if you could get us responses for both of those. and if that's the case, have you taken action against any of those employees any civilian employee or any uniformed employee? >> to date no. there is an investigating looking into this. if we do take action we want to make sure it's taken at the right place to make sure that the person who is truly accountable is held accountable. >> that's all real nice. but how many mistakes are happening right now because there's in accountability? i mean, do you know today that we're not shipping other live agents around right now? do you know that? how can you know? >> as we pointed out, just be

the 1990s. it was liberating. it was permission-less. it vas very little government regulation. we're all beneficiaries of that and my column tries to identify areas where we may be backsliding or where we may be suppressing innovation, or not making the most of this extraordinary opportunity. >> host: well, you have written that washington is a disaster area for innovation. why do you write that? >> guest: i think if you go back to earlier technology, like railroads and the ma bell telephone monopoly, those are regulated as common carriers, regulators set prices, they set terms, they set rules and we all know what happened. there was very little innovation in railroads and the trucking and in telephones until they were all deregulate, and all those common carrier constitutes un -- statutes up done by congress when it was so clear that innovation was being suppressed and the u.s. was falling behind in its competitiveness. that was the backdrop for the bipartisan consensus in the 1990s the internet would be different. this was during the clinton administration. a clear consensus d

here's a kuwait question i know donald trump will ask, why wasn't any one been fired. >> the va only told them they will look into the problem. >> a children's charity that makes 13,000 dollars admits the whole thing is a fraud. they are skew suing the national leukemia found tation accusing him of spending also than 1 percent on sick children and keeping more than a million dollars for himself. even caught the attention of macho man randy savage whose daughter died of leukemia said the claims had little merit. >> forget heading to the locker room. some students open the lap top for gym class. >> the school is piloting a brand new physical education course on-line this fall. they watch videos of teachers demonstrating sports and exercises then they make out their own workout videos to track their skills and progress. the state says this will benefit home bound students for students looking to catch up on credits. a sign of the times or wouldn't say ficcation of america. send us your comments on facebook or twitter on foxnews.com and can hewe will share them later in the show. >> pizza

under current law some veterans who aren't getting health services through the va health have to carry paper documents to prove their veteran status. >>> a virginia congressman wants answers from the tsa after a wusa9 investigation found dulles airport has the highest claims rate of lost or stolen lug an of the nation's 30 busiest airports. representative barbara comstack has issued a letter to homeland security and the tsa saying she was disturbed by the findings. the claims are for baggage that were still in control of tsa officers when it disappeared. >>> the greece government has submitted a broad proposal to secure another rescue plan but euro zone ministers have given greece till tomorrow night to submit details before an eu summit sunday. addressing the european parmment, the prime minister said his country want add three- year loan deal. that would mean a definitive end to greece's financial crisis. he also stressed last sunday's no vote on the referendum does not mean greece wants to break from the euro. >>> coming up ben's chili bowl serves up a new location. >> plus, the tru