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Mismanagement at IHS

By TChris, Section Social Justice
Posted on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 03:41:16 PM EST
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Is there any federal agency that hasn't been mismanaged in the Bush administration?

It is supposed to provide health services to about 2 million American Indians and Alaskan natives. But the Government Accountability Office charged Monday that the Indian Health Services, which often runs out of funds to pay for health care, managed to lose more than 5,000 pieces of equipment worth about $16 million in the period from 2004 to 2007.... To top it off, auditors found false purchasing documents created to mislead investigators.

Native American health is right up there with the environment, civil rights, body armor for soldiers, alternative energy, and the Constitution on the list of things the Bush administration just doesn't care about.

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    Mismanagement at IHS | 19 comments (19 topical)

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    Native American health... (5.00 / 3) (#1)
    by Dadler on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 03:54:06 PM EST
    ...has been at the bottom of the national priorities list for some time.  While Bush certainly has done nothing to help, previous administrations have also done little.  The gov't broke every single treaty signed with Native Americans, so it should come as no surprise we have broken this pact as well.

    Sad and disgraceful.  And free Leonard Peltier while you're at it.

    "previous administrations... (none / 0) (#5)
    by desertswine on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 04:29:57 PM EST
    70,000 people live without running water on the Navajo Nation, the country's largest Indian reservation.


    Parent
    bless you, TChris (5.00 / 2) (#4)
    by Nettle on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 04:26:05 PM EST
    I've too many First Nations friends in South Dakota doing without health care even tho they're supposed to be covered by IHS. Some of them are running for state legislative seats again and I'd like to believe we've got their backs, these stellar advocates for social and reproductive justice.  

    In the 2006 cycle I was on the ground most of the year for our candidates instead of taking a year off to write as my fairy benefactress suggested.  Alas, the money is gone and I can't be there as much but be assured the need is - to tackle First Nation needs, get our prochoice progressive women elected and defeat the latest abortion ban on the ballot.  Don't let them fool you, there are no "exceptions" and health is not protected in this ballot measure.  

    Today is a dear Dakota elder friend's birthday in one of the poorest counties in the nation, in SD.  She doesn't have enough to eat, can't pay her bills, IHS doesn't cover her health needs.  Some respect for those dislocated time and time again by land thefts by the US and still no treaty justice.  

    Well.  Thanks, TChris.  Put my pals and their grandchildren on the list of things we DO care about.  

    hmm, so much for that link (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by Nettle on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 04:56:44 PM EST
    The story about my friends in SD has been updated I guess - here's a better link but beware the comment section, its a western SD newspaper, where they don't like to talk about the Treaty of 1864, so vastly crushed by the gold rush, or much good about FNs, in fact.  

    I love South Dakota deeply, I grew up there and now live next door on my native elder friend's original home (funky karma, our relationship) - but its also a painful history amidst all the patriotic, feel good stories of homesteaders and Lewis and Clark.  Come spend some time with us and help defeat the abortion ban this summer.  Help always welcome. :).  We need it.

    And please do let Obama (I don't trust him with First Nations yet, he's got Daschle doing all that and we already know how he works as well as Obama's Hildebrand, also from SD; yes, I'm booing the homeboy) and all legislators know how important it still is to fulfill our treaty obligations with the First Nations and IHS is part of that, right now.  

    Parent

    Yep, poor gvt financial stewardship (none / 0) (#2)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 04:04:59 PM EST
    is always partisan.
    What this gibberish means is that the DoD still cannot account for at least $1.1 trillion from fiscal 2000 under former president Bill Clinton, and the assistant inspector general of DOD wouldn't even touch the unsupported money expenditures for fiscal 2001 because "material amounts" still couldn't be accounted for properly in the year George W. Bush came to power. The trillion-dollar question is how much is "material amounts"? Because the auditor would not "quantify" the amount, some fear it's worse.


    Link? (none / 0) (#8)
    by waldenpond on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 05:49:30 PM EST
    I read the piece linked to... it linked to the GAO.  I was just curious to see if there was any kind of timeline on the mismanagement, trying to get a feel for how bad for how long...

    Parent
    how long? (none / 0) (#9)
    by Nettle on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 05:59:48 PM EST
    When was IHS created?  

    The missing equipment, etc. is a sidestory to the mismanagement of IHS.  They don't have enough doctors, they can't pick up prescriptions sometimes for days... the list is endless and scary.  

    Parent

    Sorry, (none / 0) (#17)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 12:36:45 PM EST
    here.

    Parent
    Well, When One's (none / 0) (#3)
    by The Maven on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 04:06:19 PM EST
    core philosophy of governance is that the federal government is incapable of providing a public benefit and is thus inherently a bad thing, it all very neatly falls into place, doesn't it?

    For years and years, right-wing pundits mocked Democrats as not really standing for anything, but only against whatever the Republicans were doing.  Now, however, it's becoming ever-harder for the GOP to pretend that they stand for anything other than making government so rotten on the inside that average Americans come to believe that nothing good can ever come of it; ergo, why not get rid of as much of it as possible?  It's the kind of cynicism that even an inveterate pessimist like me agrees that we cannot permit to succeed.

    Here is another thing the Bush admin. (none / 0) (#7)
    by oculus on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 05:08:04 PM EST
    can't bother to admin.  Per today's NYT, the Bush admin. has given more the $10 billion in military aid to Pakistan since 9/11, for specific purpose of counterinsurgency efforts by the Pakistani Army.  However, that is not what the money was spent on and the Bush admin. failed to insist it do so.

    but Pakistan is not the First Nation (none / 0) (#10)
    by Nettle on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 06:24:02 PM EST
    I understand your post is about mismanagement but the First Nations' treaty rights are not the same as trying to win influence and control Pakistan.  

    Cecelia Fire Thunder (former Oglala Nation president) and Rodney Bordeaux and John Steele and Bobby Cournoyer are not Musharraf.  They are First Nations leaders owed real recompense for harms done.  

    Truly, I believe if we don't some to understand what was done to "create" this "frontier" that capitalists from England and France and Spain could occupy we won't get to the root of our involvement in the Middle East and Africa.  

    The healing starts at home.

    Parent

    I thought oculus's point was (none / 0) (#11)
    by weltec2 on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 07:07:54 PM EST
    that it is part of a pattern with this administration... not to change the subject.

    That's what I thought in half, too (none / 0) (#12)
    by Nettle on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 07:33:12 PM EST
    But if you're someone with keen interests in IHS you know its not just this administration.  The IHS problems should be remedied before anything, in my mind - because I've keen interests and none of the contract fraud is going to go away in an Obama administration.  I guess I'm seizing a crisis.  Before the new Wars on bioterrorism and energy security and all become the talk and program money of the day. After the churches, of course.

    Parent
    starve an agency, (none / 0) (#13)
    by cpinva on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 08:12:24 PM EST
    feed a private contractor.

    oh, wait, that has to do with colds and fevers, sorry.

    and hot and bothered (none / 0) (#14)
    by Nettle on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 08:31:28 PM EST
    or is that just too Hillary?  

    Parent
    The IHS is chronically ... (none / 0) (#15)
    by The Poster Formerly Known as cookiebear on Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 09:04:20 PM EST
    ... horrible. This isn't something that's emerged under Bush.

    I can give you the example of a friend who went in for surgery on ovarian cysts during the Clinton administration. She died. This was at an IHS hospital.

    It's common knowledge in these parts (Indian Country) that a surefire shortcut to death is an Indian hospital.

    Thanks for returning the thread back (none / 0) (#16)
    by VicfromOregon on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 12:58:51 AM EST
    to First Nation issues.  It becomes almost automatic to veer away onto what many think is "the bigger picture" - how things effect the non-native larger population.  First Nation people experienced genocide at the hands of this nation, and all issues arise from that unresolved atrocity.   I understand the desire to start showing where this administration fails elsewhere, but let's put that in the context of how it compares to First Nation issues for this thread.

    I agree wholeheartedly that until Americans deal with the horror and magnitude of what their ancestors did to take this land, and what present day people do to keep it, this nation's heart can never be at peace, and it's people always lost, seeking, searching, as they do over and over for their souls, their meaning, their purpose.  It is sad and frightening to watch so many searching for some sense of empowerment, hoping their government can provide it, this candidate or that one.  This party or that one.  How can the sickness be lifted when we can't even focus on a First Nation issue for more than a few minutes before our minds slip away again, always to the bigger picture, the one where there are few details, where we can't look too closely, observe for too long what is at the core of the decision this country's founders, and our ancestors made to become wealthy?  America is always about moving on, moving on, trying to outpace the past.

    Nettle, I appreciate you and your insights and information.  Thank you.

    right back attcha, my friend (none / 0) (#18)
    by Nettle on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 01:54:16 PM EST


    Parent
    Really? (none / 0) (#19)
    by allpeopleunite on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 08:49:16 AM EST
    You're seriously blaming the Bush Administration for this? Sometimes Bush-bashing just goes too far.  

    Mismanagement at IHS | 19 comments (19 topical)

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