As a veteran, I am having a very difficult time trying to understand why Congressman Michael Michaud, a long-time member of the Committee on Veterans Affairs, has not, before now, shone the light of day on the way the Veterans Administration has treated veterans.

The idea that veterans were kept waiting months, and sometimes years, for appointments resulting in a growing number of deaths is repulsive and totally unacceptable.

Congressman Michaud is a member of the Committee on Veterans Affairs and is the ranking member of the subcommittee on Veterans Health. The subcommittee, and I quote from its web page, has “legislative oversight and investigative jurisdiction over the Veterans Administration, including medical services, medical support and compliance, medical facilities, medical prosthetic research, and major and minor construction.”

If Michaud knew of the problems and said nothing, shame on him. If he wasn’t aware of the problems then he, and the other committee members, have been derelict of their responsibility and for that they should be ashamed.

The mainstream media must look at committee notes and votes to determine what the members, both Democrats and Republicans, knew and when they knew it but for political reasons kept their collective mouths shut.

John Turner, Auburn