“Significant and chronic system failures” have occurred at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a just-concluded White House investigation.

It is the word “chronic” that should worry – and anger – Americans.

Outrageous treatment of many veterans in need of medical care is nothing new. It has been going on for years, probably decades.

Some members of Congress have known of “wait-list” abuses for years.

Why has effective action not been taken to reform the VA? That is a good question – and it points to a bipartisan tendency to enact a new law or two, spend a few hundred million dollars, and allow VA bureaucrats to go their merry ways.

VA failures have been chronic because, in effect, presidents and Congresses have put veterans’ well-being on a wait list. The American people should demand the coverups end.