Show of hands, how many folks on hearing about about the "VA scandal" immediately concluded: we need to throw a bunch of money at this?
Personally, I figured the VA was just an exponentially enlarged version of your everyday DMV, such that if there's not an official action box in which to file such-and-such document (of which there are a thousand varieties), the document gets filed in a does-not-compute box. Dead end for you, and your tag/title application, and your ruptured spleen, you miserable plebe.
By my thinking, a single dime that goes anywhere near the VA bureaucracy is pissed away. On the other hand, I might be persuaded to accept that there's a shortage of actual professionals. But that said, 17 Billion Dollars could get you 17,000 doctors and nurses and radiation techs and anesthetists at 1 million apiece.
Reminds me of, what?...
I worked for the VA Hospital district in Florida for five years back in the '90s - the problem definitely will not be solved by more $$$$$$$$$$$$$, NO MATTER WHAT. The vets are pawns in a very large federal Employment service called the VA that pays great pensions and other bennies for those who hunker down and stick around for their own benefit. There are good nurses and doctors and ancillaries who care, but they can't fight the Status Quo bosses. These are service-connected injured vets who should be getting Taj Mahal services for their sacrifice. They were promised the care when they signed up. Did anyone not see this trainwreck coming with all the troops returning home from the Middle East and Afghanistan with limbs missing, PTSD out the wazoo, and people like Nidal Hissan there waiting to "treat them." I know that is insensitive, but it sure was my experience when I saw it up close and personal. Obama has been busy trashing the private sector of medical care, and doctors are leaving the profession in droves - so the alternatives are not pretty... for any of us,
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