Who Really Broke Veterans Affairs?

[white cloud]

By Jordain Carney and Stacy Kaper

May 20, 2014


Part Two in a series on Veterans Affairs. Read Part One here.

Failure is an orphan—and there are few failures more toxic than those of the Veterans Affairs Department.

The VA, ostensibly created to help veterans heal from the wounds of war, is plagued by a backlog of claims from soldiers seeking help, leaving them to wait months or even years for compensation.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/defense/who-really-broke-veterans-affairs-20140520

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Congress, from all I can tell.

Demand a job be done, underfund it, then point the finger of blame at others who try to cut corners to do a job the Congress isn't willing to pay to have done correctly.

Were the 'wait lists' a really bad, maybe even criminal idea? Sure. But if the VA had actually been properly funded, staffed, resourced, there would have been no wait lists, no reason for anyone to even try to create such.

[freebrew]

3. +1...nt

[delphi72]

4. Underfunded?

Didn't the VA get its requested funding increases every year the past 10 years? If they are underfunded, would that be because they did not request the amount they needed? How can something be underfunded when they got everything they asked for unless their leadership was inept in not knowing what to ask for?

Just curious.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. What you ask for and what you need aren't always the same.

Ever hear of a little book called 'Oliver Twist'? It had a pretty famous scene where the eponymous protagonist asked for 'More gruel, please.' All the other kids in the place knew better than to ask for what they needed, because it led to immediate trouble, rather than the more chronic problems of malnourishment.

That's the same sort of 'kick the can down the road' mentality the 'leadership' in Congress has been providing for decades, so it's hardly surprising that that attitude has leaked out into the surrounding federal agencies. Everyone being told they need to 'tighten their belts' and do more with less, until you finally get to a point where entire systems collapse.

So rather than asking for what they really need, they ask for modest increases that they think can get past the 'starve the beast' Congress, and try to keep things together on a wing and a prayer.

Is that 'inept'? Well, sure, but it's right in line with the 'leadership' Congress has been showing us for forever.

[underpants]

2. +

Marking for later read