Posted on 09/25/2015 3:12:40 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
There is only one guaranteed way to get fired from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Falsifying records won’t do it. Prescribing obsolete drugs won’t do it. Cutting all manner of corners on health and safety is, at worst, going to get you a reprimand. No, the only sure-fire way to get canned at the VA is to report any of these matters to authorities who might do something about it.
That, at least, is what the U.S. Office of Special Counsel recently reported to the president of the United States. The Special Counsel’s office is the agency to which government whistleblowers go to report wrongdoing.
“Our concern is really about the pattern that we’re seeing, where whistleblowers who disclose wrongdoing are facing trumped-up punishment, but the employees who put veterans’ health at risk are going unpunished,” Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner recently told National Public Radio.
Now, obviously, this shouldn’t happen. Everyone, except perhaps the managers at the VA, probably agrees with that. So by all means, let’s have some reforms and further protections for whistleblowers.
But that’s not a real solution. The real fix is to get rid of the VA entirely.
The United States has an absolute obligation to do right by veterans. It does not have an absolute obligation to run a lousy, wasteful, unaccountable, corrupt, and inefficient bureaucracy out of Washington. Of all those adjectives, the one that gets to the core of the problem is “unaccountable.”
Elected officials are supposed to be held responsible for the actions of the government, right? Well, which politician should we fire for the endless stream of outrageous VA scandals of the last few years? The president? Leave aside the fact that he won’t be on the ballot in 2016; not a lot of voters put reforming the VA bureaucracy at the top of their list of priorities.
Is there a congressman or senator who might lose an election because of the VA scandals? If there is, I can’t figure out who it might be. Every representative and senator has raced to the cameras to express their outrage, and not one is accepting a scintilla of responsibility for the problem. But they are all responsible because they have simply ceded authority to the bureaucrats themselves.
There is a reason the Founding Fathers put most governmental functions at the state and local level. It’s because a large nation cannot be run from the center.
Imagine that the federal government simply gave all of the VA hospitals to the states they’re in. Instead of the VA budget, Congress just cut checks to states to spend on their veterans. You’d still have problems, of course. But what you would also have are local elected officials — city councilmen, state legislators, mayors, governors, etc. — whom voters could hold directly accountable. Moreover, these officials would be more likely to understand the nature of the problems faced by their constituents.
As a result, you would see states handling similar problems in different ways. Some techniques would be better, some would be worse, and some would just be different. Arizona is simply different than Vermont, so it may handle things differently. Still, this process would allow everyone to learn from both mistakes and successes in a way that a centralized bureaucracy cannot or will not.
Personally, I’d rather see the money spent on veterans go straight to the veterans themselves, in the form of cash payments or vouchers to be used for health care in the private sector. But my point really isn’t to figure out the best way to provide for veterans; it’s to highlight the best way to organize a free society.
One of the chief reasons so many people are angry at Washington right now is that government has become detached from democratic accountability. Obamacare really isn’t a piece of health-care legislation, it’s a huge permission slip for bureaucrats to design a system as they see fit. The same goes for large swaths of the federal government. Congress doesn’t make many decisions about environmental regulations; the EPA does. Moreover, the EPA makes decisions that no Congress would ever approve if the decisions were left to the elected officials. Congress likes it that way, because the politicians would rather complain about bad decisions than take responsibility for tough ones.
That’s not how America is supposed to work. We elect politicians to make decisions. If they make bad ones, we get to fire them come Election Day. The growth of the federal bureaucracy is really a protection racket. It insulates both the bureaucrats and elected officials from the voters they’re supposed to work for.
Giving the hospitals back to the states, along with a proportionate amount of income theft (income tax) with zero strings attached, yes, it would be a good idea.
The states could then contract real hospitals and real doctors, and let’s say have the VA hospitals managed by the state’s National Guard administration. I’d feel very comfortable knowing a fellow military organization is in charge instead of some appointed person that owes allegiance to a political party.
Every program and project becomes self-sustaining because it creates a constituency. That constituency will target those powers it needs to continue to live. That’s the danger of creating anything, anything at all. It develops a life of its own. As Reagan said, “nothing is as close to immortality as a government program.” Every place in America has electric power that wants it. But the Rural electric board gets bigger and more complicated every year. About twenty years ago I saw a list of obsolete government departments and programs and not one has been put into the grave.
Organizational theory says that a bureaucracy has only one goal, to get bigger. Government is society’s cancer.
This last week Trump said that if a certain V. A. hospital wasn’t filling the bill, it should be closed and our men sent to a local medical center to get care.
That suites me fine.
I can think of a lot of other useless destructive wasteful and unconstitutional department that should probably go before the VA, beginning with the $1 trillion HHS.
Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Department of Labor
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
Department of Energy
Department of Education
Department of Homeland Security
Or the doctors. Some of the docs are young guys that are learning, and I see a value with that.
Sure there are a few bad ones, but most I've dealt with are good doctors and they have kept me alive much longer than expected.
There is no simple answer.
The military is a federal function as well as a state and local function.
/johnny
bm
I was out with the wise elder Conservatives for Coffee and crumpets last week. In regards to the VA I got large kudos for floating the following idea:
Whatever plan we give our Vet's ( I prefer an HSA + Direct Primary Care ) POTUS, the HOUSE & SENATE must ALSO use the SAME PLAN.
They must be enroll as well, if it is good enough for our finest in service, it is good enough for them...
I am no longer involved with veterans advocacy, but when I was, I saw too, too many that were unable to care for themselves, much less manage a relatively large sum of money for a health care program, unless it was on the order of vouching the amount of the monthly premium or co-payment.
But even then, I would anticipate problems.
There is no easy solution...but I would start by firing every single damned bureaucratic bean-counting son of a bitch that has managed to finagle him/herself a lifetime cushion job at the expense of the US Government and on the shoulders of veterans.
They are legion, they are in every VA clinic, from Podunk, Iowa to the massive Medical Centers in Birmingham, Vicksburg, Atlanta, New York, Pittsburgh, etc, etc, and they don't give a rat's ass about a veteran.
I have said it before, I say it again: I will die on the damned curb in front of the BEST VA Medical Center in the country, before I will crawl in and accept an aspirin from them.
After the things I have seen in them, I would never be able to hold my temper and not savage one of the worthless pieces of crap that work in them.
Getting rid of he VA is one of Trump’s plans.
Like getting rid of the Dept. of Education was one of Reagan’s?
......”There is no easy solution...but I would start by firing every single damned bureaucratic bean-counting son of a bitch that has managed to finagle him/herself a lifetime cushion job at the expense of the US Government and on the shoulders of veterans.
They are legion, they are in every VA clinic, from Podunk, Iowa to the massive Medical Centers in Birmingham, Vicksburg, Atlanta, New York, Pittsburgh, etc, etc, and they don’t give a rat’s ass about a veteran.
I have said it before, I say it again: I will die on the damned curb in front of the BEST VA Medical Center in the country, before I will crawl in and accept an aspirin from them.
After the things I have seen in them, I would never be able to hold my temper and not savage one of the worthless pieces of crap that work in them”........
*************************
+1 Here, I would not take a sick chicken into the one I have had to deal with.
Disband the VA and give the vets insurance or healthcare vouchers. Simple.
I just use tricare prime and good bourbon ......cheat death when possible. Lot easier than dealing with the VA in person.
Stay Safe Cookie !
Fire the VA Executives, and take away their retirements.
They will then understand that they are responsible for performance.
Once they understand that, they will demand performance from their subordinates.
It appears to me that the VA Executives have lost track of their job responsibilities. They think that they manage buildings and people so that they, the VA Executives, can make more money and have a bigger retirement.
It is the VETERANS Affairs, not the VA Executives Affairs.
Hi Buddy
It was in the paper today that former Chief and Sheriff Bob Stover has passed away at 79.
That sounds familiar. :)
/johnny
The VA, as is the military, is central to this nations survival. The world is a dangerous anti-American place and most of the rest of the world either wants to kill all Americans or has no regret should that happen.
Fewer and fewer of America's youth are even physically capable of serving let alone having the motivation to serve their County.
Seems most that are on this board anymore are just as deluded as the liberals concerning the military. Everyone signing up writes a blank check to this country for which most expect and receive very little in return.
The promises made to induce a recruit to join must be honored,this country is on the hook for what it promises as it should be.
The VA is the only way to honor the commitment this country has made to the men and women in uniform. It could be more efficient and certainly the standard of care across the system can be equalized.
But the bottom line is that there is no profit to be had from most of the Vet's the current system covers and therefore there is no incentive for a nongovernmental entity to tend to the specialized needs of the Veteran.
The primary function of the Government is the national defense, Since the founding that philosophy has preserved this nation and implicit in that function has been unwavering (until now) commitment to those past and present serving in uniform.
Ahhh damn...... he treated me and my EOD team with respect and always thanked us when we assisted APD with suspect packages, IED’s and UXO’s.... he was before my time on the reserves for the county.
Sad day....
The VA is under the power of the big pharmaceutical companies and their K Street offices. How hard will it be to sell the hospitals and “medical centers” to private, not state, enterprises?
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