Posted on 07/16/2014 8:20:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Department of Veterans Affairs needs $17.6 billion in additional funds over the next three years to meet patients’ needs and fix the troubled agency’s problems, its acting director said Wednesday.
Testifying for the first time on Capitol Hill, interim VA Secretary Sloan Gibson told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that the money would help VA medical centers decrease appointment waiting times and hire more doctors.
But the request divided lawmakers. Democrats, including Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, supported the appeal, while Republicans, including Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, questioned whether VA care would improve if it received additional funding.
“This sounds so similar to what we’ve heard over the years,” Johanns said, adding that the committee had routinely met previous VA requests for additional funding.
“If you can’t clean up your act, then guess what? You lose out,” he said. “I don’t think you need more billions and billions of dollars.”
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
And Obama needs $11 Billion because the highway fund has run out of money.
I wonder what department is going to be the next to ran out of money...
V A ping.
Hell, I’m a bargain, then. I only need 1 billion to fix my problems.
Sorry. All the taxpayer dollars are going to Barry’s Kids. The veterans are going to have to wait. The majority of them don’t vote DemocRAT anyway so there is nothing in it for the ‘RATS.
Outsource it.
Dump the VA and go to a voucher system. Problem solved. And now the leeches at the VA can get a job where they’re expected to produce.
Wait,what? I swear only a week or two ago there was a story about the VA having more money than it could spend and we all wondered why if that was the case the Vets were getting such crappy care!
I assume the doctors are on salary. I have also heard they see a ridiculously low number of patients per day.
So here is the answer. You work every weekend until the back log is worked off. Ta Da.
No extra money.
How’s this? Everyone who works at the VA is fired as of now. Every veteran who needs help can choose his own doctor and the feds pick up the tab.
Social Security and SSDI.
Never let a crisis or scandal go to waste. Cronies need money.
You’re right. Good catch. I remember the article.
It’s all they know, the answer to everything. Give us more. No shame for how they have been treating veterans, no one held responsible, no ones fault. The same people will do the same jobs but will do it better because they have 17 Billion more.
It deserves no response except your fired
If one cent is allocated to the VA the Congress needs it’s head examined. The VA has been well funded for years. It’s mismanagement that caused the mess. Throwing more at them will fix nothing.
I was told I needed a liver biopsy back in April, I had to wait until June to get it done and it took another month to meet with the MD for the results the results. The cost of that biopsy would have been 8-10k in a civilian hospital (I priced it) but it only cost the VA about 1/3 of that.
I am used to the long wait times it comes with the territory. The Veteran patient population is older and sicker than the population as a whole and this trend will only continue for at least the next 50 years.
The VA has been a good political target for the past few months but its going to cost much much more to cut down on the wait times, to get veterans seen and procedures done faster no matter how many employees the VA fires as so many here advocate.
Tell you what, give all Vets a voucher and then shut up and pay for it when the bills come in.
But that wont happen...because the idiot politicians are not interested in actually providing the promised care for the Veteran they are only interested in getting reelected.
Fire everyone at the VA. The system is replete with negative-attitude people. Give the Vets insurance and let them use whatever doc they want. This is a mismanaged agency that is out of control. For goodness sake...they even murder Vets by neglect then give themselves bonuses. Fire them all and bulldoze the facilities.
The GOP-e will grab the ankles for us and approve anything: BOHICA.
But be pay for it....through higher taxes in the next 50 years. Something I'm sure you oppose.
You do realize there are 20 million Veterans and about 7 million in the VA health system now? Provide insurance to that 13 million for say 10k a pop to the tax payer that's a cool 130 billion. The those 7 million in the system now.. maybe a hundred thousand on average per vet per year, what's that 7 trillion..
If the American tax payer would pay for it I have no problem with your suggestion but we both know they wont pay far more than they are paying now.
The VA can and does work well for a majority of Veterans at a reasonable cost to the taxpayer. The goal should be to fix whats broken not start over with a far costlier system in the long run.
OK. I’ll pay my part. The VA is full of evil.
They need more money to pay more bonuses.
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