Posted on 08/31/2015 8:25:07 AM PDT by xzins
Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson told the Dave Ramsey show on Wednesday that the Department of Veterans Affairs should be folded into the Department of Defense and VA facilities should only be used for specialized care like traumatic brain injuries and limb replacement procedures.
“The size of government has to be reduced significantly. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re doing that doesn’t make any sense. We have a Department of Veterans Affairs. We don’t need a Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs should be in under the Department of Defense, and it should be smooth transition,” said Carson.
The Republican presidential candidate said the U.S. should also examine how it cares for soldiers and that they should be in a support system immediately when they enlist, especially when they go into combat.
“We need to be looking at the way that we take care of soldiers. You know 14 percent down recruitment for our voluntary Army right now. Why? Because they’re looking at what we’re doing to our veterans,” he said.
“When a person applies to the military, they should be in a support system immediately from day one, particularly when they go through combat, because that’s when all the trauma is occurring, and we should have people in place a year before their time of discharge to be working on their integration back into society,” Carson added.
“There shouldn’t be a period of unemployment when they come out of the military, and they should have a health savings account, which allows them to go to any medical facility in the country, and we should be delighted to take care of them,” he said.
“We should use the VA facilities for specialized care for traumatic brain injury, limb replacements, and research,” Carson added.
I was in the same time you were... and you don’t have a pea brain, thank you.
Like Rush always says:
The purpose of the military is the kill people and break things.
I agree with you. Leave the DOD to its mission of winning wars.
Keep the VA separate from them AND keep the promises to the vets!
The doctors and staff at VA have done excellent jobs with everything from cancer care to heart surgery to colonectomies in my family.
They’ve got some fine medical care. They need more of it, and they need less bureaucracy on the actual health care side of their mission. The bureaucracy consumes tons of money that could be spent on more actual care and the doctors and staff to provide it.
The only way to government waste, fraud and abuse is to reduce the size of government.
-— Veterans, of all groups in the USA, should have their own special advocates, their own special budgets, and access to specialized health care. -—
Let them compete with private hospitals and then —and only then— will they finally improve.
The VA should simply be a board with a budget, giving health insurance vouchers to servicemen, and extra money to wounded vets to spend at the hospital of their choice.
You mean it is not about integrating transsexuals, suppressing religious freedom it fighters???
Excellent. That's part of my complaint, too. Why do these politicians always ignore the Education department, the EPA, Endowment for the Arts, the IRS, etc., and go straight after (1) veterans and (2) soldier salaries and benefits?
I think they're sick SOBs to even think of veterans and troops in their first sentence.
I think Carson is a decent man with some decent views.
Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson...
Folks, this guy was a good neurosurgeon. That ranks him on a scale of 1 to 10 in executive experience, a 3 or 4.
In general this means he had an office with five to ten employees. Even then he may have hired an office manager.
Is he truly qualified to be president?
Just holding decent idea does not make one presidential.
agree...
Why, when people look at the size of government, do politicians always look at injuring veterans as one of their first and best options?
...
I read the article and I came away with a totally different impression. If the way we care for veterans is reformed for the better, I don’t think it would be a drag on the DOD at all.
The routine care would be done by vouchers or savings accounts at regular facilities.
I have no problem with competition (although ObamaCare will make that virtually impossible even for the non-veteran).
I’m opposed to putting our warfighters in the bad position of having to choose between weapons and training on the one hand, and after-service care for the former military.
If I were a general and I didn’t worry FIRST about money for winning wars, I hope someone would fire me.
My mother, God rest her soul, was a very dedicated nurse in the VA for decades (through Vietnam and long afterwards). I cannot tell you how many times she came home dejected at the people that ran the hospital, even as my own father was relegated to being treated by them.
I am glad the experience you have with family members was excellent. That is not the case throughout that agency.
Carson is herded by the party insiders. Same with Walker etc. All prepaid.
It is not possible to have a laser focus on winning wars if you are required by law to focus elsewhere.
Not sure anything would change under the DOD, but it would be cheaper to put them all on tri-care and let them go to whatever doc they choose.
Veterans are not military ...theyre private citizens, unattached to the government as soldiers are..
Why do we need a VA hospital next to the Cleveland Clinic? In Columbia, Missouri there is an old VA hospital next to a state of the art MIZZOU hospital. All these hospital do is photo ops for politicians at grand opening ribbon cutting ceremonies. After that, they serve no purpose.
I really like Ben Carson but (and that's a big BUT) I just don't think he's strong enough to be President. In some polls he's 2nd and I understand where people are coming from but to be President you have to be strong, fearless and able to twist arms to get what you want done. I don't see that, much as I like him I would liken his demeanor to be like Jimmy Carter. I don't see that ability to twist arms to get the job done. He's more of a "sit down and let's talk about it kind of guy".
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