He’s not military. He doesn’t know how to fight wars. He doesn’t have a clue.
Warfighters should be focused on warfighting and not on education bills, housing benefits, and hospitalization for the former military.
If a general did NOT place priority in his budget on warfighting, I’d fire him.
And that’s why the VA should be separate.
I am former military, and I say the idea has some merit. The military requires a number of auxilary roles to fulfill its overall mission of winning wars. Roles like supply clerks, storekeepers, barbers, weathermen, numerous types of construction fields, musicians, and above all corpsmen!
The military is filled with numerous people to support the medical needs of its soldier, sailors and airmen. Primarily, they're for battlefield injuries, but they're also used for both in- and out-processing, as well as the day-to-day needs of non-battle healthcare needs.
The military also dabbles in providing housing and/or benefits, both off and on-base where situations allow. It would not be a big leap for them to extend this to disabled veterans.
In short, there is plenty of precedent for a VA-style healthcare system to remain under the DoD, rather than be a separate entity. If veterans feel better by having their own separate entity, that's one thing. But as conservatives, we cannot preach for smaller government and not be willing to look at all areas for consolidation.