VETERANS ADMINISTRATION REFORMS THAT WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN (Trump Position Paper)

Trump Campaign Website ^ | October 31, 2016 | Domald J. Trump

[smoothsailing]

October 31, 2015

Veterans Administration Reforms That Will Make America Great Again

The Goals Of Donald J. Trump's Veterans Plan

The current state of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is absolutely unacceptable. Over 300,000 veterans died waiting for care. Corruption and incompetence were excused. Politicians in Washington have done too little too slowly to fix it. This situation can never happen again, and when Donald J. Trump is president, it will be fixed – fast.

The guiding principle of the Trump plan is ensuring veterans have convenient access to the best quality care. To further this principle, the Trump plan will decrease wait times, improve healthcare outcomes, and facilitate a seamless transition from service into civilian life.

The Trump Plan Will:

1. Ensure our veterans get the care they need wherever and whenever they need it. No more long drives. No more waiting for backlogs. No more excessive red tape. Just the care and support they earned with their service to our country.
2. Support the whole veteran, not just their physical health care, but also by addressing their invisible wounds, investing in our service members’ post-active duty success, transforming the VA to meet the needs of 21^st century service members, and better meeting the needs of our female veterans.
3. Make the VA great again by firing the corrupt and incompetent VA executives who let our veterans down, by modernizing the VA, and by empowering the doctors and nurses to ensure our veterans receive the best care available in a timely manner.

The Trump Plan Gives Veterans The Freedom To Choose And Forces The VA To Compete For Their Dollars

Politicians in Washington have tried to fix the VA by holding hearings and blindly throwing money at the problem. None of it has worked. In fact, wait times were 50% higher this summer than they were a year ago. That’s because the VA lacks the right leadership and management. It’s time we stop trusting Washington politicians to fix the problems and empower our veterans to vote with their feet.

Under a Trump Administration, all veterans eligible for VA health care can bring their veteran's ID card to any doctor or care facility that accepts Medicare to get the care they need immediately. Our veterans have earned the freedom to choose better or more convenient care from the doctor and facility of their choice. The power to choose will stop the wait time backlogs and force the VA to improve and compete if the department wants to keep receiving veteran's healthcare dollars. The VA will become more responsive to veterans, develop more efficient systems, and improve the quality of care because it will have no other choice.

The Trump Plan Treats The Whole Veteran

We must care for the whole veteran, not just their physical health. We must recognize that today’s veterans have very different needs than those of the Greatest Generation.

The Trump Plan Will:

1. Increase funding for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury and suicide prevention services to address our veteran's invisible wounds. Service members are five times more likely to develop depression than civilians. They are almost fifteen times more likely to develop PTSD than civilians. This funding will help provide more and better counseling and care. More funding will also support research on best practices and state of the art treatments to keep our veterans alive, healthy and whole. With these steps, the Trump plan will help the veteran community put the unnecessary stigma surrounding mental health behind them and instead encourage acceptance and treatment in our greater society.
2. Increase funding for job training and placement services (including incentives for companies hiring veterans), educational support and business loans. All Americans agree that we must do everything we can to help put our service men and women on a path to success as they leave active duty by collaborating with the many successful non-profit organizations that are already helping. Service members have learned valuable skills in the military but many need help understanding how to apply those skills in civilian life. Others know how to apply those skills but need help connecting with good jobs to support their families. Still others have an entrepreneurial spirit and are ready to start creating jobs and growing the economy. The Trump plan will strengthen existing programs or replace them with more effective ones to address these needs and to get our veterans working.
3. Transform the VA to meet the needs of 21^st century service members. Today’s veterans have very different needs than those of the generations that came before them. The VA must adapt to meet the needs of this generation of younger, more diverse veterans. The Trump plan will expand VA services for female veterans and ensure the VA is providing the right support for this new generation of veterans.
4. Better support our women veterans. The fact that many VA hospitals don’t permanently staff OBGYN doctors shows an utter lack of respect for the growing number female veterans. Under the Trump plan, every VA hospital in the country will be fully equipped with OBGYN and other women's health services. In addition, women veterans can always choose a different OBGYN in their community using their veteran’s ID card.

The Trump Plan Will Make The VA Great Again

The VA health care program is a disaster. Some candidates want to get rid of it, but our veterans need the VA to be there for them and their families. That’s why the Trump plan will:

1. Fire the corrupt and incompetent VA executives that let our veterans down. Under a Trump Administration, there will be no job security for VA executives that enabled or overlooked corruption and incompetence. They’re fired. New leadership will focus the VA staff on delivering timely, top quality care and other services to our nation’s veterans. Under a Trump Administration, exposing and addressing the VA's inefficiencies and shortcomings will be rewarded, not punished.
2. End waste, fraud and abuse at the VA. The Trump plan will ensure the VA is spending its dollars wisely to provide the greatest impact for veterans and hold administrators accountable for irresponsible spending and abuse. The days of $6.3 million for statues and fountains at VA facilities and $300,000 for a manager to move 140 miles are over. The Trump plan will clean up the VA's finances so the current VA budget provides more and better care than it does now.
3. Modernize the VA. A VA with 20^th century technology cannot serve 21^st century service members and their needs. The VA has been promising to modernize for years without real results. The Trump plan will make it happen by accelerating and expanding investments in state of the art technology to deliver best-in-class care quickly and effectively. All veterans should be able to conveniently schedule appointments, communicate with their doctors, and view accurate wait times with the push of a button.
4. Empower the caregivers to ensure our veterans receive quality care quickly. Caregivers should be able to easily streamline treatment plans across departments and utilize telehealth tools to better serve their patients. As we have seen from the private sector, the potential for new, innovative technology is endless. Abandoning the wasteful and archaic mindset of the public sector will give way to tremendously effective veteran healthcare.
5. Hire more veterans to care for veterans. The more veterans we have working at the VA, the better the VA will be. They understand the unique challenges facing their community. To increase the number of veterans hired by the VA, this plan will add an additional 5 points to the qualifying scores of veterans applying for VA jobs.
6. Embed satellite VA clinics in rural and other underserved areas. The Trump Administration will embed satellite VA clinics within hospitals and other care facilities in rural and other underserved areas. This step will ensure veterans have easy access to care and local hospitals and care facilities can handle the influx of patients without backlogs while tapping the specialized knowledge of VA health specialists.

[smoothsailing]

My pleasure, and thank you!

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

Wow!

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

Go Trump!

[sitetest]

I’m serious in my appreciation for your prayers.

I agree that we should not disparage each other. Candidates pasts and their proposals are fair game, as long as the criticisms are based on something factual.

I have offered my views of the leading candidate’s past, and his tax, 2nd Amendment, and VA proposals. I found his tax proposal was great, but I was disappointed by the lack of follow-up on the spending side. Just vague generalities. But without deep cuts, the national debt would skyrocket. But without a total reconstruction of Social Security and Medicare, it’s not possible.

If and when he proposes massive changes to those programs, I’ll look at them, too, and render an opinion. It’s what voters do.

I then looked at his 2nd Amendment proposal. I thought it was pretty good. But a lot of those ideas have been kicked around by Republican thinkers and writers for some time. So, it was pretty good, but fairly orthodox. AND I didn’t comment on it. I think his ideas are good ones on the topic, but not terribly exciting.

Now, I was excited by Cruz’ tax proposal. 10% rate?? Oh boy!! And no payroll tax!?!? Since I am self-employed, and I pay the whole thing, myself, I see it all, the whole, ugly, 15.3%, not just the employee’s side of 7.65%. So, it’s WAY better than trump’s proposal for folks, especially the self-employed. And unlike trump’s tax proposal, it doesn’t leave a trillion dollars added debt per year. That means that additional cuts in spending may come close to closing the deficit. Without drastic (and politically difficult, or even impossible) cuts in Social Security and Meducare.

But two things I really don’t like about Cruz’ plan is the business tax and that he hasn’t told us where he’d attack spending except, perhaps in generalities.

I’m not crazy at all about the business tax because it’s really a VAT, and I’m REALLY not excited about adding that to Congress’ taxing arsenal. Also, his plan is so close to revenue neutral, that there is much less to substantially reduce government spending.

Oh, wait, did I just say something bad about “my” candidate ?? So sorry! But I want to discuss these guys, pro or con. I’m still thinking about my final view on Cruz’ tax plan.

trump’s VA plan, on the other hand, is more focused on “reforming” the VA bureaucracy. Wrong approach. That’s top, down. And the Medicare thing? That’s trying to solve the problem by throwing more government at it.

I would have been much more impressed if he’d have proposed a healthcare fix, first, and then indicated how to fold VA into the new system.

By the way, a good market-reform of healthcare would enable a radical reform of Medicare, as well as the VA. Which would enable really big savings that would go a long way to paying for trump’s tax plan.

Someone asked me for an alternative earlier in this thread, and I briefly outlined a market-based reform for healthcare. It is based a little on my own intensive experiences of the last few months, but the far greater part is my readings of conservative think-tanks, and writers over the last 30 years, and a little as an employer who has provided low-cost health insurance to my workers for over 20 years.

That’s because I actually care about the issues and the candidates who propose them. Not about name calling.

[Jane Long]

Hubby shuddered when he read about the VAT tax in Cruz’ plan. He said....NO!!! We can’t let that camel’s nose in the tent, too!

He’s right. Congress always says it won’t be but a 2% - 3% tax, to START. It ALWAYS goes up....once they have the avenue to get that extra $$ from our wallets. Look at Europe. VAT tax there is just insane. (It started out *minuscule*, too.)

[sitetest]

That is a valid criticism of Sen. Cruz’ tax plan. It is the one I just made.

But keep in mind, he is proposing a net receipts tax, which is not quite a VAT, but it’s similar. I don’t like it. In a VAT, the state looks at the value added by a business, and taxes it. Sen. Cruz takes gross reciepts and taxes the cost of products sold from that and taxes that. Not quite a VAT, but maybe kissing-cousins?

I guess if Cruz allows enough business deductions prior to the tax, it might operate more like a corporate income tax. And we already have one.

But then, much of the revenue raising is lost, and much of the simplification of the code is lost. These are the dilemmas that need to be discuseed.

What I would like to do is find a way to ask candidates these questions without them attacking us as if they are offended by the questions. trump is the worst of these on this account.

And I would like it if posters could offer these criticisms and not be called names.

[stephenjohnbanker]

You know the truth, so just ignore them, like I do.

[DoughtyOne]

Just thinking of a newbie here, not knowing the truth.

Otherwise, I agree.

[stephenjohnbanker]

: )

[DoughtyOne]

You know what, so did I.  I was approached early on by a person asking if I would support Trump.  I told them I couldn't see myself doing that.  He asked me to visit a site and take a look.  I appologetically stated it wouldn't make any difference.  I couldn't see myself supporting him. fired Trump here  Shortly after this I heard more and more about Trump in the Media. still doubting doubting but questioning I found myself liking what I was hearing.  After a while he was making far too much sense for me to ignore him.  expressed here  At that point I voiced support for him pretty much solely to provide a basis for others to tell themselves it was okay to listen, to make up their own mind. expressed here  In time, I came to the place that I realized it would have to be too big a hoax for it all to be a put-on.  You can tell when someone is just voicing something they don't believe in.  Look at John McCain when he says something Conservative.  He'll trip himself up in hours if not days.  Trump has been consistent for months.  Each new policy paper falls well within my comfort zone  I also follow the people who support him.  For the most part they are people who are good Conservatives.  They don't make outlandish claims.  If they challenge another candidate's beliefs, they do it on point.  They don't need to lie or make stuff up.  I wish I could say that about some of the 5 percenter's supporters here.
I have never been bashful about "bashing" candidates whom I do not favor. I started this cycle fully expecting to trash Trump.

I agree with this thought.  Illegal aliens, Government Spending/the National Debt, Defense: the Military, Defense: Veterans, Obamacare, the Department of Education / Common Core, jobs, reasoned trade...  Most of it is right out of Reagan's playbook.  As for Scott Walker, I liked his activity against the unions very much.  He seemed a strong leader.  Somewhere along the way, I lost faith in him.  It didn't help that I saw people supporting him that had also supported Perry in 2012.  That sent up a major red flag for me.  I thought Perry was a RINO, and was fairly sure 'the team' was in the tank for another guy they thought would tow the GOPe line.  I may have been wrong, but I wasn't the only person to percieve of hm that way.    
I do find, however, that on one issue after another, he is convincing me that he is the real thing. I wanted Scott Walker because I very much admire how he has manhandled the left in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, his candidacy was not to be successful.

I started out on the Cruz ping list and had to rethink my emphasis once I realized it would take more than just being right on the issues.  You have to get the nomination.  Can Cruz do that?  I don't think so.  He will be selected with the votes of Demcrats, Independents, and Moderate Republicans, as well as the votes of Conservatives.  Who wins that battle?  Who has the numbers?  If it's Cruz, I don't think he gets the nomination during the primary process.  If it's Trump and he's pulling crossover votes, maybe.  Carson may be the fly in that ointment.  I hope not.  It will defeat our best chance in over 30 years if he defeats Trump for the nomination.    
I now want Ted Cruz. Nonetheless, while I originally would not have voted for Trump even if he were nominated, I have paid attention to his campaign. He is a gifted campaigner and communicator. He is bringing back the "Reagan Democrats" (an incredibly important issue to me). He has established credibility on immigration, an issue on which I am a convert. He is right. I had been wrong. His position paper on the RTKBA arms satisfied me. My impression is that he will resist these infernal "trade" deals that are impoverishing American workers and our nation. I trust him to rebuild the military and particularly the Navy. I trust that he really means to "Make America Great Again."

He tells a believable line of progression on Right ot Life.  He has changed his mind over the years.  He now considers himself pro-life.  What that means in real terms, and what it means for a president anyway, remains to be seen.  Could we expect Carson, Rubio, Fiorina, or Bush to be solid on it?  I doubt it.  Cruz would be, but then again you run into the nomination issue.  It does none of us any good to push a guy for the nomination against all odds.  If he's still down in the 5-10% range, it's asking a lot to go on blind faith and push only him.  I think you have to go for the guy that actually has a chance and supports most of what we believe in.  Bush took measures to end government funded abortions in the military.  Beyond that, not much happened.  (Sorry if I am forgetting more here)  At any rate, I'm not sure what folks expect Trump to do with regard to right to life.  Maybe Cruz can tell us what he'd do.  Perhaps he has a plan in mind.  Beyond defunding Planned Parenthood, I'm not sure what else a president can do, and even then it has to get through the Capital Hill process..
My remaining doubts are on Right to Life, resistance to perversion posing as "marriage," and similar issues that have always been of great importance to me.

I don't think in terms of you being stubborn.  I think in terms of you having core beliefs and remaining constant.  All the time we are confronted with choices that make us have to determine what path to take.  It isn't easy in these the days of "the lessor of two eveils" dilemas.  If folks think it is easy for me to back Trump, they're wrong.  I back him with reservations.  I can't sit idly by and watch another flaming Communist/Islamacist be elected.  Right now I am doing my best to make sure we have a choice in November 2016.  That is more vital this election than ever before.  And while that is said every election, we are not $20 Trillion dollars in debt every election.  This has to stop NOW!
I shall continue to pay respectful attention to him and his campaign. If you are familiar with my posting history, you know I am a quite stubborn fellow on such trash as Willard, McCain, Dole, Bush the Elder,Ford, Nixon and many others.

I try to be honest about my guy's faults.  I linked a problem I had with him early on above.  The one where "fired Trump here".  Like you I had to take a look at him overall, and also realize that he has already corrected two mistakes he made withing 24 hours.  He's learning.  He's a big enough man to realize his doesn't know it all, and change his mind publicly.  As you say, nobody is perfect..  I expect him to make mistakes.  All the others have.
If Trump turns out to be a phony (which I do not expect him to be), this nation may well be over. I would also bet you that I am not the only hardliner here who is at least tempted by Trump. I believe that you have always been a hardliner as well. Treat us skeptics respectfully if you want our support for Trump and you and he may well get that support. Keep us fully informed and be honest with us if he blunders. We understand that no one since Our Savior has been perfect.

I apprecaite that.  I've even gone so far as to defend Cruz to a Cruz supporter while they were posting the same types of lies about Trump on the forum.  Some people have no class at all.  They think they're doing "the Lord's work" by doing stuff like that.  What they are doing is embarrassing their own candidate and others who support him.  I try to be factual when taking on Cruz or others.  As for Megan Kelly, she really pushed the boundaries with me.  I don't go down this "misogynist" path with women.  When there isn't even a word to define women who disrespect all men, that sets up a red flag for me.  Kelly brought up a public spat from over nine years before between Trump and Rosie O'Donnell to smear Trump as a misogynist.  Trump has a very good record of hiring women.  His upper management team had excellent representation in the early 90s.  I'm not talkin inferior jobs here.  One woman was the lead on his his largest project.  His first wife was the manager at Trump Towers.  I believe his top level management teams are about 50% female.  Kelly couldn't discover this on her own to avoid that low road tactic?  If not, she's not a very good reporter.  He has a great relationship with his daughter.  Again, for the record.  I have since heard trump use that blood shooting from thier eyes comment or a varient with about four other people.  It's a term he uses.  Some folks thought he was making it up to trash Kelly.  No.  He was merely giving her the same treatment he would a man.  All the other people I heard him use in on were men.  So much for the blood coming from the wrong place charge.  It was all a big media ploy to take him down.  They couldn't do it.  I am happy this guy has the temerity to challenge their narrative.  Good for him.  Good for us. 
If people are unfair to Trump, I will join you in going after them. JimRob seems supportive of him and that counts for a lot. Many of those who are usually my allies here have gone over to Trump before me and I have not joined them yet but I am prepared to defend him against unjust attacks. I do wish that he had avoided the ungallant attack on Megan Kelly. No one is perfect. Neither is she.

I apprecaite the kind comments.  They are flattering.  I blow it too.
Continue to be the good person and solid conservative that you have always been here (in my experience). Many more than you may suspect will pay attention to your opinions. You have earned that right.

The same to you.  Again, I appreciate your note.
May God bless you and yours!

I took longer to reply than I had meant to.  I wanted to look up some comments I had made on the forum, to link in.  I spent several hours looking for one conversation from the May time frame talking about my chances of supporting Trump.  It was more expressive than the ones I did find. but I couldn't find it.

[DoughtyOne]

The Missouri was my favorite because I grew up there. I also at one point thought my father had served on it. I laugh now. He somehow lost his uniform in the laundry. He had to go over to the Missouri to get a replacement. That was his stint on the Missouri.

None the less, it’s still a nice factoid that my father had at one point been on the ship with that amazing history.

[DoughtyOne]

I have looked at trump’s alleged solutions, and instead of real market reforms, he is basically trying big government “solutions” that are implemented drop the top, down.  

Well you mustn't have looked very hard, because that is incorrect.  He plans on cutting big government spending.  He plans on creating a very favorable job creation environment.  He plans on paying down the debt.  He plans on revoking Obamacare and replacing it with a private sector plan.  Big government solutions?  Really?

Let's take a look at his replacement plan for Obamacare.  Obamacare is high priced, hopes to wind up with single payer, and eliminates people's old health care plans and physicians.

Trump plans on lowering state lines so Insurance companies can compete nationwide.  This will create competition that will lower rates and cause a proliferation of available policies.

Big government solution?  LOL  Nice try.  That's just one example of Trump getting big government out of the way.  He also plans on shuttering the Department of Education, and is making noiese like he plans on the same for the EPA.

He is cutting taxes across the baord.  Big government fix?  Really?

This is familiar to him. He’s a crony capitalist, and he’s made a bunch of money as a crony capitlost.

Trump has taken advantag of every tax break open to him.  I'll bet you do too.  Tell us which tax break you pass on, just to be a good citizen.  He has also taken advantage of other protections such as Chapter 11, or perhaps another code category for bankruptcy.  This is not crony capitalism.  It's something available for every U. S. citizen under the proper circumstances.  Yes you too..., so would using it make you a crony citizen, or just an average citizen who got into trouble and needed an orderly way out?

He took a fortune of some tens, or perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars from his father and turned it into as much as $4 billion. Crony capitalism has treated him very well.

This is not an example of Crony Capitalism.  It merely makes you look silly and fraudulent when you use that term improperly.  This is the second time in this post alone.  Around 1989-90, Trump's empire came under severe negative economic pressure.  One major magazine estimated his net worth at -$150 million dollars.  So when you state that his father handed off a fortune and Trump parlayed that into $4 billion, it's not the truth.  He parlayed -$150 million inito $4 billion.  You aren't very well informed are you.     

On the other hand, you’re arguing that if his statist “solutions” don’t work, he’ll keep trying until he finds something that does work.

Yawn.  This is the best you can do?  Seriously?  They are not statist solutions.  They are anti-statist solutions.

That’s an assertion that you are inferring from his alleged business success.

Alleged?  Put down the bong and go take a nap.  Turning -$150 million into between a $4 and $10 billion dollar net worth is an "alleged success"?  You really are a clueless wonder aren't you..

But the evidence is that when something doest work for him, he disengages. He walks away.

No, walking away would be allowing his business to fold, thus hurting his employees, the local community, and various taxing agencies.  Above you referred to him as a Crony Capitalist because he didn't just walk away.  He filed for bankruptcy and maintained these businesses.  You trash him if he does, and then trash him as if he hadn't.  Did that even dawn on you?  Doubtful...

Besides his four bankruptcies, he’s had many smaller businesses from which he’s walked away. Starting with his four bankruptcies, he’s walked away from Atlantic city. He says he got out before Atlantic City became unprofitable. But it’s still profitable. There are other casino and hotels operators there still making money. There is increased competition. It is harder to make money. Operating margins are slimmer. But some operators still make money. But trump, instead of figuring out how to fix the businesses in Atlantic City, ultimately walked away from them. As well as smaller ventures such as trump steaks, trump mortgages, trump vodka, and trump: the game.

Once again, filing for bankruptcy is not walking away, so that red sentence above makes it clear you have no grasp of these matters.  And yet here you are spouting off anyway.

As for the closings of any of his businesses, I'm thinking Trump's economic team probably has a few more notches on it's belt than you do.  The businesses he did shutter were ventures that didn't pan out in the long run.  So what.  His net worth went up.  His number of employees went up.  His holdings went up.  He is asked to manage properties all over the world.  Are the people who hire Trump industruies to manage their properties more accurate with regard to who Trump is.  Quite likely...

That’s all right. As a busunessman, you might try a number of ventures, and onl y stick with the ones that work out. trump has done that well. He has taken a formidable fortune from his father and kept pace with that fortune probably a little faster t h an inflation. Many come into large fortunes and squander them. trump has not. He will pass a larger fortune to his children than he received from his parents.

First of all, Trump didn't just get handed money and turn it into something massive.  During an economic down-turn he more than lost it all.  Only through a tough nature and a dogged determination did he turn it around.  You minimize his accomplishment to belittle him.  Now you compliment him as if you didn't say what you did here and above.  LOL  You are one confused individual.

But in government, walking away may not be a viable option. At least if you’re not going to leave the people hanging.

I was waiting breathlessly for something of value from your post.  Still waiting...

In private business, if you walk away, you may directly affect some laid-off workers you may stiff some contractors, some bond holers, but the damage is limited.

There are factors to be weighed.  You do the best you can and make a determination.  You're whole management team is involved.  Do you continue to support a sinking ship, or do you cut losses to each entitiy by making a tough decision?

These types of decisions are made every day in this nation.  It's part of the business process.

In government, if you walk away, you may affect hundreds of thousands, or millions. Or even all of us.

Walk away.  Good grief.  In government if you try something that doesn't work, you tweak it.

Trump's whole platform is based on tweaking the Obama minefield.  He won't be able to talk away.  You'll be able to sleep okay.  After reading this post, I could be wrong on that.  You're obviously quite the worry wart, and you don't know how things work.  I can see how that would be quite disconcerting.

[Candor7]

They had beautiful service uniforms, which is why khaki pants are still in vogue today.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the mention. I like that look myself. I have a pair of pants in the closet.