USA TODAY: …The failure to fully staff hospitals is one reason why the Department of Veterans Affairs paid for 1.5 million veterans to see doctors outside the agency in the past year, VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson testified late last month. Those private visits have cost U.S. taxpayers more than $7.7 billion, the VA said.
The added expenses have left the VA with a $2.6 billion shortfall this year, prompting VA Secretary Bob McDonald to plead with lawmakers Thursday to quickly pass a bill that would give him flexibility to shift money within the VA budget to cover the gap.
Gibson testified before Congress June 26 that the shortfall would not have been so large “if we were fully staffed up.” … (more)
One of the GOP’s greatest wins would have to be in fooling much of the public into thinking that the Obama administration is responsible for the fiasco the VA is when in fact it was the Republican Congresses and Republican Presidents going back to Reagan that have underfunded the VA.
I know, I am a veteran and would never expect anything from that dysfunctional nightmare bureaucracy. I also believe that the VA should be taking care of combat wounded, service related injured and then retired military. The idea that all these “war” veterans that were part of the illegal occupation of Iraq now need extensive care from the VA is absurd. War time service doesn’t mean they served in real combat and were wounded.
The inability to focus care on those that deserve it and need it with anyone looking for a handout is now the policy of the Republicans clearly an attempt to buy veterans votes. I know better.