The repugicans claim that the problem at the VA isn't one of not
spending enough -- cover for Congress giving Obama less than he asked
for -- because the…
The rpugicans do not understand relativity, causation, or math.
They claim that the problem at the Veterans
Administration (VA) isn’t one of not spending enough, because the budget
has gone up. This is cover for Congress giving Obama less than he asked
for, and reminiscent of their argument that their refusal to fund
embassy security to Hillary Clinton’s request had nothing to do with the
failure of security, even though she warned them that such a thing
could happen.
When the repugican cabal fingers start pointing, their “responsibility” is negated before it’s even argued. To wit, Hot Air tries to argue that since budgets have gone up, the problem at the VA isn’t a lack of resources (my bold):
Over the last few days,
some have suggested that the issue at the VA has been a lack of
resources, by which the US has shortchanged the VA in budgets and in
patient spending. While one can argue whether resources within the VA
have been adequately focused — which is a leadership issue — one cannot argue that the VA has lacked for resources from Congress in the form of budgets or per-patient spending.
OMB historical data on budget outlays by department
are easily available at the White House website, and the spreadsheet
tells a very interesting story. Since 9/11, the VA budget has increased
by 235%, from FY2001-s $45 billion annual budget to FY2014-s $150.7
billion.
Yes, the budget has gone up. Any guesses as to why?
Do you suppose two wars started by the repugican pretender have
anything to do with increasing budgets for the Veterans Administration?
Aw, shucks. It can’t be, because wars are free. The shrub told us so when he
left them off of the budget.
Hot Air then tried to blame Obama for the 2009
budget since he “signed” it, but it was the shrub’s budget — drafted under the shrub before Obama ever took office, and implemented before Obama took
office.
The shrub proposed spending $3.1 trillion
(“not including TARP, Other Bailouts, And Other Emergency Spending”) in
2009 and he signed all of the spending bills. Federal spending rose by
17.9% from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. In other words, the shrub spent
the money. Not Obama.
Furthermore, even the shrub knew that with the rise in
wars, there would be a rise in veterans, thus he requested $38.7 billion
for veteran medical care. Mind you, the wars were still ongoing and
not in drawdown phase at this point, and injuries sustained during
active duty are handled by TRICARE, not the VA.
So when
PolitiFact
begrudgingly admitted that yes, Congress has spent less money on the VA
than Obama requested, on average about $2 billion a year less, they
thought it a mere drop in the bucket. Not relevant.
But also, Senate repugicans blocked a bill to increase VA funding by $21 million
this February. “The bill contained provisions that would restore the
COLA for vets, and protect them from losing their benefits in the event
of another government shutdown. It also would have authorized the
construction of 27 new clinics and medical facilities, and it would have
provided tuition assistance to post-9/11 vets.”
Oh, sure, that’s nothing – just protecting vets from repugican obstruction via another temper tantrum shutdown and new
clinics. Nothing.
It’s nothing until one recalls that the shrub started two
wars and wars make veterans. Yes, the VA was already struggling to meet
the new demands resulting from the “War on Terror”. In December of
2004, the VA faced a funding crisis that kept it from providing
disability ratings to veterans. Funding matters.
And it’s not like repugicans were unaware that there was a problem when they blocked funding. In March of 2013, some vets were waiting up to 506 days for benefits.
It was found then that “As the population of new veterans has swelled
in recent years, the annual number of claims received by VBA has gone
up. Compared to the past, these claims have a higher number of disabling
conditions, and some of these conditions, such as traumatic brain
injuries, make their assessment complex.”
I’ll make this simple: New wars made new veterans
which resulted in more claims, additionally, more than in the past,
these new claims presented with a higher number of disabling conditions.
In addition to over 4,000 American lives, the “War
on Terror” costs will keep rising for the next 30-40 years and medical
and disability costs will total between $600 billion and $1 trillion,
according to a Brown University 20111
Costs of War report.
And most importantly, “Finally, although veterans’
care comprises the fourth largest category of government spending, the
magnitude of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ costs is grossly understated
in government projections.”
So you see, by filibustering veterans benefits and
giving the President less funding than he requested for the VA, repugicans are “starving the beast”. To say that funding went up does
not equate to the funding was enough.
So no, we can’t run around cutting funding to the
VA. If we can’t afford the VA in the long term, then this conflict
needs to be resolved before we invade a country based on a lie. Not
after. A responsible party would have raised revenues to pay for this,
instead of cutting taxes and giving corporations government subsidies.
Dr. Michael F. Roizen, who trained at a VA hospital,
opined that the VA problems were related to funds,
“And my guess is that is the VA’s problem as well – when these wars
were started, our government didn’t plan for the VA budget to treat the
soldier victims. And Congress still hasn’t allocated enough funds to
adequately do so.” Bingo.
The truth of the matter is that both parties are to
blame for the failures of the VA (as is our culture of ignoring veterans
while flag waving for war), but at this specific time in history, the
biggest fault lay in the fact that we had 2 wars that were not planned
for or paid for in any way prior to entering them, nor were any efforts
made to fund their costs during the entire shrub junta. Instead, repugicans cut taxes and found no alternative method of providing
revenue for their “deficits don’t matter” spending.
Wars cost money. They continue to cost money long
after they are over, only these costs do not go to contractors so they
are ignored. Pretending that this isn’t the case is the real scandal.
The most distasteful thing about the repugican attacks right now is for
years liberals have been trying to get repugicans to pay attention to
our nation’s veterans. Who knew it would take a Democratic president
that they could blame in order for them to see.
But now that they have, there’s no excuse for turning away.
he
great media punditry and political pontificators are all aflutter over
the VA fiasco from Phoenix and elsewhere. John McCain can’t run to the
microphone fast enough to offer up his two cents while FOX, CNN and
MSNBC are in full competitive outrage mode, each seeking to outdo the
other with flashing chyrons of righteous fury. The circus is loud and
shrill and full of sparkly shiny hollow indignation.
