Throwing money away at the VA
I found this story at Vets’ Voice and although dicksmith is exited about it, I think it’s the worst waste of money in the Federal government. The VA is sponsoring a NASCAR participant in the name of the new GI Bill;
The idea, according to Veterans Affairs Department officials, is to get the GI Bill plastered on a racecar and frequently mentioned by broadcasters to spread the word about the availability of the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
Really? Is there someone out there who is eligible but isn’t aware of the post 9-11 GI Bill? If I remember correctly, people had trouble GETTING the new benefit…and they all knew they were eligible. Then, after the VA gave them their money, they had to go around and collect the advance payment back.
So the problem isn’t letting people know about the new GI Bill, it’s paying them the benefit they earned.
The combined cost of sponsoring a car and the race will be about $420,000, a significant part of a $1 million advertising campaign that also includes buying ads in college newspapers and in online publications to try to reach eligible service members and veterans, VA officials said.
What a ginormous waste of money. Give me the fucking million bucks and I’ll personally knock on every door in America and tell residents about the GI Bill whether they’re eligible or not.
Of course dicksmith would think it’s a good use of government funds – he pees himself everytime VoteVets does a million dollar ad buy for the energy bill. And Rick Maze wrote the Army Times article, so my two favorite propagandists are involved in this story told by idiots.
Category: Usual Suspects
The Oregon National Guard laid off over 200 full time guardsmen recently. About half of them were still in Iraq when they got their pink slips. They, too, have a car — as does the National Guard. While NASCAR is great fun, I don’t want my tax dollars supporting it.
This is a waste of money. The US Army already sponsors the #39 car driven by Ryan Newman. Now I realize the VA operates separately from the active duty but still I would think some sort of arrangement could be worked out. Granted the GI BIll applies to all service members not just Army but since the Air Force and Navy also sponsor cars I would think they could combine efforts here.
The NASCAR participants are high-profile, and the sponsors are noticed. Maybe it could be a good thing?
Pinto; as Jonn said, there isn’t a service member out there that doesn’t know if they’re eligible for the post 9/11 GI Bill, so it’s a waste of money to “spread the word”, so to speak. The problem has been in them actually getting the money they qualify for, so that $1 million could be used to cut checks for school, rather than end up in a heap at a redneck wreckfest event.
Of course, that’s just my opinion and doesn’t reflect the views of those that like NASCAR, so don’t take offense to it, please. 🙂
OldTrooper: the one thing that did puzzle me about this, is that the sponsors of NASCAR normally expect to make money from their investment. I found the following statistics on line:
“…NASCAR claims 75 million fans who purchase over $3 billion in annual licensed product sales…”
If that is true, would the VA be able to collect some kind of return on their investment? It would be pretty shrewd if so, but the article said the sponsorship was specifically for visibility only. That seems like a waste of a golden opportunity to me…
How about Casey Mears car. He struggles to even qualify for a race. The problem is that it will need to be a car that is competitive and in NASCAR there are only a few cars and they already have sponsors who donate big bucks. The only time a lot of drivers get noticed is when they crash their cars.