VA budget increases
Stars & Stripes reports that the Obama Administration is proposing a $10 billion increase to the Department of Veterans Affairs;
The budget features $59.1 billion for medical care, approximately $1.6 billion to prevent or reduce veterans’ homelessness and $312 million for burgeoning technologies that officials hope will address the claims backlog and help them meet 2015 elimination goals, according to a VA statement.
The budget also features $1 billion for veterans’ job programs.
“This budget will allow us to continue the progress we have made in helping Veterans secure their place in the middle class,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki said in the statement. “It is a tangible demonstration of the President’s commitment to ensuring Veterans and their families have the care and benefits they’ve earned and deserve.”
Somehow, I don’t believe the rhetoric. While I appreciate the words, it’s the actions that really mean something. The President wants to push retirees out of the Tricare system and into the VA healthcare system, to get the Defense Department out of the healthcare business. About $300 million of that $10 billion is going to claims processing and improving the intake system for the future.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
VA made Veteran Homelessness a big priority under this administration, it has actually increased during their tenure. Seriously, they threw a bunch of money at the problem and surprise surprise the problem did not get better, it actually grew.
VA needs a complete organizational review, and overhaul from the top down in all 3 of its Agencies. It does not need a bunch of new programs and money to fix programs and processes that are screwed up. What it needs is Leadership most of all, and some real uniformity across the board from region to region.
“Seriously, they threw a bunch of money at the problem and surprise surprise the problem did not get better, it actually grew.” Kinda like the whole “War on Poverty” thing.
And we’re supposed to believe that the Regime that gave us the Obamacare website is going to somehow improve the intake and processing at the VA?
It’s increased under this administration because it’s been increasing in general — these things follow trend lines, not politics. Putting money into it is a positive thing.
If you want to argue the VA needs an overhaul and the money being put into it could be spent more efficiently, I don’t disagree. But complaining about them recognizing a problem and making funds available is ridiculous. It’s a decent first step.
The VA’s budget has already more than doubled since 2006. If this latest VA budget proposal is adopted, the increase since 2006 will be 224+% – in 9 freaking years. That’s an average annual increase of 9.39% per year over nearly a decade (1.0939^9 = approx 2.24).
http://www.va.gov/budget/docs/summary/Fy2015-FastFactsVAsBudgetHighlights.pdf
In contrast, cumulative CPI inflation to date since 2006 has been 16%.
That rate of increase is not sustainable. Any system that is consuming resources at an unsustainable rate has a structural problem, and needs to be radically overhauled. Otherwise, it will eventually collapse.
By ‘it increased’, I meant the number of homeless veterans, not the budget.
That said, I completely agree with you that VA needs to be radically overhauled, I just see the increased funds for tackling this issue as a path towards that rather than an impediment -or, as rb325 said- a factor in making things somehow worse.
As in, things either get better -good!- or they don’t, in which case you have a growing budget and static or diminishing results, and the greater that discrepancy grows the greater the political pressure becomes for a complete overhaul.
Is this the ideal way to do things? Hell no. Overhaul things now, sure. But this is Washington – nothing ever happens because it should, it happens because there’s pain and frustration.
(Adding money to this does not in any tangible way make veteran homelessness actually worse, though.)
Actually, p!ssing away money in an ill-advised move such as this does indeed hurt veterans in general, and homeless vets in particular. It does so in multiple ways.
1. Regardless of what the clueless clowns running things in DC think, the Federal government does NOT have an unlimited supply of money. At some point, the money runs out, and past errors cannot be papered over by simply spending more. Ergo, money wasted now is an irreplaceable resource that has been consumed.
2. Money wasted on an ill-advised attempt to “cure vet homelessness” today is not available for other uses today. The VA budget, internally, is a zero-sum game; money wasted chasing the impossible cannot be spent on something else that actually benefits people. Therefore, every dollar wasted in clueless games reduces the amount available for legitimate veteran support.
3. An unsustainable growth rate for the VA also merely adds to the Federal government’s current fiscal crisis.
Bottom line: if veteran’s homelessness is linked to homelessness trends in general (and I agree that’s almost certainly the case), the way to fix that is to attack the basic problem: high unemployment/underemployment. The current administration is economically clueless. We’re at a 35+ year low in the labor participation rate, and there are troubling signs in some sectors of the economy that indicate we may be looking at further stagnation or even a new downturn. Moreover, this administration thinks it can rule the economy by fiat and regulation. Best I can tell, all the former does is make them look clueless; all the latter does is act as a brake on the economy.
Want to make a dent in homelessness? Put people to work. This administration doesn’t seem to know how.
What rb325th said.
And how many vets are actually getting jobs in the VA, as opposed to the sandcrabs that have no military experience?
I hear ya, shipmate!
Last year, I had to go down to Boston for my last round of eye surgery. The woman doing my intake was from some island nation down to the Caribbean. I haven’t a clue how she got her job.
English could not possibly have been her first language. She had difficulty reading some of the words on her own intake forms, and 3 separate times had to ask for help from someone as to what a word meant and how it was pronounced. She was also having difficulty using her own damned computer in her intake office.
I finally stood up and walked out to the central desk and told them that I wanted someone who spoke english, not some 3rd world hire. That set off a shitstorm of interesting proportions.
It was inferred by her supervisor that I was some sort of racist, etc. I responded that I wanted to know why they were entrusting my medical records to someone who could barely speak english. The supervisor was confused. I explained the situation, and the supervisor lady went to talk to the intake woman I was complaining about.
About 15 minute4s later, I had a new intake worker and everything went smoothly. On my way past the main desk, the fellow I had originally complained to motioned me over. He said quietly that there had been numerous complaints about this lady between VA staff, but no one dared complain to higher ups about it because she was some “special” hire after the current president took office. he said there were a couple dozen just like her at that hospital alone.
This is politics and multi-culturalism run amok, and needs to be stopped. The VA system, like our military must NOT be used as a social-engineering petri dish. Eventually, someone is going to be significantly harmed or even killed through the use of unqualified persons doing intake work because they’ll put down something wrong.
I work for VA Boston, and while I am sure the woman you are speaking of works there (I think I know who you mean)… The hiring process is no different under Obama than it was under Bush. The rules are set by OPM, not by the VA.
Also, the VA hires heavily from the general population of the areas they are located in. Boston has a large immigrant population from the “Islands”. So we end up with a larger number of immigrants working here.
Yes, it is damned frustrating when I walk down the halls and co-workers are speaking in languges other than English here. Also frustrating when as a patient you have to deal with someone who is seemingly incompetent and they most likely are.
This is what I mean about a top to bottom review being needed. I am going to say this though, many of our best workers are some of those you and I may have a difficult time understanding. The shithead employees come in all races, colors, genders, and “veteran” status.
I have heard one VAMC outside our area (barely) was run by 5 families until just recently. Quite literally it was nepotism to the extreme there. Much of which is still present, but it slowly and painfuly being eliminated.
Concur. What is most frustrating to me is the difficulty wading through the various layers of bureaucracy. There are absolutely some good people there. The folks in the transportation section at Jamaica Plains are wonderful.
I have also never had a single complaint about my doctors, the nursing staff, etc. Everytime I’ve been hospitalized or had some procedure, it’s been top notch. That’s my experience, anyway and that goes for the Boston, Togus and Orlando facilities.
But the rest is often daunting, and the difficulties and delays in the administrative side are mostly, as I said, frustrating. I am thankful the DAV is there to run point for me because otherwise, I probably would have quit the system long ago.
V/R
The one time I applied for a job at the VA, I guess they had someone in mind who was less qualified than me, because they closed the job opening after I applied for it. Then it opened back up a few months later, but I’d already been hired at the National Archives. My point is; yes, OPM sets the hiring standards, but the agency still has options to put who they want in certain jobs.
Jonn that still goes on, but if they are caught doing it, the punishment is supposed to be significant… wonder how often OPM actually audits HR at the different agencies? I know when working for Commerce during the 2010 census they were adamant about following the rules on hiring.
I had applied for a position with Immigration, and was informed that I was “top qualified” for the position. I never even got called for an interview as the hired someone else. Not only was I at the top of the list qualification wise, the job was also posted as a Veterans Preference position and I have my “30% or more” preference.
So OPM sets the rules, and the local HR offices work real hard to exploit loopholes in the hiring process.
You got lucky.
Trying to obtain/achieve administrative recourse in the system is damn near impossible.
Better yet, how many qualified personnel within certain areas of practice are being hired?
I would take a sandcrab over the fellow Veteran employee who just tried to stab me in the back earlier, and I am still trying to figure out what exactly the issue is other than her being nucking futs. All I did was ask a question about work I was given through her, that apparently turned into me swearing and ranting. Something I only do online against posers… though I may have sprained my wrist after my manager left pounding the stack of records on my desk.
I think Dingy Harry has said the Senate would not act on the budget so it is all just for show.
1.6 billion to prevent or reduce Veteran homelessness? How in the wide, wide world of sports is that going to be spent? Let me guess. $400 million for research to determine the extent of the problem. $600 million for new hires, office space and equipment upgrades for new and existing staff. $100 million for travel and training meetings. $50 million for new vehicles and gas. $70 million to develop new software and paper forms to capture data. And whatever is left over goes to Motel 6.
Heh… You must have worked for the gub’mint at one point in your life.
Oh. I forgot the self-promotion PR, the TV commercials that depict the smiling faces of the employees (frequently mitaken for those of the UN) who tell America what a wonderful job they’re doing for Veterans. That’s $30 million. Now, whatever is left over goes to Motel 6 vouchers.
Couple of points here: It doesn’t matter how technically knowledgeable anyone is – if they cannot communicate with their customer, it is moot. I don’t really care if my surgeon can speak English, as long as s/he is the best we can find, and that his support staff also speaks whatever s/he does so that when s/he asks for a retractor, s/he gets one.
Also, I do not trust this bunch of self-serving fools to administer a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich, so why should we trust them with veterans’ health care? This is just another opportunity for them to hire more thugs and others who should have no access to anyone’s personal information.
It appears the VA like most things with the current admin has it’s priority’s bass-awkwards. If they spent more time/manpower on reducing the backlog for benefits and combating fraudulent claims maybe the number of homeless Vets would help take care of itself or at least be greatly reduced.
Would say outsource the fix because many times the private sector can do a much better job, but with our luck we will get another O-care web site.
-Ish
Problem with outsourcing is that they are already doing it. Badly. They have private contractors (read union thugs and other sycophants) walking the streets signing up folks and giving away bennies whether they are qualified to receive VA benefits or not. Kinda like Obamaphones and who can imagine how many other “programs.”
Ever Teh Gubbment way: throw more money at a problem, expand the bureaucracy, and accomplish nothing.