VA Mess is Result of the Left's Hatred for the Military Culture

Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | June 9, 2014 | Rush Limbaugh

[Kaslin]

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The VA is a mess, and here's this from CBS St. Louis.

"Managers of the VA Medical Center in Kansas City confirm they kept a secret waiting list of veterans who needed care. The admission comes after Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, revealed the existence of a list of 37 heart patients who were not entered into the VA's appointment system but kept in a secret file."

Again, sad to say, we can trace all of this back to this administration having literally no way of relating to or understanding military culture. I mean, let's face it. The American left has looked at the American military as a problem. The American military has been the focus of evil. If you're part of the blame-America-first crowd, if this country's guilty, if this country has become what it has become because it has stolen everything -- and, believe me, that is precisely what is taught. What is taught to young kids in this country today is that this nation's wealth is the result of theft from other nations and other peoples of the world.

Now, what do you need to pull that off? You need an imperialistic military. And so if you are inclined to think this country is unjust and immoral and has become a superpower on the basis of crimes committed, such as theft, then you also have to be very upset at the people who made it possible, i.e., those who project power. That would be the military. John Kerry, throwing the medals, Vietnam, it runs throughout this party. Blame America first, blame the military. They don't appreciate the traditions. They don't understand or relate to the military culture. The reaction to the Bergdahl thing proves that.

I've had a number of people tell me that Obama really thought he was gonna get lots of praise, tons and tons of cheers and praise for getting an American prisoner of war back. And the story is that the Regime was literally honestly blindsided by the public reaction to it. Now, if that's true, how can that be? Well, there isn't anybody in this administration aside the Joint Chiefs who have worn the uniform. There isn't anybody in this administration who has an overawed respect for people who wear the uniform. In fact, it's just the opposite.

So the VA languishes and this kind of prisoner swap takes place and closing Gitmo is looked at as a positive for US foreign policy. The only way replenishing the enemy with its combatants is considered a positive is if you believe we somehow are to blame for why they do what they do. And there's no question that this Regime does indeed harbor precisely those feelings.

END TRANSCRIPT

[rdcbn]

Bingo!

And who better to kick off health care rationing and death panels than the hated military jingoistic warmongers. If nothing else , there would be fewer of them around to resist once the revolution begins

[TexasGator]

“VA Mess is Result of the Left’s Hatred for the Military Culture”

No. It is a result of government bureacracy.

[reasonisfaith]

Both come from the exact same source.

[Bulwinkle]

2006: 235,974
2013: 332,000

2006 http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/11/statistics_about_the_department_of_veterans_affairs/
2013 http://www.armytimes.com/article/20131007/NEWS05/310070042/VA-furlough-7-000-employees-close-regional-offices

The VA has not been underfunded!

[clintonh8r]

I’ve been saying this for years. Liberals who say they “support the troops” are just fracking liars. And anybody who says he supports the troops, but doesn’t support their mission once they are committed, is also a liar.

[elpadre]

IMO it is a militant employee union which causes these VA problems and no appointee director will make a difference - never has.

[XRdsRev]

Bureaucracy is the fundamental problem. I see it every day. There are plenty of good people at the VA who really, really care about and want to help the vets. I know some of them personally.

But in any big organization, getting something done, quickly, efficiently is like pulling teeth from a chicken....it can’t be done. Even those who want to make changes to improve efficiencies, are hamstrung by an approval and policy process that is impossible to bypass and frustratingly slow to traverse. You can have a chain of command filled with motivated hard chargers but it only takes one person to roadblock and grind any improvement to a halt.

The VA does some really good work and some of their functions and expertise cannot be found readily in the private sector but that is being overshadowed by the flaws that come whenever a behemoth organization (e.g. government) controls and needs to vet every decision and process.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Hate to disagree with Rush but it was just as big a mess under previous administrations. It is that way because government can do NOTHING efficiently or well, which is why our wise founders tried to limit its scope.

[Jet Jaguar]

V A ping.

[Hawthorn]

>> IMO it is a militant employee union which causes these VA problems <<

Was told pretty much the same thing last night by an MD friend who works at a VA hospital.

[Hawthorn]

>> Hate to disagree with Rush <<

He’s WAY off base here. Not a good sign.

But hardly new:

I think he’s been in decline for quite a while. Too predictable, with fewer and fewer novel insights — not to mention today’s gaffe about the VA.

[jameslalor]

Not really, no.

When you create a system where the same entities tasked with providing health care are also tasked with paying for said care, then by definition you create a conflict of interest between the budget and the patients. The entire system becomes a balancing act between the budget and the people coming in the door.

Death lists are simply a consequence of single-payer healthcare, it’s the nature of the beast. An ass-covering bureaucracy is an essential byproduct of that system too, by design. Anyone too dim to see that this was an unavoidable consequence of single-payer care probably shouldn’t be voting in the first place.

Attributing death lists to leftist malice and hatred of the military is both wrong and pointless, worse it obscures the real problems. This is an element of socialized medicine the world over: shuffling off people that are going to cost the system.

[NYFriend]

It’s bureaucracy, like you say. Individually there are a million good rules, policies and checks and balances, put in place for individually good reasons that add up to distinction. Eventually something will go wrong and enough of the right people will find out and vow to fix it. Might shake up the rules, might replace a few rules, might pile on new rules or reporting requirements, but the fundamental problem remains.

The flip side is you can’t do it well any other way. You want to have minimal rules, no job protection, and hire people who will get the job done? I would have worked there 15 years ago, and might when I can retire, but not now. Eventually some big fish will come along and clean house to fill it with his friends. Want to privatize it? Almost never works when the government is still footing the bill. Costs stay high, corners get cut, and the company profits. Want to give vets vouchers for private insurance? Too little (like every private health plan) and most guys go without something. Pay for everything, sky’s the limit, and you have the plan administrator and providers cashing in on it.

You just can’t deliver good service, with transparency, accountability, and efficiency on a massive scale and a shoe string budget.

[blueunicorn6]

Well, it’s for certain that the Democrats don’t care much for the military. That plays a part in the VA problems. We keep writing about the VA like it’s a gigantic, independent machine. It’s not. It is run by human beings. It is human beings who decided to falsify records. It is human beings who failed to input a Veteran’s request for a medical appointment. Not buildings or computers or furniture. It is screwed-up people who caused this. We have to fix the people.
Unfortunately, we do not have the time or resources to provide every employee with years of therapy. We have to correct the improper behavior. Merely firing employees will not fix this problem. We are going to have to imprison some of these employees. Some of the VA executives took money from the VA that they did not earn. That is theft. They took bonus money that they did not earn. Thieves should go to jail.

[thirst4truth]

whenever a behemoth organization (e.g. government) controls and needs to vet every decision and process.

It does not help the situation to have the VA run by government unions. No one can get fired for anything there. They all know this and can get away with anything they want because they cannot be fired. I am told by employees at the VA the only way you might be fired is if they can prove you intentionally killed a patient.

Don't you see what is happening to all these VA "managers" nothing, Congress had to pass a law yesterday to be able to fire employees at the VA, notice no one yet has been fired. Yet GM has fired over 30 employees, engineers among them for the ignition default they knew about that killed 13 people.