Instead of Austerity and Slogans, the VA Needs Full Funding and Accountability [View all]

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http://www.thenation.com/blog/180007/instead-austerity-and-slogans-va-needs-full-funding-and-accountability


Dire reports about the failure of the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide adequate care for those who served in this country's military forces are not just a serious issue for veterans. They are a serious issue for every American who believes the federal government can and must meet the basic commitments necessary to maintain a civil society.

Unfortunately, that seriousness is not reflected in the frenzy of finger-pointing that has developed as a response to “the public’s outrage over excessive wait times and rigged record-keeping at Veterans Affairs hospitals”—an outrage that the president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the union that represents caregivers for vets, refers to as “more than justified.”

There is no question that the VA has a problem that must be addressed.

The question is whether the politicians in Washington are ready to address it.

The most predictable of the political careerists, Republican and Democrat, seem to think that firing VA Secretary Eric Shinseki will somehow “fix” things, or that the removal of a few failed managers will suddenly create a functional VA. But that is an absurdly insufficient response.