Veterans

VETERANS

If there is one thing the government should be doing, it is keeping its promises to veterans.  This should be the #1 priority.  As a disabled veteran, I have witnessed first-hand the misfeasance of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Why is it that the dependents of veterans and VA employees get better healthcare benefits than do veterans? The central purpose of government is to keep its employees employed, while making the rest of us that much less self-sufficient. No wonder the employees of the VA get better benefits than the very people the program is aimed at helping. If the VA is so good for veterans, why don't VA employees and politicians volunteer to be stuck inside the VA system? Why do they see practitioners outside of the VA system?

There is a conflict of interest in putting the same government that is in charge of adjudicating disability claims of veterans in control over their medical records. It is self-evident to many veterans that the VA healthcare system deliberately charts medical records in such a way that curtails the ability of veterans to substantiate a claim with the benefits side - even if the health of the veteran be damned, due to faux medical records. Pursuant to what has been said to me by some VA employees, that is exactly why my VA medical records are about 99% fiction, which I embellish not. I am talking about objective fiction - e.g., there is a narrative in my VA medical records that describes me having killed my pet canard. Albeit, I have never had a pet canard in my entire life. The VA also suggested that all of the problems related to having had a dozen screws inserted into my shoulder are really due to...my "father's suicide."  I offered the VA an opportunity to talk to my father about his "suicide."  The VA never did take me or my father up on that offer.  It is about time the government stops paying VA employees to write fiction.

Compelling veterans to use a federally centralized healthcare system curtails the ability of veterans to get objective second opinions. Erroneous medical information follows the veteran all over the country.  Furthermore, it is imperative that veterans be allowed to contest and overthrow any and all information in their medical records in such a way that places the burden of proof on the VA.

While I favor ensuring that veterans receive benefits they are entitled to, I also recognize that we must do more than throw more money at an irreparable healthcare system. Veterans should not be sentenced to having to use the VA for pseudo healthcare. I would support separating the federal government and healthcare by providing veterans with the same medical benefits that their dependents and government employees receive. Therefore, I call for the prompt de-funding and privatization of VA medical facilities. VA medical facilities should have to compete for patients like every other medical facility. Veterans should be insured in the same way as VA employees and politicians are. Veterans should be allowed to choose private practitioners in the same way as VA employees and politicians presently can.

Short of abolishing the VA healthcare system altogether, we could save money elsewhere in order to take care of veterans by converting the government run VA healthcare system into a healthcare system for federal employees. If VA healthcare is so great, then federal employees - especially VA employees - should be begging to be treated at the VA instead of being covered under the federal employee insurance program. Thus the VA healthcare system could become the Federal Employee Healthcare Administration.  Federal healthcare for federal employees.

There is not one set of economic laws that apply to us veterans, and another set that applies to everybody else. It is impossible for the political regime to bankrupt the country without that adversely effecting veterans. Therefore, I call for Congress to end its promiscuous spending and return to fiscal responsibility. To the extent that the spending orgy remains intact, there will be that much less for veterans. Already, the government has been unable to keep its promises to veterans because it is trying to meet so many other obligations. If Congress does not change course, our money will become totally worthless due to hyperinflation - after which there will be no benefits left for veterans.

There is a nexus between ending the endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and taking care of veterans. If we recognize that veterans are underserved, then we need to stop adding to our numbers. It makes no sense to sustain a war policy that is creating more disabled veterans.