No doubt quite a lot of money the military spends is totally wasted. But a lot of that falls on congress. There’s been many times the JCS, the military will tell congress they don’t need this or that. Can’t use it. But congress appropriates the money and by law forces the military to buy this stuff. The goal is to keep the civilian jobs back home or to add more.
When Newt Gingrich came to Washington one of the first things he did after hitting his peak was to completely upend what Congress thinks is discretionary spending versus non-discretionary.
Non-dis funding is sacred, Congress is not allowed to randomly cut non-dis funding.
Where the VA is concerned you'd think doctors, nurses, lab techs, medical software writers, pharma, prosthetics makers and the like would fall under that category but surprise, they do not.
Know what IS non-discretionary at the VA? Construction programs, that's what.
Our VA in Long Beach is currently lacking an on-staff neurologist for the Spinal Cord Injury Unit (SCI) so SCI patients have to get in line and wait to see the regular staff neuro docs instead.
It's the funding.
But like almost every other VA in the country we are AWASH in construction projects, most of which consist of new walkways, gardens, atriums, decoration. Vets have to make way for hundreds of construction workers as they march through the halls, and sometimes it almost feels like the VA is now here to serve them instead.
It's a JOBS program and pesky details like having enough doctors gets in the way of where THE REAL MONEY is trying to get spent.
We have more grand pianos, paintings and flower gardens than we know what to do with but we don't have enough nurses.
That is the legacy left to us by the Agents of Newt, and we're still stuck with it today.
