[Gimpy]

A good editorial article from Waco, Texas below:

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The Waco Tribune

Editorial: VA shell games

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Wednesday, February 08, 2006


The Bush administration wants to pump up spending on defense and homeland security, but has a deficit to confront.


So, it turns once again to the slice of pie in the federal budget that is discretionary domestic spending.


One of the elements in that slice that is always vulnerable to the political elements is the Department of Veterans Affairs.


We may think of veterans benefits as entitlements, and rightfully so. But that's not the case. These benefits are at the mercy of each Congress and each budget coming from the White House.


President Bush's new budget for the VA looks to be generous, with a 10.4 percent increase over fiscal 2005, according to the Office of Management and Budget.


But built into the budget are new costs for veterans using the VA health care system. Under the proposals, some veterans would pay a new $250 enrollment fee and prescription drug co-payments would go up from from $8 to $15. Some veterans organizations call this a health-care tax on veterans at the same time the president proposes extending tax cuts that have benefited America's wealthiest.


A question raised by watchdog groups for veterans services is whether these numbers are to be trusted.


Last year, to justify cuts in health care services to veterans, the administration claimed it had made $1.3 billion in savings that would benefit the VA in other ways.


Actually, the administration was simply short-changing day-to-day operations, causing Congress to authorize an emergency funding measure to make up the difference.


Recently, a report by the Government Accountability Office came out saying that those $1.3 billion in savings were illusory. The VA could prove nothing to back up the claim of efficiency.


People who support keeping and enhancing the Waco VA Hospital look at an episode like this and hear a familiar tune.


The VA has been almost cavalier in saying that its proposals are aimed at better serving veterans, when dollars and cents seem to be all that matter. Last year, the VA was touting the potential of $16.6 million in operating losses to be averted by closing the Waco hospital. Waco's response was: A new generation of war veterans, many with psychiatric needs, is streaming home from war on two fronts. Use this hospital. Use what taxpayers have spent ? $80 million improving and modernizing since 1989 ? to serve these men and women.


Provide accurate information and then make the best use of available resources. That's something the Bush administration hasn't been doing. It's something the nation's war veterans should expect.

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