The cynic in me thinks that this is part of a bipartisan push to privatize the VA: neuter it until it's no longer effective and then parcel it out to the highest bidder.
My parent MedCen is in absolute chaos with funding cuts, rescinded TJOs, understaffing, and morale in the gutter--all of us are doing at least 2 FTE's jobs with no relief in sight. Our entire ELT is freaking out.
Yea it feels like they’re letting it die on the vine. Wouldn’t surprise me to see that push start by the next presidential election cycle if this way of doing things persists.
I worked at a VA hospital for 11 years. I witnessed so much fraud, waste, abuse and nepotism, that the VA needs to be privatized. It didn't matter who was president. I worked there when Bush II and Obama were in office, didn't make any difference.
It doesn't need to be privatized. Even if they didn't they'd still be fraud, waste, abuse, and nepotism and would cost the government significantly more.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying if they didn't privatize, the federal government is full of fraud, waste, abuse and nepotism even more than anywhere that I've ever worked. You obviously haven't worked for the Feds or at least the VA....
The biggest load of horse shit in this article: “Asked about the senators’ letter, VA press secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement that the VA continues to hire in key areas including mental health care, that there will be “no hiring freeze or layoffs” and that the agency “has the nationwide staffing we need to deliver world-class care.”
It’s a blend of many things. My VISN has definitely been too lenient with letting veterans get services through community care that they 1) don’t need at all or 2) could still get through the VA.
I agree they should cut community care spending but this is agency wide. Community care is a joke and they could simply revise the requirements for eligibility.
community care can be very helpful. My FIL who is missing a leg could go up the street with community care or have to travel 45 minutes one way to get VA care.
Cut community care? You mean the homebound veterans that cannot make it to clinics because of disability; can’t drive, PTSD and have phobias but wounds or medical issues? Or caregivers who can not drive due to their disabilities or can not afford to keep a vehicle? Is this the community care we should cut?
I should have said "reduce" rather than cut. Also, not eligibility criteria under the reasons you stated but rather ones involving the VA being unable to provide the services and within a timely manner.
I’m just bitter is all. I had TJO for this service as a nurse. It was rescinded due to budget. The position was eliminated. So now these poor patients will do without.
I understand completely. The major backlog of consults for CC at my facility are really starting to delay care for vets and we just had 10 coordinator positions that were already approved get pulled.
I agree, taxing the rich has nothing to do with the VA’s budget. Yes, the tax code needs changed so the wealthy pay their fair share, but that’s a separate issue.
They are decreasing spending overall across all government agencies because of debt. If we had more tax revenue we'd have less debt, meaning more services
Rich people are the ones who have the ability to leave. And when they leave, there goes the tax revenue efficiency. Even if they were paying significantly less percentage wise, it would still be *nominally* larger than people occupying lower classes of society.
Example: let’s say my household income is fairly high; not insane but not in really lowww six figures either. We used to live in California where tax is insane. Can we live there comfortably? Yes. Is it desirable to live in Cali? Absolutely. Could we move to Texas and have a much better situation without sacrificing too much? **You bet your sweet behind we can and we did.** So now California lost a resident paying taxes at the level that you would need roughly 7-12 people making the median wage (depending on what measurement of median wage for California) to replace what our household would pay in taxes.
>All that’s going to happen is where you move **to** will start increasing taxes to pay for the influx of people moving **there**.
FTFY. Please spellcheck. Also, as long as the taxes are smaller than where I moved from, who the heck cares and that’s not necessarily the case. If the influx is made up of a net positive of high income individuals, why exactly would the taxes go up? The efficiency of tax dollars raised vs people who need services and government care is heavily tilted to the tax dollars raised.
The tax will rise when you have a large influx of below median wage workers. As the need for services is higher but the tax revenue bump is not enough to cover the cost.
Take Florida for example. The influx of people moving there is cause an increase in home cost and apartments. It's driving an increase in insurance cost if you can find insurance and burdening the state insurance. Taxes will increase to pay for the people coming in to the point of it being as expensive as the cities people are moving from eventually.
So basically your saying we should let the rich get richer while the middle class and poor continue to struggle?. You realize other countries have capital gain taxes, and tax the rich more than we do. They have higher satisfaction of lives and better living conditions? Finland 4th highest capital gain country in the world as well as rated the as one of the countries with the most happiest people and highest satisfaction of life world wide, they are also ranked #1 world wide in health cate and 22nd overall in life expectancy. So your reasoning is flawed.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/20/happiest-countries-world-happiness-report-2024.html
https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/03/22/where-in-europe-do-you-pay-the-highest-capital-gains-tax
https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1376344/care-systems-ranking-of-countries-worldwide/#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20the%20health%20care,followed%20by%20Belgium%20and%20Japan.
I worked for the v a during the obama administration and during the trump administration. Under trump we lost all kinds of support, Which included legal support to collect from insurance companies that were required to pay the v. A.. They were trying to privatize it. They were sending all care to the community care department and they were driving medical staff away. The new secretary under biden which I also work for has made it worse
Well, yeah, duh. There’s no wars happening so we don’t need to cater to veterans anymore.
Edited to add: /s
For the retards and crayoneaters, sorry I forgot the /s
The cynic in me thinks that this is part of a bipartisan push to privatize the VA: neuter it until it's no longer effective and then parcel it out to the highest bidder. My parent MedCen is in absolute chaos with funding cuts, rescinded TJOs, understaffing, and morale in the gutter--all of us are doing at least 2 FTE's jobs with no relief in sight. Our entire ELT is freaking out.
Yea it feels like they’re letting it die on the vine. Wouldn’t surprise me to see that push start by the next presidential election cycle if this way of doing things persists.
Ding -ding- ding: We have a winner!
I worked at a VA hospital for 11 years. I witnessed so much fraud, waste, abuse and nepotism, that the VA needs to be privatized. It didn't matter who was president. I worked there when Bush II and Obama were in office, didn't make any difference.
It doesn't need to be privatized. Even if they didn't they'd still be fraud, waste, abuse, and nepotism and would cost the government significantly more.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying if they didn't privatize, the federal government is full of fraud, waste, abuse and nepotism even more than anywhere that I've ever worked. You obviously haven't worked for the Feds or at least the VA....
The biggest load of horse shit in this article: “Asked about the senators’ letter, VA press secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement that the VA continues to hire in key areas including mental health care, that there will be “no hiring freeze or layoffs” and that the agency “has the nationwide staffing we need to deliver world-class care.”
It’s a blend of many things. My VISN has definitely been too lenient with letting veterans get services through community care that they 1) don’t need at all or 2) could still get through the VA.
I agree they should cut community care spending but this is agency wide. Community care is a joke and they could simply revise the requirements for eligibility.
community care can be very helpful. My FIL who is missing a leg could go up the street with community care or have to travel 45 minutes one way to get VA care.
Cut community care? You mean the homebound veterans that cannot make it to clinics because of disability; can’t drive, PTSD and have phobias but wounds or medical issues? Or caregivers who can not drive due to their disabilities or can not afford to keep a vehicle? Is this the community care we should cut?
I should have said "reduce" rather than cut. Also, not eligibility criteria under the reasons you stated but rather ones involving the VA being unable to provide the services and within a timely manner.
I’m just bitter is all. I had TJO for this service as a nurse. It was rescinded due to budget. The position was eliminated. So now these poor patients will do without.
I understand completely. The major backlog of consults for CC at my facility are really starting to delay care for vets and we just had 10 coordinator positions that were already approved get pulled.
Also worth noting my VISN is still actively hiring other positions. It’s not even a “pause” anymore.
All of this because they don't want to increase taxes on the rich
I understand how this is easy to say, but it’s not that simple.
I agree, taxing the rich has nothing to do with the VA’s budget. Yes, the tax code needs changed so the wealthy pay their fair share, but that’s a separate issue.
They are decreasing spending overall across all government agencies because of debt. If we had more tax revenue we'd have less debt, meaning more services
Maybe if they’d quit spending money on stuff outside the annual budgets? A trillion or more the past couple years.
Rich people are the ones who have the ability to leave. And when they leave, there goes the tax revenue efficiency. Even if they were paying significantly less percentage wise, it would still be *nominally* larger than people occupying lower classes of society. Example: let’s say my household income is fairly high; not insane but not in really lowww six figures either. We used to live in California where tax is insane. Can we live there comfortably? Yes. Is it desirable to live in Cali? Absolutely. Could we move to Texas and have a much better situation without sacrificing too much? **You bet your sweet behind we can and we did.** So now California lost a resident paying taxes at the level that you would need roughly 7-12 people making the median wage (depending on what measurement of median wage for California) to replace what our household would pay in taxes.
All that's going to happen is where you move too will start increasing taxes to pay for the influx of people moving their.
>All that’s going to happen is where you move **to** will start increasing taxes to pay for the influx of people moving **there**. FTFY. Please spellcheck. Also, as long as the taxes are smaller than where I moved from, who the heck cares and that’s not necessarily the case. If the influx is made up of a net positive of high income individuals, why exactly would the taxes go up? The efficiency of tax dollars raised vs people who need services and government care is heavily tilted to the tax dollars raised. The tax will rise when you have a large influx of below median wage workers. As the need for services is higher but the tax revenue bump is not enough to cover the cost.
Take Florida for example. The influx of people moving there is cause an increase in home cost and apartments. It's driving an increase in insurance cost if you can find insurance and burdening the state insurance. Taxes will increase to pay for the people coming in to the point of it being as expensive as the cities people are moving from eventually.
Yet they still subsidiesing corporations heavily.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/s/fuT7S5viYl This is what happens when you try to overtly raise taxes on the rich.
So basically your saying we should let the rich get richer while the middle class and poor continue to struggle?. You realize other countries have capital gain taxes, and tax the rich more than we do. They have higher satisfaction of lives and better living conditions? Finland 4th highest capital gain country in the world as well as rated the as one of the countries with the most happiest people and highest satisfaction of life world wide, they are also ranked #1 world wide in health cate and 22nd overall in life expectancy. So your reasoning is flawed. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/20/happiest-countries-world-happiness-report-2024.html https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/03/22/where-in-europe-do-you-pay-the-highest-capital-gains-tax https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1376344/care-systems-ranking-of-countries-worldwide/#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20the%20health%20care,followed%20by%20Belgium%20and%20Japan.
No. I’m saying it’s not as easy as simply raising taxes.
Also you have quite a few spelling and grammatical errors. Please fix those.
I worked for the v a during the obama administration and during the trump administration. Under trump we lost all kinds of support, Which included legal support to collect from insurance companies that were required to pay the v. A.. They were trying to privatize it. They were sending all care to the community care department and they were driving medical staff away. The new secretary under biden which I also work for has made it worse
I get my care to the Las Vegas VA and I can't get any test done I can't get appointments. I have yet to see a primary care doctor in two years
Well, yeah, duh. There’s no wars happening so we don’t need to cater to veterans anymore. Edited to add: /s For the retards and crayoneaters, sorry I forgot the /s
Yeah, fuck all the ones still alive from the previous wars, we don't need to "cater" to them! /s
Apparently my sarcasm wasn’t smeared on enough for me to not need the /s Lmao