The Veterans Administration

Teh Loon, quoted in it's entirety because the amount of lying in this is stunning;

I am a partially disabled Veteran, for those that don't know. I have been receiving care from the Veteran's Administration since 1988. I have seen the VA go up and down in care, capabilities, manpower, and overall quality. Today, I read an article in my local paper that indicated that Veterans Affairs falls short, failing to even meet its own standards. From personal experience, the care was adequate until about 1994, at which time the care became shoddy, and manpower low. During the current administration the care at VA has improved drastically, and the manpower appears to be at levels at, or above, the level in the late 80's when I began being treated by VA. According to my experience, the agency maintains a high level of quality treatment when compared to the past. Unfortunately, the press is determined to claim the system falls short, and to somehow place blame on the current administration. Don't get me wrong, mistakes are sometimes made, and sometimes facilities are neglected when they shouldn't be, like in the case of Walter Reed Medical Center. Honestly, Walter Reed was downright despicable. But isolated incidents of poor management of a facility is hardly an indication that the entire VA system is in shambles. Honestly, it is not a perfect world. There is still room for improvement. Like anything, improvement is possible. But when compared to the care I received during the Clinton Administration (coupled with his massive cuts in VA and military funding), what I receive now is awesome. The overall system is not like Walter Reed, thank God. However, the Liberal Left will claim that it is, and that it is all Bush's fault. Granted, I do not agree with everything Bush has done, but under his watch, I have to admit, VA has improved drastically.

Doug.. I realize you are a shitty writer, but seriously.. learn to paragraph, okay? Walls of text are not conducive to a relaxed reading environment.

For context - I'm employed as a software engineer. I work on the Veterans Health Administration hospital systems. I know a lot about the VA, and my work is used in hundreds of medical facilities around the United States.

At the outset, I'd like to say that I find the whole thing amusing as fuck. Doug constantly rails about the evils of socialized medicine, while at the same time being so incredibly stupid he doesn't even know that the VA system is... socialized medicine.

Holy fuck, how can a person be that stupid?

Let's look again very closely at Doug's hypocrisy and out right lying;

Like anything, improvement is possible. But when compared to the care I received during the Clinton Administration (coupled with his massive cuts in VA and military funding), what I receive now is awesome.

First, again, he is calling socialized medicine "awesome". Can you believe that?

Next, he claims that during the Clinton Administration, VA funding was cut massively. Doug does not provide any shred of documentation what so ever, because he is first, and foremost, a propagandist and liar.

You can see the Federal Budget breakdowns directly from the Executive Branch of the United States Government, here. Please notice that this is from Whitehouse.gov and is purely the budget statistics.

The budget from 1992 to 2000 increases every single year. There is no "massive cut" as Doug claims. He is lying yet again. It is also true that the budget has increased under the Bush administration, but the difference is that we are in a hot war now, the strain on the system is increasing exponentially, and populations are also increasing.

For fiscal year 2008, the Democratic Congress has substantially increased the VA budget, which, ironically for Doug I'm sure, drew threats of a veto from the Bush administration. Fortunately, they know that vetoing a VA spending bill is political suicide.

As for the performance of the VHA specifically, that has a lot more to do with the Secretary of the Veterans Administration, then with Congress or the President. It's a political appointment to a cabinet position. The federal employees that serve the veterans in the VA try very hard to do a good job. I've seen this first hand, and they are really terrific people. They know what they are doing is vitally important. I think in some federal jobs, people might not care about what they are doing, but in the VA - they definately do. They want to get it right, and they have a tremendous amount of pride in the military and empathy for the vets that need medical care.

The improvement in the care that veterans recieve has absolutely nothing to do with George Bush, just as it had nothing to do with Bill Clinton before him except in regard to the performance of the person they appoint to Secretary. I hope that's really clear for the loons.

I've also seen how a bureaucracy can screw it up and waste a lot of money. A previous project I worked on for the VA wasted a half billion dollars. Yes, that's $500,000,000.00. The key to improving the VA is to become more efficient and trust the subject matter experts. However, in the VA, the model that works in the private sector is flipped up-side-down.

For example, if the VHA is considering some major technical modification to their computer systems, the last people they ask about it are the engineers who built the existing systems. They spend all sorts of money, and then when it comes down to actually doing the work, the engineers who are tasked to make it happen often have to reply "this won't work, and if you had asked me about it up front, I would have told you it wouldn't work." The VHA does it over and over and over and wastes lots of money that could be better spent on patient care.

If you want to substantially improve the VA, the way to do it is trust the grunts (doctors, nurses, engineers, etc.) who do the work. Spend the money on what they say the money should be spent on, instead of trusting some Congressman to have his own pet project. Unfortunately, I doubt this will ever change.

Finally, Doug is lying about military spending under the Clinton administration as well. Simple slogans from Doug do not paint the entire picture. From Foreign Affairs.

During the Clinton administration, the U.S. share of worldwide military spending has increased. America now outspends all of its adversaries or potential adversaries combined. Together with its allies, it accounts for nearly 80 percent of the world's military expenditures.

I've asked before.. but really.. can you source your factual assertions.. maybe? Stop lying maybe? No? I thought not.

/update

Doug wrote on Saturday;

ANSWER, which in my opinion has the wrong answer, will be marching on Washington D.C. today in a massive anti-war/anti-military/anti-patriotism/anti-America march.

Once again, he's calling millions of Americans "traitors".

Fuck you Doug.. you vile son of a bitch..

/update 2

New post at the RWL.