The VA and the news media's witch hunt.

In my opinion, the VA is a lot like privately owned or Corporately owned hospitals. Obviously, the VA is funded by the Government and the others are not but despite that, they are similar in many aspects. The ones that are dis-similar, seems to be the biggest difference.

One of the best examples that I can use to demonstrate this to be true comes from my own experiences. I say that because I was somewhat shocked to learn that one of the Doctors at the VA could not be replaced when he retired because they didn't have the budget to cover that. I also learned that MRI appointments were being out sourced because ours was inoperative and they didn't have the budget to get a new one.

I'm certain that many of the other VA facilities have experienced the same thing and that's been going on for a long time. In 2009 when the brain tumor showed up, my local VA couldn't do the surgery nor could they pay LSU medical center to do it because they didn't have the money in the budget.

From that, they sent me to Houston's VA where the brain surgery was just another day at work. They already had the people and the equipment as they were the Brain Trauma Center for the military. No problem.

With today's witch hunt and the desire to throw the responsible parties under the bus on going, one might ask a thing or two about "Cause and Effect". All you have to do is follow the money.

Try to keep an open mind about this "death list" or "died while waiting" thing. All you have to do is know two things. The first one is the total budget for the VA hospitals and the second is the Veteran's Benefits Package. I recall looking that up and learning that it was a bit over 50 Billion to run the hospitals and a little over 60 Billion to run the Benefit Package. Let's just call that 115 Billion and give ourselves a little cushion.

Now, having already learned about the underfunded, under equipped and understaffed thing, do a little math about the annual budgets that we deal with. How much are we spending on illegal aliens? How much for food stamps? How much for foreign aid? How much for Social Security Benefits that are being paid to those who are neither citizens or those who never paid a dime into it?

Do the math and make your own conclusion but try to understand that I don't believe for a minute that the accusations that are being made toward VA employees are true or that they "intentionally" set aside those who are terminal. Follow the money and you'll see the problem but don't expect to see any reports like this on the evening news. It ain't gonna happen.