Thom & Renee & The VA: Great Minds thinking alike

Providing for veterans’ health care is the least we can do for the multitudes who have served and sacrificed in uniform for this country.  It’s incredibly unfortunate that we are subjecting to those folks to a system with all the efficiency of the DMV and the compassion of Stalin’s Russia to get the treatment they need.

Prior to the 2014 elections, there was all kinds of news about antics at the Veterans’ Administration — from outrageous wait times for treatment to a compete lack of fiscal responsibility.  Politicians fumed and stomped their feet upon hearing the news.  A few plans got kicked around.  Yet, the 2014 elections came and went. A lot more federal money has been thrown at the VA.  And those problems are STILL HERE.

One of the more interesting ideas I heard being tossed around early on in the VA scandal was providing veterans with vouchers so they could choose the health care provider that makes the most sense for them.  I have a number of friends and family members who are military veterans.  They’ve all told me THAT would be a much preferable to dealing with the nonsense at the VA.

The political-bureaucratic mindset is aimed at centralizing things and controlling people.  It’s 180-degrees from the business mentality focused on efficiency, giving people what they want when they need it, and generally serving people. Customer / patient service tends to improve dramatically when the possibility of losing customers / patients to competition exists. 

Like so many government programs, the VA was set up with the best of intentions.  But the bureaucrats latched on.  Government employee unions sunk their claws into the workforce at the VA facilities.  The culture of red tape that afflicts so many other government agencies began to engulf the VA. It soon became the model for what lefties envision ALL of health care looking like under ObamaCare. 

But, the politicians are on the scene to mug for the cameras and make us think they really, really care. US Sen. Thom Tillis paraded all over the state telling us how bad it sucks that vets have to wait so long for treatment.   Three days later, congresswoman Renee Ellmers put out a statement basically parroting Thom’s thestimony.

First, we hear she wants to cut off White House salaries over amnesty.  Now, she’s talking tough on the VA.  Somebody’s apparently  pulling together some content to use in ads for the 2016 GOP primary.  It’s too bad for Big Government Barbie™ that we’ve already got her figured out.