Author Topic: The VA and DoD Don't Have a Funding Problem. They Have a Mismanagement Crisis.  (Read 306 times)

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Offline rangerrebew

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The VA and DoD Don't Have a Funding Problem. They Have a Mismanagement Crisis.
 
Military.com | By Jim Whaley
Published March 29, 2024 at 9:39am ET
 

The $328.1 billion 2024 budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest in agency history. President Joe Biden's 2025 budget for the VA asks for yet another increase to $369.3 billion.
 
If enacted by Congress, the 2025 proposal would represent a 668% increase in the VA's budget since 2001 and, although over half of the department's annual budget goes toward mandatory spending like disability compensation, the question remains: Have these historic levels of funding translated to improved outcomes for our veterans?

https://www.military.com/daily-news/opinions/2024/03/29/va-and-dod-dont-have-funding-problem-they-have-mismanagement-crisis.html
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.  George Washington - Farewell Address

Offline rangerrebew

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I don't know if funding is done the way it was 50+ years ago when I served.  Funding was based on what was spent to previous quarter.  So, to insure there was money in the next quarter, if it was getting close getting near the end of a quarter and there was money left, a unit would need to spend that money moe ricky tick.  It was interesting being out to sea at that point to see all the equipment that went over the side so a unit would have to reorder and spend their excess.

A case in point.  I was on the fantail one morning waiting to go to breakfast when a couple cooks carrying a box of something walked by.  I could smell it was cooked by the aroma.  I asked what they had, and they said cooked steaks.  I asked what they had in mind for them, and they said they were going over the side.  They had been on the serving line, but they had to be gone by 0600.  Otherwise, they would lose funding.  I told them they could put those bad boys next to me and I'd be happy to feed them to the sharks when I had all I wanted.  There must have been 20-30 of them.  I consumed all I could and fed the sharks.  That sort of thing was common at the end of a funding period; lots of waste.
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.  George Washington - Farewell Address

Offline rustynail

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DEI Hits the VA: Biden's Veterans Affairs Department Offers Race-Based Training Programs That Exclude White Vets
'Equity' means realizing 'treating everybody the same might not be enough,' VA official Shawn Liu says

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/dei-hits-the-va-bidens-veterans-affairs-department-offers-race-based-training-programs-that-exclude-white-vets/