[ As a vet who has worked for the VA as well as having been a patient at my local VA for nearly 20 years, this guy hits the issues head on. ]

From: https://tinyurl.com/2a5385yw (dailycaller.com)

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BYRNES: Veterans Need More Healthcare Options, Not Lies About The VA Budget

OPINION
John Byrnes Contributor
May 13, 2023 9:39 PM ET

We've recently seen a disturbing trend in strategy to pass an egregious
spending bill or oppose more responsible options: fear-monger and mislead
about veterans' health care.

Democrats in particular have shown they are more than willing to stoke
fear in the hearts and minds of veterans who have unique health care
challenges and needs, all to achieve the legislative outcomes Democrats
want. They've held veterans hostage to their flagrant abuse of taxpayer
dollars and unsound economic policy, and the media has allowed them to
punish anyone who wants to hit the pause button or have a rational
spending conversation.

And now we're seeing it again.

Last week, House Republicans passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act in an
attempt to lay down a marker and manage the conversation on the upcoming
debt ceiling negotiations. The House bill has no chance of passing the
Senate or being signed into law. Nonetheless, the White House itself
published outrageous and untrue claims about how the bill would affect
veterans' health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The White House, and allies including House Veterans Affairs Committee
Ranking Member Mark Takano, Rep. Mikie Sherrill and others are echoing the
claims from the VA that the plan would result in 30 million fewer VA
outpatient visits and cost 81,000 VA employees their jobs. These figures
are alarming, but there's one problem-nowhere in the Limit, Save, Grow Act
does language direct Congress to cut the VA's budget.

Instead, the bill caps overall discretionary spending-the portion of the
budget Congress can readily alter each year-at the same levels as Fiscal
Year 2022, apart from defense. Over the next 10 years, the bill allows for
a 1% spending increase. Democrats' numbers come from the assumption that
Congress will cut every program to 2022 levels individually, even though
the bill allows Congress to prioritize how it will reach the discretionary
targets. Republican leaders have already said they will not send a bill to
President Biden's desk that cuts veteran's care.

The VA is the second largest cabinet-level agency, with a budget that has
more than quintupled in the last two decades. In 2002, the budget was
roughly $50 billion, and in 2022, the budget was $274 billion. In 2023 the
VA budget is over $300 billion - more than a 10% increase over 2022. One
third of that total, $128 billion, goes to the Veterans Health
Administration.

Meanwhile, the veteran population is declining. This suggests the problem
is not one of funding, but rather one of administration. The focus of the
VA seems to be on the bureaucracy rather than the veterans it serves. This
needs to change. Instead of debating how much funding the VA gets, we need
to be debating how the VA is spending the funding it has and whether or
not those funds are actually helping veterans. The VA employs around
400,000 staff, more than 90% of whom work at the VHA, and most are union
members.

As with teachers' unions and students, government-sector unions conflate
what is good for their members with what is good for veterans, and they
wield political leverage over elected Democrats. Thus, Congress struggles
to reform the VA while falling victim to whatever narrative the
self-interested players want to spread.

Now Democrats and their allies are using Americans' deep respect for
veterans and our sense of responsibility for their care to protect a
progressive wish list of spending and a host of government-sector union
jobs while pretending to improve what is, in reality, worsening health
care for veterans.

The VA's enormous budget is hostage to unions, and to progressive
narratives in the media. Meanwhile, delayed care harms and sometimes kills
veterans in every community in America.

What veterans need is reform at the VA and options for care outside of it,
not lip service and blatant lies about the budget and services.

Concerned Veterans for America has fought that battle for the last 10
years, supporting the Veterans Choice Act in 2014 and the VA MISSION Act
in 2018. These laws provided veterans with more health care choice and
strengthened VA by allowing it to focus on the services it best provides.

We're continuing the fight to build off that success by supporting Sens.
Jerry Moran and Kyrsten Sinema's Veterans' HEALTH Act, Sen. Marsha
Blackburn and Rep. Andy Biggs' Veterans Health Care Freedom Act, and Rep.
Greg Steube's Veterans True Choice Act, all of which would expand access
to care, hold the VA accountable for providing care, and ensure the
promise to care for veterans is kept.

Reform is a battle we can win. These bills, not more reckless spending in
the name of veterans, can actually deliver better health outcomes for
those who served.
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John Byrnes is deputy director of Concerned Veterans for America and a
veteran of the United States Marine Corps and Army National Guard who
served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the
author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.

(c)2023 The Daily Caller, Inc.
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