I know this has been diaried a few times in the past few days, about the deplorable conditions in Building 18 at Walter Reed, but what was the real cause of it.
The outsourcing of federal jobs, what the republicans have been doing since they took over the White House in 2001. They accelerated the pace, over which it had been done, demanding more jobs to be privatized and have broken the law in doing it, that didn't matter, getting rid of government employees and downsizing government was the mantra. Walter Reed is just a symptom of the entire picture.
It is absurd to assume that 50 private employees can do the work of 300 government workers, despite the reputation of how lazy they are, most aren't and do earn their paychecks.
Like any place they have people that stretch the patience of management and because of employee unions, it is hard but not impossible to fire them for cause.
As this article in VA Watchdog shows the VA hospitals are next on the list.
This is a lesson in political manipulation.
Give your program a compelling name: Project Hero.
Tell people that it will not do what it is really designed to do: Privatize VA healthcare.
Then, sit back and watch people buy into it.
We all know that veterans who live in rural areas need access to VA healthcare.
So, instead of building VA clinics and staffing them with VA doctors and nurses...the VA, with the help and blessing of House Vets' Chair Rep. Steve Buyer, is privatizing the system by providing healthcare from private doctors at private hospitals.
Rural vets won't complain...because they will have healthcare close to home.
Service organizations are not complaining because their rural members have healthcare close to home.
But...this is exactly what happened to military retirees.
As military hospitals closed...retirees were shuffled into private healthcare systems.
And, now they are stuck in TRICARE, a HMO that costs them plenty in fees.
The VA will soon say that the private, contracted healthcare they are providing is costing too much...and start asking for fees to pay for this.
If they built VA clinics, they couldn't do this (or at least it would be harder to do).
Stay tuned...we will see more and more of this...and in a very few years you may have to cough up annual fees for VACARE...the all new and improved HMO for veterans.
I was in the Army at Fort Irwin in 1981 when they awarded the very first contract for base maintenance to Boeing Services, instead of going to the post engineers for problems with the quarters (army housing) we called Boeing, not a good deal, we had a broken sliding glass door, they put a sheet of plywood in it's place, 3 months later, it was still there. They said it was on order.
I went to the post Inspector Generals Office the same afternoon their employee told me it was still on order, I asked the IG why it took 3 months to get a window replaced at NTC, he called over to Boeing, I don't know what transpired but by the time I got home from work that afternoon, my wife was happy the window had been installed.
I am afraid what is going to come out at Congressman Waxmans Field hearing tomorrow at Walter Reed is not going to be good news for the taxpayers, or maybe it is, they can finally learn how "wisely" President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been spending their dollars.
They are forcing government agencies to turn over lucrative outsourcing contracts to campaign donors and friends at Halliburton like Mr Swindle of IAP Services of walter Reed infamy I would love to know how much money the executives of IAP and other contractors that have been rewarded are giving to the Republican Party, it might make everyone realize what really is going on.
UPDATE I have been told of a great diary by Shirah which can be seen here along these same lines