(Dis)Honoring Veterans

X-posted from Xpatriated Texan
The recent revelation of conditions at Walter Reed Hospital has spawned a set of Congressional hearings.  But the problems with Army medical facilities is both long-term and systemic.  You can chop off a few heads, sure, but it isn't going to change anything.  The problems extend far beyond one or two "bad apples" - an excuse which has worn so thin as to be transparent by now.

The problem with veterans' health care is the same problem with everyone else's health care - except that the government can't side-step its responsibility to deal with the VA.  The answer can be found in an old plaque that used to hang on my grandpa's wall "If you want good clean oats, you have to pay a fair price.  If you're satisfied with oats that have already been through the horse, well, those are a bit cheaper."

Without a doubt, government budgets have historically been chock full of unnecessary expenditures.  This was a large reason for the Conservative Revolution - "no more $500 hammers".  Waste, fraud, and abuse have wasted tens of billions of dollars over the years.  But is there anyone who believes that this Administration is actually part of the solution to that problem?

What happened in the military/veterans' healthcare system is that, over time, fewer veterans needed it.  Since WW2, the percentage of the population that has served in uniform has dropped dramatically.  Since the Vietnam Era draft was repealed, the trend accelerated.  Given the fact that very few veterans received war wounds from the end of Vietnam until recently, it was easy to see the system as having "surplus capacity" - unused hospital beds, doctors, nurses, administrators, etc - that was just sucking up bad money after good.  The answer, of course, was to cut back funding.

But, like so many things, the Bush Administration went hog-ass crazy with cuts.  It got so bad that groups began to sue the federal government to receive their promised benefits.  It's no exaggeration to say that this has led to the degradation of health care and to the death of veterans who would otherwise be alive.  In a rush to create a "leaner, more efficient" delivery system, they forgot that every healthcare system needs "overflow capacity".  If your hospital is 100% full all of the time, what are you going to do when you get a large influx of new patients?

I don't know how much money it would cost to fix the VA and military healthcare.  I do know, however, that there are some problems that money can solve, and there are very few problems that more money does not help.  Instead of pushing for immoral tax cuts for the wealthy, the Republican war-machine should be demanding that we honor our debt to those who have been injured in our service.  The slash-and-burn budgetary tactics of past years has to stop - and stop now.  The power to tax is the power to destroy, and must thus be used carefully.  But it is not the only tool of budgetary destruction.  

In almost every other war in American history, the government has enacted new taxes to pay for war-time spending.  The Bush Administration insanely insisted on cutting taxes just as demand for governmental spending increased.  We've heard for many years about how the stock-market is a passive wealth generator - how about we start taxing that unearned income again?  What if we pass a 5% surtax on incomes in excess of $1 million a year?  

It's past time for wealthy Americans to pony up their share.  After all, the bulk of injuries and deaths in the military are from those of us in the lower socio-economic strata.  If you aren't going to put your ass on the line, then you damn well better be ready to open your wallet to pay for those who are.  Until that happens, Walter Reed will be the rule, rather than the abberation it should be.