The Obama administration expresses concern about a problem, offers to fix it, and as usual does nothing.  The same can be said about the Congress.  They pass a law which they say will fix a problem, but once again I doubt that any member of Congress follows up to write any revised regulations.

By the way, I am dismayed that the members of Congress think that once a law is passed, their job is done.  This is not true.  Why would any member of Congress allow another branch of government to write the regulations that become law?  Member of Congress, you cannot complain about excessive executive branch power and then turn what might be the most important part of the law—the creation of the regulations that become law—over to the executive branch.  The Constitution created an executive branch to enforce the laws—not make them.

The VA administration is useless if not criminal in the way they treat our veterans.  And as usual, our incompetent Congress authorizes veterans to seek medical help outside the VA only after getting VA administration approval.  Why is any approval needed?  By Congress allowing the VA administration to decide when a veteran could get medical treatment outside the VA, did they let the fox guard the hen house again?  Are the members of Congress brain dead or just totally insensitive to the needs of the veterans?  It is obvious they do not know how to solve problems.

To solve the problem, all veterans should be issued a medical identification card upon separation from the military.  This medical card would be valid for government authorized medical treatment at any accredited medical facility including the local doctor’s office for one year from separation.  The veterans who use the card during this year would be granted automatic renewal for up to five years—except when fraud has been committed.  After six years, and depending on how much the card was used, any further renewal or instructions on future card use would be evaluated.  This reduces the possibly corrupt and useless Department of Veterans Affairs administration to processing claims for the first six years while the veterans’ medical needs are being established by medical professionals.

After the implementation of this card, the VA’s Inspector General would be tasked to investigate for any fraud beginning on the day the card is issued.  As stated above, any regulations needed for implementation of the law must be written by the Congress because that is the job for which they were elected.  The VA administration should not write any regulations, but only enforce them.  Again, Congress needs to remember that according to our Constitution, the role of the executive branch is to enforce the law.

Each of the VA current administrators must be reduced in pay grade to GS-5 and their accrued pension benefits converted to a 401k.  All bonuses must be prohibited.  Each administrator would be evaluated to determine whether or not they have been doing the job for which they were hired and have this verified by a non VA investigator.  If the administrator passes the new job evaluation, he or she will then be eligible to be promoted to a new higher GS level—but not necessarily to the previous level held.  The critics will say that this remedy is too extreme.  To them I say that I have a problem with the VA bureaucracy causing veterans to die due to lack of treatment.  I have no problem with any bureaucrat having to justify his or her employment and pay scale.  A reduction in pay grade gets their attention.  This is serious business.

We ask our young people to enlist in our military to defend our country during multiple deployments and then after they have served their country at huge personal risk and possible financial loss, we turn our backs on them.  Maybe the VA administration is hoping that the veterans will die or commit suicide before they can be treated by the government.  This is way it looks.

Maybe the final solution is to abolish the VA and use the card method I describe above.