Huge Bonuses for VA Bureaucrats: Like Giving George Tenet the Medal of Freedom

Just when you think you've seen it all, the top bureaucrats at the VA manage to set new standards in rewarding incompetence. It turns out that back in 2005, only months after admitting that they had underestimated the cost of veterans' care by more than $1 billion dollars, VA officials involved in the foul-up each got bonuses in the tens of thousands of dollars. The total cost of these bonuses? Over $3 million dollars.

For those of you who can't keep track of all the different ways returning troops are getting the run-around, here's a quick recap of what we saw in 2005:

In their budget request for 2005, VA based their numbers on the data from 2002 -- before the war in Iraq even started. As a result, they expected only 23,500 new veterans to seek services, instead of the 103,000 new veterans who returned from war needing care. So the VA asked Congress for $1 billion less than they would actually need.

While local facilities were flooded with new veterans and forced to ration care, VA bureaucrats spent six months telling a concerned Congress that there wasn't a problem. As late as summer 2004, VA Secretary Nicholson assured Senate leadership that "the VA does not need emergency supplemental funds in FY 2005." Eventually, the VA finally admitted the billion-dollar shortfall and requested emergency funding, but not before thousands of veterans were affected by the six-month budget crunch.

So what happens to the people responsible for this fiasco? Are they fired, or even reprimanded? No -- they are rewarded with handsome bonuses that drew millions of dollars away from crucial VA programs. Bonuses for this kind of negligence - it's like giving George Tenet the Medal of Freedom.

What else could the VA have done with $3 million? Here's an idea. The entire 2006 budget for the Defense and Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury Center was only $14 million dollars. And last year, they faced a staggering budget cut of 50%. Three million dollars would have gone a long way to helping the estimated 150,000 troops with a brain injury. Instead, it went into the pockets of some bureaucrats.

Tonight ten Republican presidential candidates will lay out their plans for the future of this country. Some of these candidates are veterans themselves, including John McCain, Duncan Hunter, Jim Gilmore and Ron Paul. McCain and Hunter also have children serving in the military right now. While I doubt these politicians and businessmen rely on the VA for their health care, I certainly hope they'll remember their millions of compatriots who do.

The more than 1.5 million veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan expect to hear how these candidates will ensure that the VA is looking after our veterans, not their bureaucrats.

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