Update On How To Fix The Payment Issues: I Got Triggered On My Flight And Wrote About How Fucked Up Things Are At The VA
I’m on a flight right now and I saw this tweet and I have some thoughts overall. I’m not gonna get into the weeds of that article and I normally dont write shit with this tone but it’s Veteran’s Day (observed) so why not?
Here’s the summary. The VA is still fucked up. Executive orders and oral sucking of veterans and what they’ve done for the country aren’t enough. This isnt something new that needs to be a finger pointing at President Trump or the current Congress. The VA has been a nightmare for generations of service members.
Nixon. Ford. Carter. Reagan. Bush. Clinton. Bush. Obama. Trump. No one has been able to fix the second largest government agency. You can pen whip all the orders that you want but until there’s a real investment into the infrastructure that is the VA, we will still have massive problems.
Many service members who are transitioning from service rely on the VA and the benefits they’ve earned to continue their life on a successful path. I dont think most people who haven’t experienced the VA realize the problems that arise every step of the way.
Let’s start with education. When many enlisted members get out, they want to go to college. They’ve earned it. When President Bush had the Post 9/11 GI Bill passed, it was a game changer for veterans. Instead of the smaller stipend that veterans had gotten for years, they now qualified for housing funds. Huge. For example, when I went to UTSA, my school was paid for, books, and I got 1300 a month for housing. It paid my mortgage. Without it, I wouldnt have been able to go to school. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. Luckily for me, I was retired from the Marine Corps so I had other income if the VA fucked it up which they did a few time. Back pay came but if I wasnt ok to start with, I would have not been ok.
Many members dont have that. If the VA doesnt pay them for MONTHS at a time, their credit suffers; their bills go unpaid; they feel the ramifications for years. One of the biggest stressors that people go through as adults, as you know, is money problems. If you thought that your mortgage or rent was paid for 4 years because you earned that payment, finding a way to pay in a pinch is incredibly stressful.
One of the shitty parts about getting out of the military is that you instantly feel like you are behind the curve of the rest of society. Although you arent alone, you feel very much alone. You’re the weird old guy or lady in class with a vet beard (shoutout Kate) and you dont really have a place. Now you are the old person with life experience who cant afford to pay their rent. You start to think about if the struggle will be worth it in the long run. Your credit score suggests that it might not be.
And that’s just for education. The same process exists for medical stuff. Lots of times, you leave the service broken. Your knees, back, and brain went through some shit. Getting medical appointments can be a disaster. You wait weeks for appointments and then hours when you finally arrive at those appointments.
It’s been this way for generations. There are currently 45 thousand unfilled positions at the VA. We’ve had three secretaries (acting or otherwise) in 2 years of President Trump’s administration.
Perhaps the worst part of the entire ordeal is that we are making more Veterans every single day with the continuation of the war in Afganistan. In my opinion, the best thing we could do for our veterans is withdrawing from the war in Afganistan. After 17 years, we’ve spent enough treasure there.
Focus the money that we spend on that war on the care of the veterans who fought there, Iraq, Korea, the battlefields of Europe, and nearly every clime and place around the globe. If we focus funding on post-care and treatment like we focus on the battle and the treasure needed to keep that pit alive, our veterans wont need to call their cousins and ask for a couch.
“I can sleep anywhere. I dont care if it’s comfortable. My time in service taught me that.”
Just because you can doesnt mean that you should have to. For those who offered everything, they deserve more than months-long excuses about technical glitches. Get it fucking fixed.
There will be 100 veterans in Congress after this new class is sworn in. Here’s hoping for change around the river bend. It should be one of the primary focuses.
tl;dr the VA sucks and America’s veterans deserve better.
UPDATE:
Some from the VA reached out to me after I wrote this blog. Hopefully this helps some folks.
