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Nov. 5, 2023 - Stew Peters Show
59:02
VA Shortcomings: Promises Made, Never Maintained
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And you're an adult or even a teenager, a young adult, you're well aware that there is a place for men and women who have served in the United States military to go and get care, medical care, dental care if you qualify, vision, education benefits, prosthetics, all that stuff, all kinds of different things.
And this is known, of course, as the Veterans Affairs Administration, the VA. We spend a lot of time on this show talking about VA shortcomings.
A lot of people around this country spend a lot of time talking about how crappy the VA is.
There's also a lot of people that spend a lot of time talking about good experiences that they've had at the VA. And I think it's important to point out that the VA does do good things.
But there definitely are a lot of shortcomings.
Seems to be a lot of favoritism, some backdoor deals, and especially at the higher levels of VA leadership, some pretty shady things going on.
As we've discussed on this show many times, I mean, I think it was, what, eight weeks we had Robin Stitt on here talking about the VA caregiver program and how shady that seems to be.
And still no answers about it.
There's been really no movement, not really any kind of epiphany, if you will.
But lately, this last week, there's been quite a bit of talk about accountability in the VA system as it relates to their employees and the quality of care that is given to veterans And a few veteran family members who received some kind of service from the VA, because that is a thing also.
But I wonder why.
I mean, it's no secret that we've spent a lot of time talking about VA shortcomings, right?
I mean, hell, back when Obama was in office, we had veterans dying on waiting lists to be seen at VA facilities down in, I believe it was in Phoenix, Arizona.
Unacceptable.
Why is it now that government officials in the halls of Congress, the Senate, and out on campaign trails are now talking heavily about veterans' issues?
Is it because the public is bringing them up more?
Maybe.
Is it because we're rolling into a new election cycle?
In just about a year's time, we'll be voting for the next president, your congressperson, your senator, maybe, local government, county, all that stuff.
All that stuff is coming within a year's time.
Now, is it because election cycle is coming that we're having all these talks about quality of care and how we're going to discipline employees that aren't performing?
I don't know.
But I found a few different videos.
Full disclosure, they're on YouTube.
Forbes Breaking News puts out a lot of political stuff.
I found them on their YouTube page.
And they're pretty informative.
So today we're going to go through those and kind of just pick those apart.
There is a few bullet points here that I made about some things that were said, and I have some opinions about it.
But I'm also interested to hear what you have to say.
And the first question I have for you, my audience, is, why do you think that this is becoming an issue?
And the second part of that question is, do you believe that it's just lip service?
So let's get into it.
Stick with us.
Don't go away.
We start now.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome here to the next installment of The Richard Leonard Show.
I want to thank you, as always, for joining us.
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Okay, so I want to just dive right in because I got three video clips to show you.
One is about seven minutes and the other two are about four or five.
But I think that they're important because as I was stating in the intro, I found it very peculiar this week because That there's a lot of information out on social media, YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, Instagram.
There's a lot, and I suppose it depends on your algorithm, right?
And what you look at and what you're looking up.
But there's a lot of things that have been posted recently, within the last week for sure, about VA quality control.
And there was a lot of talk this week about how are we going to keep VA employees accountable?
How are we going to ensure that the employees that we put to work at VA facilities are one doing their job, doing them the right way and effectively, and doing it efficiently?
And there's been a lot of concern about it.
There's been a lot of complaints.
Back in 2017, as you'll hear, there was laws.
There was even a law in 2017 that was put into place that allows the VA to take action, even against executives, top-level people that are apparently...
Performing things that are considered misconduct or negligence or just they don't care.
They're there to collect a paycheck and they're not there for the right reasons.
And of course we all go to work every day.
We do what we do to collect a paycheck.
But you know the old saying, right?
If you enjoy what you're doing or love what you're doing, you'll never work a day in your life.
And trust me, folks, I get it.
I worked in the veteran service industry, if you want to call it an industry or field or profession, for six to eight years, something like that.
And it can be rough.
I'll tell you straight out, it can be rough.
It's difficult at times when you already have your own struggles to take on the burden of others, but also to take on the burden of others that you are endeared to.
And being a veteran of the United States of America There's a lot of us, but in the grand scheme of things, it's a small community.
I mean, less than 1% of the population currently serves.
Less than 5% of our population are actually veterans of the United States military.
Of all ages, all age groups, all conflicts, all wars, all eras.
Very small percentage.
And so when you're taking on their burdens and their hurts and their issues and trying to help them, it can be a trigger.
It can be difficult at times.
And then I think folks, they suffer from things such as compassion fatigue, right?
Where you're trying to deal with your own issues.
You're trying to help these folks out.
And sometimes, sometimes, The folks you're trying to help out don't make it easy for you.
And anybody out there who works in social work, social services, mental health, even medical care, any kind of service provider, even retail people, right?
Even people that work in retail.
That can be super difficult because People don't always understand what it is they're looking for or what they need.
And so when you try to do the right thing by folks and they don't get it or they don't want it, it becomes even more cumbersome.
And then you have to watch them try to navigate through these issues.
And so I understand where people kind of fall off the rails.
But...
That doesn't mean that the men and women that serve this country don't deserve to have the best care possible.
I mean, to me, it's common sense, right?
If you belong to a community or to a country such as the United States of America, and you do something selfless, right?
Like, write out that blank check to your country, and the amount is up to the sum of your life.
And you're willing to hand that check to Uncle Sam, knowing that, if needed, that sumbitch is going to cash it.
I believe that that is worth something.
Not only is that worth something, but just about everybody, I shouldn't say that just about everybody that joins does it with the understanding that if something happens to them that they'll be taken care of.
But you're certainly told that.
You're certainly told that that's what these places, VA healthcare facilities, clinics, or whatever, You're told that that's what they're there for.
And so maybe part of the issue is that now with all this polarization that's going on in our country, all this division, all this upheaval, now a lot of this other stuff is becoming a little more important to the people who are going to be casting votes.
If it's still true that our votes count for something.
I'd like to believe that they do, but that's probably a whole nother show.
So anyway, let's get started.
This first clip I'm going to show you is a town hall.
I want to say it was back from like Tuesday of this last week that Chris Christie held in Manchester, New Hampshire.
I didn't even know until a few days ago that Chris Christie was even running for president again.
Apparently he announced in June of this last year.
So that just goes to show how connected to the mainstream media I really am.
So anyway, he is doing this town hall.
It looks like it's in some kind of restaurant or bar and grill or something like that.
And this gentleman is asking him a question about, how are we going to take care of veterans?
This guy is a veteran, he says.
His son is in the service and has recently been sent away somewhere.
And he has questions about how his son and other veterans in this country are going to be taken care of when they come home, if they come home.
So check this out.
There's Mr.
Christie himself.
And folks, just so full disclosure, it's not very clear.
right the What do they call this?
The resolution.
The resolution is not very clear, or the quality of the video is not very clear, but we'll get the idea.
So let's do this here.
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My name is Ed Cody.
I'm a veteran.
Seen a lot while I was there.
Affects me, you know, on a daily basis.
But having said that, I also have a son who just got deployed as far as the 2,000 man reactionary force.
My question is, it's two-fold.
Reactionary force, that's Marines, I believe.
What are we going to do when these guys get back, such as myself, about treating them Or better yet, informing them of where they can get their benefits done and possibly maybe a place for them to stay.
I see too many veterans homeless.
I hear lots of money going around everywhere, but I have yet to hear what we're going to do about our veterans.
My second part of this question is, With the way the Congress is acting, we're going to have a government shutdown.
What's going to happen to our sons and daughters that are in harm's way that won't get paid?
Not only they won't get paid, but more importantly, the families they have left won't see a paycheck either.
How are they going to eat?
How are they going to take care of their children?
I haven't heard anything or any candidate address this issue.
Alright?
Well, we're gonna break your streak.
Let's hear it, Chris.
Let's start in reverse.
There's no excuse for closing down the government.
None.
No excuse for it.
You get sent there to run it, not to close it.
And these folks, on both sides, Who think that somehow that's a sign of strength, that's a sign of complete and utter weakness and failure.
And so we've got to make sure they understand that.
And by the way, they kicked Kevin McCarthy out because he made a deal to keep the government open.
Think about that.
And if you remember, Kevin talked about two things.
That we have an obligation to do this, given that we're elected, and that I will not let our military men and women go unpaid.
Those are the two points he talked about every time about why he made the deal, and these eight lunatics kicked him out because of it.
So what we need to do is, on that front, is to reward the people who are willing to do their job and punish the people who aren't.
Now, if there are people in any congressional delegation that favor closing the government, the next election they should be removed.
But also, we need to have a situation where term limits come into effect in this country.
Now, it's going to be very hard to do, right?
Very hard to do.
But, I was term limited as governor of New Jersey.
You know, the fact is that you could pass a law that allows for term limits.
Now, of course, it's the very people whose terms you would be limiting who have to pass the laws.
But it's an example of why we should not be allowing these folks to stay there forever.
Because the longer they stay there, the less perspective they have on what really is going on in the country.
On your first question, I advocated for this eight years ago.
I think any man or woman who serves in the United States military and is honorably discharged should be able to get a card that allows them to seek medical care and treatment, both for physical and mental health issues, at any doctor they want to go to anywhere in this country.
The VA does as good a job as they can under the circumstances.
But we have folks in our military and who retire from our military who continue to have ongoing issues, as you alluded to.
And those issues need to be addressed.
And a lot of those issues are severe enough and in enough of a crisis that they can't wait weeks or months to get an appointment at the VA. They need to be taken care of quickly.
And if we're providing health care to lots of other people in this country, ahead of our veterans, our priorities are misplaced.
And so, to me, it would be very simple.
If you leave the military and you're honorably discharged from the military, then you should get a card that allows you to go and seek treatment wherever you want for the rest of your life, given what you've given to this country.
By serving and putting yourself in harm's way and your family because every day you serve, they serve too.
No one can tell me that a spouse or a child is not feeling the effects of their spouse or father's service just as much as the person doing the services because their absence leaves a hole that cannot be filled.
Well, I'll agree with Chris on one thing.
When soldiers go away, sailors, marines, or whoever, go away to serve, their family serves too.
And to be quite honest, it is my opinion that your children probably have the hardest time.
It's a fact.
It's difficult for veterans to be away.
It's difficult for soldiers to be away.
But I believe it's even more difficult for the families that they leave behind for that soldier to be away.
They have to figure out how to keep navigating life With as little disruption as possible.
Now, one parent leaving is already a big enough disruption in their lives.
But then also add to it not knowing.
You don't know where dad is or mom is.
You don't know what they're doing.
You don't know if they're okay.
There's a lot of stuff That happens day to day for a person on deployment that soldiers know, right?
And as a soldier deployed, you can nowadays, especially, you can be in contact with your family at home.
You can call.
There's probably even cell phones or something like that that you could carry with you and call anytime you want.
But there's a large part of the mission that can't be talked about.
Can't necessarily always tell your family where you're at, what you're doing.
None of that stuff.
And should something happen to you, and you get wounded or hurt in action, they contact your family.
If you get injured, wounded, maimed, or whatever, but don't die, the Pentagon calls your family, whoever your next of kin listed is, but they don't tell them anything.
All they tell them is, your loved one was doing their job, something happened, they were injured, but they're not dead, and when they are able, they will contact you.
So the family who has a soldier who was in an IED attack that lost an arm and a leg, that family gets the same call as the guy or gal who was doing a dismounted patrol through Baghdad and missed a step and broke an ankle.
He was injured or she was injured.
Outside the wire, in the field, in a combat zone.
Medical care was provided.
They were medevaced or casvaced to the nearest medical facility on the nearest base, and they're getting care.
When all that data gets tabulated and put together, the Pentagon then at some point, who knows, within 48 hours I would guess, Calls your family.
So in my instance, they would call my wife and say, your husband was doing his job and he's been injured.
He's not dead.
He's alive.
And he'll contact you when he's able.
Have a great day.
Everything's going to be all right.
Goodbye.
There's no questions.
You can't ask any questions.
To the best of my knowledge, I've never got one of these calls.
But my wife at the time got it.
Many other people that I know, their families got it.
They just tell you what they need to tell you and then they hang up.
Mr.
Christie had mentioned something about just giving veterans a card to be able to go to wherever they want.
Whatever doctor you want to go to, This card will grant you the ability to get medical care at whatever doctor you want to in the country.
Now, that's a great town hall answer, but it leaves a lot of questions, right?
Anybody who has served in the military...
Let's start here.
Anybody who served on active duty or a reserve component on active duty...
And has had TRICARE knows that finding care at times can be quite a burden.
And why is that?
It's because TRICARE is insurance for military personnel and their families to use at civilian doctors.
But many civilian doctors, depending on your location I'm sure, Don't always want to take TRICARE. Because TRICARE will tell you, if you're the provider, TRICARE will tell you what they're going to pay you.
So, if I go to the doctor for my broken ankle, and at the end of all of it, my bills equal $10,000, which is probably way low for care for a broken ankle and casting and all that physical therapy or whatever else you need to do.
And at the end of all of it, the bill is $10,000.
And TRICARE pays $6,000.
And it says, hey, thanks for treating our soldier.
Have a great day.
Well, now here's these medical professionals providing care to soldiers and their families for fractions of what anybody else will pay.
So why would these doctors pass up some big-time insurance company, Health Partners or Alina or whatever you guys have where you live, when they can make the full $10,000, why would they take us?
Well, you would hope that they would take us because They want to do something nice for veterans and their families or soldiers and their families.
So just giving veterans a card to go wherever you want seems like a great idea, but there's a lot of logistics there that people like me would have questions about.
If we're going to do that, does that then mean that we are going to do away with VA medical facilities and just start sending veterans to civilian healthcare providers and take all the billions of dollars that's given to the VA to provide exceptional care to veterans and give it to the civilian healthcare networks?
So that they can provide care to veterans who have this card?
Hmm.
I don't know if it's going to work that way.
Because at some point, it's going to be about, well...
I don't know if we've got the money to pay for this.
It all comes down to money.
And Mr.
Christie...
I want to think that your intentions are in the right place and that you just didn't think it through all the way.
I give you credit, however, for providing an answer and being sure about it, right?
I mean, I guess that's one good sign of leadership, right?
Make a decision.
Right, wrong, or indifferent.
Make a decision.
Stick by it and execute it.
If it still proves to be the wrong decision, well, then you got to take your lickings and go on to the next one.
But this guy has a very valid question for a dude who wants to be president.
There's a lot of talk.
There's a lot of money being shelled out all over the place.
There's a lot of homeless veterans.
There's a lot of veterans who need care.
In some cases, a lot better care or more care than they're able to get at a VA facility because of quality of care, but also because of staffing issues.
The VA, in the last few years, apparently fired 4,500 people because they weren't doing their job.
Now, some of them sued or disputed and were given their jobs back with back pay.
And some even also, apparently, as it was said, promoted.
And so, I mean, I have my opinions about that, but I don't know those cases, and I don't know the facts of those cases, so it's hard for me to pass judgment or have a valid opinion.
But on the surface, that seems like a big load of crap to me.
If you're fired for not doing your job correctly, or with care or whatever, and you go and complain about it, You're then given your job back with back pay and then in some cases even promoted.
I don't know.
Maybe some of them are valid.
Maybe some of these disputes were valid and they were fired because their boss didn't like them or they didn't agree or there was some office politics going on and they were just trying to get rid of somebody.
And this person might have been able to prove it, and they were giving their job back.
And if that's the case, then so be it.
But at the end of the day, we're talking about giving the men and women that deserve quality care, quality care.
And it's not happening, so what's the answer?
And unfortunately, I think that that answer may be above my pay grade.
I have my opinions, but we'll get to that at the end of the show.
We went way over time on this segment, so let's take a break.
We'll be right back.
Don't go away.
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Hey guys, welcome back here to the second segment of the show.
We ended the first segment, we saw a clip from Chris Christie in his town hall.
He was talking about giving veterans cards to go to civilian doctors, and sounds great.
There's a lot of logistics to work out.
But what I thought was interesting also is that he worked a lot of stuff in there, right?
He talked about term limits, he talked about his own...
His own term limiting, if you will.
These cards.
I mean, there's just a lot of things that he threw in there.
I mean, he's a great campaign trail person, I suppose you could say.
But, you know, I really wonder about politicians who are, especially coming up on an election, who are talking veterans' issues and Who have never served in the military.
Because it's my opinion that it's really easy for a person to grab a microphone, stand in front of a bunch of people that they want to get their vote, and tell them what they want to hear.
And do it with conviction.
And I think that we've seen recently in our country that People will tell you whatever it is you want to hear to get you on their side.
I would hope that when these folks are talking veterans' issues, that there's some sincerity there.
And I'm not trying to say that Chris Christie isn't sincere, but there's a lot of talk about veterans' issues, especially coming up on campaigns.
And we don't ever really see a whole lot of those issues being solved.
We don't see a whole lot of movement on any of this stuff.
And I think that to the American people, these subjects are pretty important.
I think veterans' issues are important to the American people, especially people who haven't served.
But certainly for veterans...
Because I think that the average American citizen, whether you are a blue-collar construction worker or a plumber or a mechanic or you're a CEO of a big company and you're making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year but you still are patriotic and you support your military, there's those people out there too.
I've met a few, quite a few.
That aren't just blinded by their money and their material possessions, but they actually give a damn about the cost that was paid by citizens of this country that chose to put on a uniform.
And so I would personally like to see more movement on these things.
But I digress.
That's probably a whole nother show.
I mean, look, as we're talking here, I'm creating a storyboard of shows to come, I suppose.
But let's dive into the next one.
The next one comes from the Veterans Committee, the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.
And so we're going to see John Tester, and then we're going to see Senator Tuberville in the next couple clips here.
This next one is of Tommy Tuberville, who is a senator I want to say he's out of Georgia or Mississippi or...
He's down south somewhere.
I know that.
But here he's talking about how it's our sacred duty.
Our sacred duty as Americans and as the American government and American politicians to ensure that our veterans are taken care of.
Hmm.
Let's check this one out.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman Tester and ranking member.
You know, I'm from Alabama.
We're very proud of the VA that we have in our state.
And we've recently had a new one put in.
It's a clinic.
Very proud of that.
I've got some friends that have had some relatives in there, and they're doing a great job.
And I think it's our sacred duty to take care of our veterans.
I believe Most people at the VA try to do that every day.
I know since I've been on this committee for three years, we've worked awfully hard to make our VA better.
But the fact is that we've had some abuses going on for a long time, and we all know that.
I mean, it happens in every hospital, but we've had some happen in the VA, and we're responsible for that.
And we knew that during the Obama years.
We had veterans dying on waiting lists.
VA's employees lied to cover it up.
It was horrible.
I mean, I've read some of the statements, and you can't fathom that.
It's an insult to everybody that wears a uniform to have to go in some of these places.
So, these people needed to be held accountable.
Frankly, a lot of them should have gone to jail for what I saw.
When President Trump took office, he addressed this problem head-on.
A bipartisan Congress passed the VA Accountability Act.
It passed by voice vote.
In the Senate, overwhelming in the House, it allowed the VA to fire 4,000 employees.
Now, I wouldn't hear when that happened, but that's just amazing to me.
4,000 people were fired basically for not doing their job at the end of the day.
And they were fired for a cause.
Now, these weren't layoffs.
These were people that just absolutely either did a terrible job, didn't care about what they were doing, and they got laid off.
And this is exactly what a bipartisan Congress intended to do, is get this straight.
These people have no business getting a paycheck from the taxpayers.
It's absolutely criminal.
The law is still on the books, but for some reason, we've reached a settlement.
Somebody's reached a settlement with trial lawyers, and we're not enforcing this anymore.
The law's still on the books.
This is not how the Constitution works, last time I looked.
You know, we pass a law.
We're supposed to go by the law.
I mean, this has been in the playbook for a long time on the left to try to make this work like this, and we can't do it.
I mean, we keep trying to make the VA better, and we're making it worse.
I mean, we're not making any progress here.
We saw under President Obama that Things would change.
We thought they would change.
It didn't change.
Arguably, it got much worse.
So now we've agreed to give free money to people that didn't do their job.
It's mind-boggling to me.
We take one step forward and two steps back.
This can't be how the system works.
I mean, that's not the reason I ran for this job, and hopefully the reason that you're not doing your job.
Veterans need help.
Just a quick note.
Seems to be a pattern, right, in our government that we're giving money to people who aren't doing their job or don't deserve it.
Weird, huh?
I don't know.
It's the biggest health care system in the world.
The VA is the biggest healthcare system, and it's hard.
Understandably, it's hard.
But now, in my state of Alabama, we have 74 people who were fired for cause, not laid off, and now they're getting their jobs back.
And I've heard some horror stories about what some of them did.
And it's embarrassing to me now to talk to veterans about the situation that we got ourself in, tried to get ourself out, and now we're back in it.
It's no secret that it's getting worse.
And we can't continue to do this.
I don't care.
You know, what we got to do, we got to make it better.
But when we make a law, we got to go by.
And we got to make it work.
So, Mr.
I want to believe that the VA is hiring only the best and the brightest employees.
We all want that.
Sometimes you don't know what you're getting to serve our veterans.
But as many...
Many of us have discussed since I've been here for three years, we know not everybody in the VA is going to be exactly what we want.
So how does the VA plan to protect its veteran patients from this grievous misconduct if we're not going to go by this Accountability Act?
How are we going to do that?
So, Senator Tuberville, I acknowledge that we want the best working at the VA and we want to protect the rights of veterans.
And we do have authorities that allow us to take adverse actions.
I mentioned in my opening statement that since 2021 we have not been using 714 for American Federation of Government Employees.
Because we were found to have not bargained impact and implementation with them.
We have used our existing authorities for performance and conduct actions under Chapter 43 and Chapter 75, and we continue to take over 4,000 adverse actions, which are removals, demotions, suspensions of more than 14 days.
So we have found the opportunity to use the existing authorities that we have to hold employees accountable.
I do acknowledge, and I don't want any views on these bills to indicate that we are happy with the status quo, Or we don't see opportunity to improve and do better.
We know there's still inconsistency in how actions are executed in the field.
We know that things still take too long.
And that's why we want to work with this committee on something like the LEAD Act, where we can look at those policies and procedures that we take prior to proposing an action To make sure that we have evidence, as the Chairman had mentioned, that is thorough, that is timely, and affords employees due process.
So at the end of the day, we are able to remove those employees who should not be working for the VA. We also just completed a record year of hiring, and we are learning from the authorities that we received in the PACT Act how to hire more effectively and efficiently.
So with that, we're looking at making sure that we have employees who are committed to those who have worn the uniform, And that we are able to remove those with performance and conduct issues at the earliest point we see those issues.
These 4,000, will we have any special oversight?
You know, they did something wrong at the beginning.
You know what I'm saying.
I mean, somebody's got to be held accountable.
Because if this happens again, we have people lose their lives.
My goodness.
No, absolutely agree, Senator Tuberville.
And what I would say, in the settlement that we reached with the American Federation of Government Employees that impacts about 4,000 employees, we do have a provision in that settlement agreement that allows us to re-propose the action Which the FLRA determined was not taken lawfully because we didn't engage in impact and implementation bargaining.
So even though that action taken under 714 we could not sustain, we can look at actions and retake them under 43 and 75 and continue to make sure that individuals who should not be working in our medical centers are removed for the reasons that they shouldn't be working there.
Well, hopefully they start with two strikes, you know, and not get three strikes.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Well, a couple things there.
First of all, I think that this lady is either extremely naive or she thinks that we're idiots.
Or she's just stupid.
Her comment here, I wrote it down, is, I can assure you that we want the best and the brightest working at the VA to provide care for our nation's veterans.
That probably wasn't her words verbatim, but that's basically what she said.
So, let me ask you this then.
If that's the case, Then why is it well known that the VA is a learning facility?
Every VA hospital, every VA clinic is a learning facility.
Which means that your sons or daughters who have made the decision To go into a medical field and provide physical therapy or want to be a nurse or a dental hygienist or make prosthetics,
whatever it is, do lab work, draw blood, whatever it is, anything in the medical field.
If your children decide to do that, the chances of them doing field coursework or internships or whatever you want, clinicals I think they call it, of them doing clinicals at a VA facility is very high.
Now, I understand and I agree that these students, they need to be able to have real life experience.
And I also fully understand that they are not allowed to practice or work on or treat or do hands-on anything with patients until they are so far along in their education, which is great.
But are they the best?
Are they the brightest?
My answer to that would be absolutely not.
Not because they're stupid.
But because they're children and they're learning.
And so if that's the case and the VA is going to be a place where you go to learn your craft, learn your skill set, then why would we sit in front of United States senators and tell them, we only want the best and the brightest to treat our veterans?
Well, that's not the case.
Yes, the students are treating veterans under the watchful eye of a doctor or a LPN or whatever the hell those letters are or whatever.
Whatever those positions are.
But they're not the best or the brightest.
Do they make mistakes?
I'm sure they do.
Are they supposed to when they're learning?
Absolutely.
But they're not the best.
They're not the brightest.
Maybe they will be.
Someday.
But they're not now.
Senator Tuberville mentioned something that I didn't catch the first time I watched this video.
When he was talking about the employees in his state of Alabama Who were being reinstated, 74 of them I think he said, were being reinstated after he has heard the egregious actions that they took.
Some of them he said he doesn't even want to talk about.
If that's the case and they were terminated from their jobs, For due process, which means they conducted an investigation of some sort, or they had evidence and this person was caught red-handed doing whatever it was that they were doing, or not doing, for that matter.
Why in God's name would they get their job back?
We already got the evidence you did it.
I believe the answer to that is staffing issues.
Yes.
And so this is a whole rabbit hole, folks.
I believe it's staffing issues.
They fired 4,000 people VA-wide.
And I think that over a short period of time, they maybe started seeing wait times go up.
They started seeing maybe more complaints coming in.
They started seeing people being overworked, maybe calling into work because they're tired or they're overworked.
The fact of the matter is that people have lives out of work too.
And so if they're overworked or they have to do extra shifts because they've lost somebody in their office or their unit or whatever, they're not going to show up for work every day and do the best that they can.
Now, also remember this, that at any given VA facility, there are probably a large amount of veterans working there.
In fact, if I'm not mistaken, and I probably shouldn't even say this because I don't know it for a fact, but I was told at one point over the last few years that That federal law states that the VA must have a certain percentage of its employees that are veterans.
So not only was the VA put in place way back when to care for the men and women that bore the burden of fighting for this land, but it was also a place where they could go find a job.
They could be working around like-minded individuals.
There's some commonality there.
I don't think it's a secret, even since the Civil War, that combat changes you.
Being in the military in general changes you.
The way that your psyche is broke down and rebuilt...
In the image of Uncle Sam, if you will.
It changes you.
And I believe that many veterans find it difficult to navigate civilian life in one way or another.
It could be at work.
It could be at home in their own neighborhood.
It could be going to the grocery store or to Walmart or Target or whatever.
But I believe that just about all of us have something.
Something that's not the way that it used to be.
And so maybe the VA was partly created to give these folks a place to be able to go, earn a living, work around like-minded individuals, caring for like-minded individuals, and everything would be great.
Maybe.
Maybe the other part of it is that it was a way to put veterans out of sight, out of mind.
Maybe.
I'd like to think that that's not true.
But it could be.
The truth is that there's more than enough people walking around this country day to day that don't believe that Veterans should be held in high regard at all.
Or that they did anything worth noting as special or anything like that.
And I'll be the first to admit that I am not one that enjoys being introduced as a veteran or a hero or anything like that.
I don't wear a ton of...
Military shirts that tout my veteranism.
I don't openly offer information about my Purple Heart or my military service just out of the blue.
If I'm asked, I'll talk about it.
I'm an open book as far as it goes, but...
It's not 100% of my identity.
In fact, if you were to ask my wife...
If you were to ask my wife, she would tell you that she would like to get rid of about 90% of my Harley gear, my Harley hats and my t-shirts and jackets and all that stuff.
That's probably more my identity nowadays than my military service or my career.
So it's important to remember that there's a lot of working parts here.
And if we just solve one problem, such as people being reinstated after being fired for due process for egregious and, according to Mr.
Tuberville, despicable acts against veterans that they were in charge of caring for or servicing or whatever, well...
Why would they get their jobs back?
And if you're going to tell me it's because of the contract negotiation and all that other crap, I'm going to call bullshit.
There has to be something else.
And if you ask me, the idea that staffing is an issue makes a lot of sense.
Anyway, today went really fast, guys.
We're out of time.
But please leave comments below on what your thoughts are about this.
At the end of the day, I think it's important that we remember that these issues aren't just around as election season approaches.
These issues that are being talked about that we saw today are just...
Two very quieted issues that don't get talked about a lot publicly.
But I can assure you that amongst veterans, veteran service organizations that are trying to do the right thing, and just people in general that have any idea about what's going on, these things are talked about all the time.
And that's why we're here.
Because for many folks, if they don't hear it here on this show or a few others that are out there, they're not going to hear it.
Not until they come into contact with a veteran that can tell them how effed up it is.
Anyway, as I said, we're out of time.
I want to thank you very much for being here.
I really appreciate it.
Please take care of yourselves.
Have a great week, and we'll see you next week.
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