This week on the Richard Leonard Show talks about the heated debate surrounding the Department of Veterans Affairs' proposed 15% budget cut, spearheaded by VA Secretary Doug Collins. As bipartisan frustrations mount, Senator Richard Blumenthal accuses the VA of stonewalling and a lack of transparency, framing the discussion as a choice between meaningful reform or reckless cuts.Show more Brought to you by Cortez Wealth Management! Proudly supporting America First values πΊπΈ! Looking for retirement and asset growth strategies from someone who shares your values? Check out Cortez Wealth Management, led by a proud Christian husband, father, and patriot. π http://cortezwm.com/
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A couple times in the last few months, we've had discussions on this show about the VA trimming 15%.
We've talked about 83,000 jobs and we've talked about Doug Collins' responses to the Senate and the Veterans Affairs Committee and the dismantling they're trying to do of his character and his leadership.
Well, it seems as though that recently there have been a couple other senators from the other side of the aisle who are also showing concern about the silence.
Silence coming from the VA and also from the Pentagon, but today we'll focus on the VA.
So we're going to kind of dissect this a little bit.
Stick with us.
Don't go away.
We start now.
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Let's dive on in.
So, as I said, we have been discussing this VA across the board cut by 15% for a few months.
You know, we've talked about it a couple times here and there over the past weeks.
And it seems as though now that the VA has fell silent to requests for information.
They have just stopped responding.
And people like Senator Blumenthal, who is, I don't know if he's the chair or he's the ranking member of the VA, the Senate VA committee.
And he's publicly calling out, publicly calling out Doug Collins and the VA and everyone else involved for their lack of transparency and their now silence.
So I went through, I perused the internet and found some information I thought that we could read through and just kind of dissect a little bit.
So let's just get started here.
As the Department of Veterans Affairs rolls out sweeping reform under Secretary Doug Collins, one question is taking center stage in Washington and across the veteran community.
Is the VA finally cleaning house or are they simply just closing the doors and doing it all behind the scenes?
While some view the change as long overdue efforts to trim government waste, others, namely Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, claim the process is being carried out without transparency, oversight, and no accountability.
The truth likely lies somewhere between.
I agree with that.
But what's not up for debate is veterans are being pulled into a political showdown they didn't ask for.
And as it says here, one that they certainly don't deserve.
And I kind of agree with this, right?
I kind of agree that veterans didn't ask for this controversy.
They didn't ask for this fight to be happening in the committee hearings and all those other things.
Because to be quite honest, there probably are a whole lot of other things that are lawmakers who sit on this committee and their whole job is to talk about things that are going to make the lives of veterans better.
And they're stuck on this.
They're stuck on this until Doug Collins and the VA answers all of their questions and provides them everything they claim that they have not gotten but asked for.
And so I think what we'll see as we get into this is that the committee is saying, we know, Senator Blumenthal said flat out, we know that there's waste and we know that it needs to be fixed.
And they keep screaming about the fact that, well, he's just going to take a chainsaw to this thing and just destroy everybody's lives who are going to be or may be affected by this 15% cut across the board.
Now, the silence, right?
Let's talk about the silence that the VA has, that has fell upon the VA.
Allegedly, according to Senator Blumenthal, they've just stopped responding.
And so I kind of thought about that.
Like, yeah, they stopped responding.
Every time that Doug Collins or the VA or anybody involved puts out any kind of action plan or talks about the changes that they want to make that they believe are positive, they're also not met with conversation.
Congressional Stonewalling00:15:26
They're also not met with compromise or anything of that nature.
So yeah, they're going to, in my opinion, they're going to be silent.
They're going to stop responding.
They're not going to provide you the things that you're asking for unless it's legally something that has to be done.
And I guess I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I know all the legalities about data sharing between federal agencies and Congress and or the Senate.
But I would imagine that there are rules or laws in place that dictate whether or not these requests for information are something that has to be adhered to, or do you just have to give a response?
I mean, I think everybody kind of understands how government works in the communication realm, right?
I mean, for example, some years ago when I worked for a member of Congress and my job was to do military and VA casework in the district.
So I spent 97% of my time here in Minnesota in the district where the member of Congress that I worked for presided over.
We got to go out to Washington and do staff retreats a couple times, once a year.
And so it was cool to see that aspect of it.
But then the district is where I did most of my work.
And when a veteran or a parent or a wife or spouse or loved one of an active duty service member came in to inquire about whatever the case may be,
well, of course, then we would send formal inquiries through the proper channels to the proper agency to try to find some answers to the questions or the issues that we were having to deal with.
And the rules or the law or whatever you want to call it was that that agency had 30 days to provide an initial response.
And as you can imagine, those things came as form letters.
Quite often, it was just a blanket letter.
We've received your inquiry.
We will respond within the appropriate amount of time.
Sit back and relax and wait.
And so I would imagine that it's a similar thing here when it comes to Congress formally requesting information from the VA.
They have a certain amount of time to respond.
And once they do, there are also other regulations in place to say when is the next response due?
Do I, as the inquirer, have to ask another question for that clock to start?
I mean, there's all kinds of different rules and common practices, if you will.
But I could understand.
I could understand if I am a person that's trying to invoke some change in an organization or a place or a thing, and it's going to be, and I'll say, you know, veterans issues, of course, are for whatever reason, recently, since a little bit before the election, have really been something that's talked about a lot more than I can remember,
that I can remember since I became a veteran or even became a member of the military.
And so these things are emotional for people, and rightfully so.
But if I'm trying to put all this change in place and make things better for my customer, whoever that is, in this instance, it's veterans, and I try to do something or say something that I think is going to be helpful and work us towards accomplishing this mission that we have, but I'm constantly met with resistance.
I'm going to stop being public about the things that I plan to do or am doing.
As long as I'm operating within the confines of the law, then okay.
I don't got to respond to you.
I don't got to tell you shit unless the law says I do.
And I believe that that's kind of what Doug Collins is doing to the committee.
He'll provide the information just as much as he needs to.
But ever since his confirmation hearing with the same committee, It hasn't been a two-way conversation at all.
So I'm sure he's getting sick of it.
I'm sure he's sick of them seemingly twisting their words at times or twisting his words at times.
Why would he respond?
I probably wouldn't.
I would do the bare minimum that I'm required to by law, and I would continue to do what I'm doing.
The real question is: are veterans, are veterans being positively affected?
Because at the end of the day, that's the real question.
So here's the controversy, right?
Senator Blumenthal, who is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Committee, recently claimed that the Pentagon and VA have become increasingly uncooperative, even ignoring basic requests for information.
He goes on to say they're stonewalling.
They refuse to answer even the most basic questions.
Well, because maybe every time he does, he's thrown out in the public square as some kind of demon.
And there's no conversation about the things put out.
If you disagree, okay.
I mean, you are an elected official.
Your job is to ask questions that are going to positively help your constituency or the greater good of Americans living in this country.
This specifically is about our veterans getting the things that they deserve, as promised by our government long, long ago.
And is it effective?
Is it worth the tax dollars that we spend, billions of them?
Are the American people, more importantly, the veterans of this country, getting what we are paying for?
And I would argue that at this point, no, they're not.
This topic has taken up so much of that committee's time, they can't possibly be doing a whole lot else to positively affect change for the veteran community in this country.
In response to all this, he and several Democrats, in response to the stonewall and the perceived stonewalling, he and several Senate Democrats have placed a blanket hold on all VA and Department of Defense confirmations, effectively freezing leadership appointments until more details about what's going on is given to them.
Now, they're also talking about a little bit in here about Pete Hegseth.
We were supposed to have confirmations of new military leaders and new leaders in the VA to do whatever it is they do.
For example, at the Pentagon, where they need a new general to oversee CENTCOM and they need a new general to oversee this part of the world and military operations there and all this other stuff.
So there are other leaders within these two agencies that need to be appointed by the Senate and by our elected officials.
And so now they're saying, well, we're not going to do that.
We're not going to do any of these things until you give us the information that we're requesting.
And so, although to them, seemingly, it's a game of gotcha.
Well, all these people are being appointed to positions and to jobs so that they can effectively lead the troops in different parts of the world or oversee programs for veterans in the community, but that's not happening right now.
They're going to stonewall that.
So, in response to you not giving me the information I want, we're not going to do any confirmation hearings for new leadership for our soldiers that are abroad and our veterans that need help in the community.
So, again, this is just another example of a polarizing issue in our communities that is affecting us, the American citizens and the taxpayers of this country, more than it's affecting the leaders that we have elected and put in there.
So, I mean, if you break it down as many levels as you want, you'll find a way that the American people are getting screwed.
And maybe that's unavoidable in any corner of government in this country.
Maybe it's unavoidable that the American people, the taxpayer, doesn't get screwed one way or another.
And if you're a person that has good examples of how we're not being screwed and actually we're getting our money's worth out of our elected officials, please put that in the comments below.
I'd love to hear those ideas.
And maybe you're right.
I'm not sitting here saying, I never have, I never will, that I know everything.
In fact, many people like to tell me that I'm extremely misinformed.
Maybe that's true.
But I think that the important part is that at least we initiate and have these conversations.
And if you're a person that likes to try to prove me wrong in the comments, that's great because now we're teaching everyone.
I'm not closed off to learning either.
So is this going to be more reform or is this going to be more of a retaliation thing?
Are we actually going to get any reform out of this?
Is the VA going to cut 15%, 13%, 8%, 4%?
Are they going to make any cuts at all?
Because now what we do have is Senator Blumenthal on record saying, we know that there's waste and we know that there's fraud and we know that maybe we don't need this many people.
And I think what he's trying to say is, and it's somewhere in this article, a quote of his that, you know, if you want to remodel your house, you don't burn the whole house down and then rebuild it in your image, you can do one room at a time.
The scalpel versus the chainsaw argument.
And so all of this gets really interesting because even up until now, it seems to me that Doug Collins has repeatedly said our initial evaluation before we really dove deep was that just looking at the numbers at the money spent versus the money coming in from Congress for the VA budget,
we need to cut 15% off of this.
And then everyone went crazy.
The last time that Doug Collins sat in front of this committee and got questioned for, I think it was two or three hours, his words exactly were: we need to finish our evaluation, we need to finish our analysis, and then make a decision about what really needs to be cut.
Maybe it's not 15%.
And so, also, maybe there's not a plan yet.
Maybe they're still formulating a plan.
I mean, I'm sure it's possible.
It's always possible that these folks are stonewalling.
And it is always possible that Doug Collins doesn't know what the hell he's talking about and he's a horseshit leader.
That is possible.
But I don't know.
I'd like to think, I'd like to think and hope that we are going to actually see some change.
I mean, the changing of the guard thing, right, is always kind of refreshing.
New people in new ideas.
Yeah, some people are not going to take it well.
And maybe they're a little abrasive about it.
But at the end of the day, we already knew, as Blumenthal said in an interview he did, I think it was on Military Times, that we know it's there.
And so if we know it's there, and we can see throughout recent history, the last 10 to 15 years, I mean, we were a country at war for what, 23 years or something like that.
If we can see that the system was broken, way back to the beginning of the war, even or before, then clearly something needs to change.
And maybe it's also possible that Doug Collins isn't the guy for the job, and maybe he won't succeed.
But I think that it's a refreshing thing for veterans and veterans' families and supporters to at least see leadership coming in that is giving a message about change, something different.
I think that's good.
Real Shitty Job Cuts00:06:15
I haven't personally seen or read anything that the VA has put out about the cuts that they want to make or plan to make that to me is super egregious.
I mean, at the end of the day, man, it's a real shitty thing to lose your job.
It's a real shitty thing for a program to be underfunded or go away when you rely on it.
But if they're also telling us that the customer, the patients, veterans, are not going to go without, we're not going to take away benefits.
We're not going to take away pay, disability pay.
We're not going to take away any of the things or people that provide these types of things.
Care Doug Collins has said over and over: we're not going to fire doctors that see patients.
And I've said this a few times.
Why in God's name do we have doctors that aren't seeing patients?
And one argument that I was given was: well, you know, it takes doctors to Read imaging and to consult younger doctors because after all, the VA is a learning facility.
All these VA hospitals and clinics are teaching facilities and clinics.
And so, I mean, it's true, it's not uncommon to go to the VA hospital and we'll be walking through the corridor and pass, you know, a bunch of college-age students in scrubs.
And, you know, here it's a U of M logo or whatever school they're going to logo on their scrubs.
They're there learning.
And so, I mean, and some people have issues with that, even.
These are, these are, our veterans are a prized possession, so they tell us they deserve to have the best care every single time they come into these facilities, and yet they're letting college students learn on us.
Not to say that all these college students are horrible at what they're doing and they're not going to make good physicians or nurses or radiation techs or whatever the hell it is they do.
And I've had some pretty good ones that I've interacted with during appointments.
But are veterans receiving less than adequate care because students are learning on them?
Maybe, maybe not.
They say that they're all supervised and they don't do any patient interaction without a real doctor with them or a real nurse, whatever it is they're doing.
Okay.
So I don't know, man.
I think maybe just plain and simple, maybe there isn't a plan yet.
I mean, a system that traditionally for many, many years, decades maybe, has been underfunded, has underachieved at its goals to serve veterans.
Maybe it's going to take more than a few months to formulate a plan and answer all these questions.
Did people get called back to work after the initial firings, the probationary firings?
Yeah, apparently they did.
Okay, great.
That's cool.
But what comes next?
And so we spend a lot of time, or at least our lawmakers spend a lot of time talking about what's happening and how veterans are getting screwed.
We don't talk a whole lot about what's next, what's really happening.
And what's really happening here, seemingly, is that Doug Collins and the VA are getting poked in the chest at every turn.
And so now maybe they've just quit responding until they have all the answers to all the questions.
Didn't seem to be working when they were responding here and there or just whenever they were asked.
So I don't know.
I probably would quit responding.
And like I said, do what you're legally bound to do and then shut the hell up and go to work.
And maybe, maybe that's what Doug Collins should just tell them.
Leave me alone.
I'll answer your questions.
Give them a timeframe it's going to take you think that it's going to take to formulate and evaluate and put out and write and talk about and all this other shit.
When do you think it'll be done?
When do you think you will have answers?
So that the committee can get on to doing the business of trying to allegedly make lives of veterans in this country better instead of fighting over who's talking to me or not.
I don't know.
We got to take a break.
We'll be right back.
Don't go away.
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What these researchers found was that vaccinated children had 4.29 times the rate of asthma, 3.03 times the rate of atopic disease, 5.96 times the rate of autoimmune disease, and 5.53 times the rate of neurodevelopmental disorders.
A number of different diagnoses, including diabetes and ADHD, and a number of them in the unvaccinated group, they were zero.
In other words, all these chronic diseases that we're accepting, the reality is maybe 99% of them don't have to exist in children.
That's not the way God made us.
They looked at over 47,000 Medicaid claims between 1999 and 2011.
Those who are vaccinated versus unvaccinated, I could say an odds of rate should be like 2.81.
2.81 to 1.
So that would be 181% increase.
Epilepsy seizures, 252%.
Learning disorders, 581%.
If you look at all these different diagnoses, they're all higher.
For example, I'll just give you one example.
Learning disorders in the full term is 581%.
In the preterm, the ones who are vaccinated, 884% increase.
Every single vaccine has an excipient that is a human toxin.
Human toxin.
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StuPeters.tv Hey folks, let's continue on here.
Pet Club 24-7 Treats00:02:46
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Access to Earned Benefits00:15:17
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Okay, well, let's get off this screen here.
Let's get back.
Let's continue on because I think that there are a couple of pretty good points left in this article.
But I think, as I was saying before the break, if I was being berated, man, I'd quit responding too, as long as I'm operating within the confines of the law, as we discussed.
Now, let's talk about reform or retaliation.
I'm sure that it's going to look like it's going to look like something different for most people, depending on where you stand on this issue.
But at the end of the day, as we said, are veterans getting the best care possible because of whatever it is they're doing or talking about in the spaces where our elected officials make decisions about what veterans get or don't get.
So let's continue on here.
It goes on to say, let's be clear.
The VA has long been known for its bureaucracy, waste, and inefficiencies.
We discussed that, right?
Many veterans have experienced delays, subpar service, or confusion when trying to access benefits that they earned.
And also, let's not forget, yes, they earned them, but these were benefits and things that were promised to the men and women who chose to sacrifice for this country.
So I always like to throw that in there because I hate the narrative that goes around at times that veterans are just whiny little bitches and that we're trying to obtain things that are over the top.
And so my response to that always is, we didn't ask for the benefits.
Is it the reason some people join?
Sure it is.
Things like college tuition, things like health care, should something happen to me while I'm serving.
The VA home loan is a very good program.
Many states in the union have state benefits for veterans based on what benefits from the VA you qualify for, such as your disability rating.
If your disability rating is high enough, then you have, in many states, a break on your property taxes, for example.
And so those things differ state to state, but these are all benefits that were promised to the men and women that chose to sacrifice.
And so I like to throw that in there because I hate the other side of that discussion.
So anyway, access to the benefits they earned.
From that perspective, the current reform might look much like a needed correction, a reset that puts veterans over paper pushers and cuts bloated government systems down to size.
We talked about that earlier too.
Do we really need all of these people?
Do we really need all of the things that, let's just talk about the things that were proposed to be cut?
And the biggest thing is the 83,000 jobs, right?
That's the number that the committee is stuck on.
Do we need all of those people in the VA system?
Jason and I talked about this similar thing as it pertains to our state government here in Minnesota over on Disgruntled on ThreeClicks Media.
For example, now that government employees are being called back to the office, they're being called back to work from working at home for however many years, I think that we've seen that it doesn't really take all of these people 40 hours a week to do the job that they were hired to do.
And maybe that's a good sign of the times, right?
Technology is getting better.
It's getting more efficient.
We're getting employees and people into these positions that are competent with electronics and computers and things like that.
So, yeah, maybe it's a good natural progression that people are getting their jobs done faster given the tools that we now have at our disposal.
And so if that's the case, do we need that many people?
And if not, and we're paying all these people to not do what they're hired to do, is that a waste of money?
And so for some, I believe it's a double-edged sword, right?
Because now we have all these people in place.
They were hired.
This is their livelihood.
This is their income.
Is it right that we cut 83,000 Americans' jobs across the country?
Many will say, no, it's not.
We need to figure out how to balance this budget to make sure that we don't have to cut them.
And I don't know that that's possible.
And if that's what the VA, the Veteran Affairs Committee is asking for, well, doesn't that kind of contradict what we've been working towards all these years in many different corners and that discuss and regulate many different topics of things in this country?
And if the answer is no, we don't need all of these people to perform all the work that needs to be done, well, then doesn't it make sense to cut it?
And so I guess I'll go on a limb and say it's not an easy decision to make, right?
You don't knowingly want to put people out in the cold.
But also, does it serve the greater good?
I understand that 83,000 people losing their jobs is a tough pill to swallow.
But when we talk about millions and millions of millions of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars going to pay all these people that we don't necessarily mean or that we don't necessarily need, are we making the best use of those resources?
And so the greater good argument would say, no, this is not serving the greater good.
We're paying a lot of extra money in tax dollars to the VA budget to pay people for work that they're not doing.
And so if that is a problem, which it is, because we're on the verge of being busted and disgusted, as my mother would have said back in the day, hence it's not serving the greater good of this country.
But again, this is no different, in my opinion.
It's very similar to any big Fortune 500 company doing mass layoffs.
Like here in Minnesota, it was some years ago, but they did mass layoffs at Target, which is housed here in Minneapolis, laid off a ton of people.
And you know what?
In the group of people that got laid off, I want to say it was like 6,000 or 8,000 or something like that, there were probably veterans in there.
We didn't see government upheaval.
And of course, the government, in many cases, I suppose, can't control staffing of private businesses.
But there wasn't a whole bunch of public outrage.
And I understand that 8,000 or whatever it was is a lot less than 83,000.
That's a lot of people.
But we have a lot of money missing.
There's a lot of money missing from the coffers of the United States government that, as reported, nobody knows where it's at.
Nobody knows where it went.
We've seen the reports of initiatives that were being funded by U.S. tax dollars, not just out of the VA, out of many, many government agencies.
And none of that was serving the greater good of the American people first.
So why this upheaval about VA cutting employees?
If the people in the places of leadership are saying we're not going to affect direct care for veterans, then why are we still arguing about it?
They haven't done anything too drastic yet.
Do you want to know the plan?
Sure.
Is it fair to ask the plan?
Yeah, it's fair to ask about the plan.
But is it also fair to the other side to publicly beat them down at every turn when you don't like the answer to the question that you asked?
I mean, there isn't a whole lot of transparency in finger pointing either.
So I think that we could chalk this up to both sides maybe being a little childish.
And it is directly affecting the lives of veterans in our communities.
People go to work for the VA and that are concerned that they're going to get fired.
Is their mind on doing their job and providing the proper care to veterans?
Probably not.
Programs are being halted or suspended or downsized.
Is that going to directly affect the lives of veterans?
Yeah, probably.
But what's easier to manage?
Which cut is easier to manage?
Is it easier to downgrade your workforce with the idea that the people left over can handle the workload?
And if not, well, okay.
If not, then maybe we hire a thousand people back and see how we do.
Are we able to afford what we're doing in this specific organization within the government?
Yeah, we can, okay, cool.
Do we need to hire some more people back?
Yes, no, maybe so.
Okay, good.
But I think it's very clear that we could not have kept things the way that they are.
It wasn't working.
I mean, we could have.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
We could have continued on with the status quo and nothing changes if nothing changes.
But I believe that the American people asked for things to be better.
And the proposed cuts, although haven't been finalized, is the answer to that directive.
We want to make things better.
Well, this is how we're going to do it.
What's the problem?
You're getting what you asked for.
People ask me all the time, well, did you vote for this?
Yep.
Yeah, I did.
Was I bamboozled?
Maybe.
Was I duped?
Maybe.
But at the time and even now, having leadership in whatever, in whatever it is, not just the VA, but at the Pentagon and ICE, and I mean, all different places within the government, I want to see things better for you, for me, for everybody in this country.
And so, yes, I voted for this because these are people that brought new ideas, things that haven't been tried before.
Maybe people just didn't have the testicular fortitude to try them.
Maybe there was treachery at hand, right?
Maybe there was ulterior motives.
Maybe there just wasn't any interest in doing the right thing to help the American people because now we're in control.
Maybe that's it.
Maybe they're just that effing stupid.
Or maybe we haven't got to a point yet where there are answers to be had.
Whether they're good, bad, or indifferent, I would rather get real information that's useful, whether I like it or not, than tidbits here and there to fight over.
Because all this Intermediate or interim fighting until we get to the final answer is only delaying it longer, thus eating up time that we could be spending on really making change, positive change, hopefully.
And our lawmakers can get down the road to doing other business to help whoever it is they need to help.
Because keep in mind that sitting on the Veteran Affairs Committee isn't their only committee.
I mean, Blumenthal sits on a couple.
But really, it seems like it's just more politics at play here.
Not actually helping the community in which they're charged to help out.
Let's continue and finish this up.
There's no denying the issue.
There's no denying that this issue has become politicized, as we've been talking about.
Blumenthal, who is a staunch Democrat, of course, says he now regrets voting to confirm Doug Collins, citing that his leadership is very poor and he is continuing on in silence with these reckless cuts.
Politics vs. Patient Care00:04:32
On the other side, Doug Collins insists that the VA needs to do these things.
And these moves are part of a larger, deliberate effort to streamline services and deliver better value to both veterans and taxpayers.
Well, that's exactly what we, the American people, have asked for.
We want wait times to go down.
We want to get better care.
We want to get it faster so that veterans aren't dying waiting for the care that they need to continue living with as little cost to the taxpayer as possible.
And so, like, if you ever served in the military, you've either heard the verbiage or you know from experience from using different equipment that it's cheapest bidder, right?
Cheapest bidder makes the shit that the army buys.
But what turns out to be interesting about all of that is when you dig into it, the United States military pays hand over foot, hand over fist, way more than any civilian can buy things for.
For example, when I was in Iraq, we had the little chem lights, the little snap lights.
We were throwing those things out of the truck to mark obstacles and to mark potholes and IEDs and dead animals and any kind of hazard on the road for the vehicles behind us all night long.
Come to find out the United States Army was paying like $2.08 or something per snap light, per chem light.
Well, I could go to the PX and get the exact same chem light for like 97 cents to buy for myself.
But in our unit paperwork, you get to see the price if you look in the right place, if you know the right people to show you.
And it was more than double.
And so I don't know, man.
I think that it sounds like Doug Collins is trying to do what he said.
Maybe he did fall silent, but it's because he needs time.
He needs time to actually focus on what he's doing, not fighting with senators and other elected officials all the time.
So I don't know.
But the real question is: are veterans getting better care?
Do they have better access to care?
They have better access to benefits, to getting help with filing claims.
Is it more clear about where veterans call to get updates on their claims if they've waited for 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 months before they get an answer?
Are all these things becoming better?
And if the answer is no, then all of these discussions are a moot point.
Just let the change happen.
And guess what?
If it doesn't work, we haven't lost anything because it was shitty before.
But now we have new leaders, we have new ideas, we have a newfound hope.
Maybe it's hope that things are going to get better.
The care is going to get better.
I don't know.
I guess we're just going to have to wait and see.
But as we said, to close out, because we're out of time for the evening, but as we said, it's been identified by both sides of the aisle now that there is waste.
It does need to be fixed.
And so I really wish that our elected officials would allow the people who are charged with fixing it do that, answer their questions when there's answers.
And hopefully, on the flip side, hopefully the VA is being as transparent as possible.
Hopefully they are following the rules and laws set in place for data sharing and all these other things.
Hopeful Transparency00:03:27
Just do it.
Don't keep it a secret.
Because at the end of the day, it is the patients, the veterans, the customers, and the taxpayers that are getting screwed.
And none of them, none of the parties involved that are affected by whatever change does or does not happen are the ones paying the bill.
So take that for what it's worth.
Have these discussions, folks.
Talk about this stuff.
It's going to affect somebody you know, chances are.
That's all the time that we have for this week.
I want to thank you for being here, for joining us.
We'll see you again next week.
Take care of yourselves.
good night.
As Christians in a Christian country, we have a right to be at minimum agnostic about the leadership being all Jewishly occupied.
We literally should be at war with fucking Israel a hundred times over and instead we're just sending them money and it's fucking craziness.
Look at the side of Israel.
Look at the side of Tel Aviv and look at the side of Philadelphia.
You tell me where this money's going.
You tell me who's benefiting from this.
I am prepared to die in the battle fighting this monstrosity that would wish to enslave me and my family and steal away any rights to my property and to take away my God.
Go fuck yourself.
Will I submit to that?
And if you've got a foreign study, you've got dual citizens in your government, who do you think they're supporting?
God, right now, would you protect the nation of Israel and protect those of us, not just our church, but every church in the world and in this nation that's willing to put their neck on the line and say we stand with them?
You go to Trump's cabinet.
you could biden's cabinet it's full of jews i have a black friend in school I have nothing against blacks.
She has nothing against me.
She understands where I'm coming from.
Excuse me, I'm a Jew, and I just like to say that, you know, in our Bible, it says that you're like animals.
The Jews crucified our God.
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