Arlington, Va. — Concerned Veterans America is expressing opposition to the government spending deal currently moving through Congress.
This measure allows for more increases in spending at the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, but does not seriously tackle inefficiencies in both departments.
CVA Executive Director Dan Caldwell released this statement:
“CVA is committed to ensuring that veterans receive the best medical care possible and that our military is responsibly funded, but this budget agreement does not address systemic operational issues within the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This will inevitably lead to more waste of taxpayer dollars and continued inefficiency within both departments.”
“For example, the VA’s health care budget has more than doubled over the past decade, and last year lawmakers committed to spend billions more on the department’s health care services. But this increased spending has not significantly improved performance and there are still near-daily reports of veterans suffering from delayed and poor-quality health care at the VA. Before Congress massively increases the VA’s budget yet again, they should enact reforms that fundamentally change how the VA delivers health care to our veterans and give veterans the ability to take their benefits into the private sector.
“At the Department of Defense, we must ensure that we are spending current defense dollars more effectively. That’s why we’ve been supportive of a private DOD audit to identify waste and redundancies, and we expect its findings to be taken seriously. We’re hopeful the results will ensure that future funding supports a robust military that is more responsible with taxpayer funds.”
Yesterday, Caldwell cosigned a letter with a number of advocacy groups condemning the continued cycle of budgeting by crisis, and imploring lawmakers not to reverse the benefits of the recent tax-reform law by supporting additional ‘tax extenders’ that amount to corporate welfare. Read the letter here.