Veterans Groups Attack Bush Administration Plan To Outsource GI Bill Benefits
Veterans Groups Attack Bush Administration Plan To Outsource GI Bill Benefits
In June — after months of kicking and screaming — President Bush finally signed a war supplemental spending bill that included a doubling of GI Bill college benefits for veterans.
Bush’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), however, doesn’t seem too happy about the increased work these new benefits will create and plans to outsource it all. Last month, VA Secretary James Peake wrote to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union announcing the plan. From Peake’s letter, obtained by ThinkProgress:
The challenges of creating the procedures and systems to support a new program and ensuring accurate and timely benefit payments under this new program effective August 1, 2009, will tax VA’s resources. … Therefore, the decision has been made to seek private-sector support to implement this new program.
The government wants to automate all GI Bill requests and is looking to hire a private contractor to set up such a system. AFGE is condemning this decision, which would dump the expertise of 850 government employees who are able to process a veteran’s request for GI benefits within 20 days.
The VA is arguing that with this new outsourcing plan, benefits could be processed in minutes. Veterans advocates point to the Bush administration’s abysmal record in hiring contractors who have no expertise in the area they’re hired to work:
Marty Conatser, American Legion: “Our newest generation of veterans deserve the benefits administered by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, not outside contractors. Patients, critics and most media all cite the outstanding job the VA is doing. Outsourcing is not the answer.”
Rick Weidman, Vietnam Veterans of America: “If anything goes wrong, I’ll tell you what’ll happen, and it’s what always happens in these instances, is they’ll say, ‘Well, it’s not our job, it’s the VA’s.’ And the VA will say, ‘We can’t do anything, it’s contracted out. It’s the contractor’s job.’ And that is baloney. The problem isn’t the troops; the problem is the leadership.”
Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-AZ): “I just cannot believe that we’d ever allow this to happen. The level of service won’t be the same.”
So far, the Bush administration has treated this contracting process like it has so many others — with secrecy. As NPR reported today, the VA has so far “handpicked only a small number of companies to compete for the contract, and so far, officials won’t even reveal the companies’ names.”
Perhaps this move by the Bush administration is intended to take the agency one step closer to McCain’s dream of privatized veterans health care?
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Bush & McBush- NO friends to veterans.
Why do they hate the troops?
September 9th, 2008 at 5:09 pmChimpy and Co – Outsourcing and screwing everything up since ‘01…………
September 9th, 2008 at 5:10 pmTo RU, upside, Wayne, and all other brother/sister vets out there, raise hell and kill this crap once and for all.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:11 pmPrivatizing social security….um I mean GI benefits
September 9th, 2008 at 5:12 pmI’m not even surprised that I’m not surprised anymore. Why don’t McCain and Bush just go to each and every military base, call a Corps level formation, and just yell screw you to everyone.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:12 pmThat’s the plan, right after the inaguration.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:14 pmAnd it will cost 30 times as much and that’s money that WON’T be going to Veterans!
September 9th, 2008 at 5:19 pm. . .the VA has so far “handpicked only a small number of companies to compete for the contract, and so far, officials won’t even reveal the companies’ names.”
Hmmm — the companies’ names — let me consult my Magic-8 ball on this one …
Magic 8-ball says, Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel, Blackwater, etc…
Just saying . . .
September 9th, 2008 at 5:29 pmOr to some phone voice from India.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:31 pmThe usual B.S. If the problem is a lack of resources in the VA (meaning personnel), fund the VA appropriately. It would cost FAR LESS than outsourcing it. Once again, this administration sees one more way to help their corporate buddies make a buck. Sickening!!
September 9th, 2008 at 5:32 pmAmericanPie Says:
Private businesses will do a better job then lazy, over paid government workers. This is a true fact.
####
You really think that workers in Uzbekistan being paid 62 cents/hour will do a better job than a VA person I can go straight and talk to personally?
September 9th, 2008 at 5:37 pmWait a minute! Did the bill that Congress passed allow the VA to outsource the work like this, without any Congressional approval? Did the bill authorize the administration to award it on a cost-plus contract? TP, what authority does the president have to decide, “Oh, it’s too much work!” and pass off our benefits program to an outsider? And, perhaps most importantly, are there any foreign-based companies on that list of contractors “bidding” for the job?
September 9th, 2008 at 5:38 pmPrivate businesses will do a better job then lazy, over paid government workers. This is a true fact.
Enron, IndyMac, Freddie Mae and Freddie Mac strongly agree with you.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:39 pmcorrection — Fannie Mae
September 9th, 2008 at 5:41 pmWhy is it not painfully obvious to everyone that those who hate government to the point that they’re ineffective at governing should NEVER BE ELECTED?
September 9th, 2008 at 5:45 pmTroll Gives Head
Hi Troll, the GOP right now is appealing to the lowest common denominator as being high on entertainment value. You know, since they aren’t worth shit on the issues.
Sarah Barracuda, your stunt pick who has not a clue on national issues, is your party’s hot ET story, but will ultimately be reigned in as being nothing more than a hard dick vote for a few extremely uneducated white men on Nov 2.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:45 pmLefty Says:
We don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, troll. Why don’t you stop posting here?
September 9th, 2008 at 5:47 pmLefty, you’re missing it. Unless you’ve tried to deal with the VA on anything (oh, and by the by, are you a vet?), forget judging anther’s issues with them. Both retired vet and long-time defense contractor, I can state that it’s imperative the VA have customer service people here – not on the phone, not on the Internet – to interact face to face with vets. Even SSA has them. VA is abysmal compared to SSA, and I’m not saying those folks are all that great either!
September 9th, 2008 at 5:50 pmPrivate businesses will do a better job then lazy, over paid government workers. This is a true fact.
Quite possibly the STUPIDEST lie ever posted here.
Soak it in…
September 9th, 2008 at 5:51 pmIn Los Angeles, its very, very hard to find someone who speaks anything but Spanish.
Hmm, maybe cause you’re hanging in the ghetto, low-life.
Every time I’m in LA I can’t find anyone without plastic surgery and an mountain of debt.
I guess I’m just more elite than you.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:53 pmLefty Says:
Don’t know what I am talking about? You cannot read?
I am one of the good guys. Take your meds McWars, errr…McAngry.
Speak for yourself. You’re not a regular poster, so for you to barge in and misread one’s post as being culturally insensitive when he meant to rail against outsourcing, only shows you to be the lone wolf as it pertains to reading comprehension.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:56 pmThose who can’t manage, contract. It’s a disease in America today.
Where have the leaders gone?
September 9th, 2008 at 5:56 pmIt makes one wonder which of McSpin’s friends, relatives, and campaign employees are on the boards of the companies in the running.
September 9th, 2008 at 5:58 pmMy father is a veteran, he had prostate cancer. He was checked, diagnosed and operated on in very short order. It saved his life, and we can thank the VA in Long Beach, CA for it’s fine care. Now, a dozen years later, he going in for further diagnostics, all at the request of the VA.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:00 pmI don’t have any healthcare, certainly not as good as what the VA has provided. Maybe he’s and exception to the rule, but they treated him well.
I can imagine what would have happened if it had been outsourced to the highest no bid contract. Who would have sold it to his highest no bid contract and so on. When I said you’d hear a voice from India on the phone I wasn’t kidding.
It doesn’t mean our government wouldn’t be paying top dollar for care, just that we wouldn’t receive any. It’s just another way for the Republicans to loot the American public.
This is another reason to vote the Republicans out of office. They have pretty much outsourced most of the government already and that needs to be undone. They have outsourced intelligence gathering and that means people who are beholden to a private company will be advising our government. Also, we all saw how well outsourcing the maintenance of Walter Reed has worked out.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:23 pmMy Vietnam Vet dad just turned 72. He couldn’t log on to a computer if his life depended on it, and he hates the phone. He loves his VA doctors, they are right on his borderline diabetes.
Keep it here!
September 9th, 2008 at 6:28 pmAmericanPie Says:
Private businesses will do a better job then lazy, over paid government workers. This is a true fact.
BS, the government did a fine job before Bush started outsourcing our government. You really think that government workers would have allowed Walter Reed to deteriorate to the extent the private contractor did.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:29 pmLefty Says:
Your comment is hateful and stupid, Chris. Nothing wrong with the fine people in Uzbekistan..at least they speak English. In Los Angeles, its very, very hard to find someone who speaks anything but Spanish.
Stop posting on this site, Chris.
I find your post to be hateful and bigoted. Stop posting here Lefty because you are a fraud.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:33 pmGee I wonder if any of the brains (or lack thereof) in this administration have checked in on the FBI’s computer program. Last I heard after millions spent cannot do a simple search on a name. I used the GI bill and I’m sure I’d have remembered that I had to fill out 6 pages of forms. It was one so simple that I was amazed…but then that was before this bunch took over DC. VA medical care is great!!!!
September 9th, 2008 at 6:42 pmWhile we’re on privatizing, didn’t the armed forces use to deliver the mail, cook the food, rebuild cities and bridges, isn’t there an army core of engineers? I’m just wondering because all of this has been outsourced by this administration costing us billions of dollars for substandard work.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:42 pmLets, keep going, how about deregulating the mortgage industry, or allowing oil speculators into the market, how’s that working for you? If you can make the connection (and you can) that’s like outsourcing too.
It’s one of the most vile things about this administration.
Gotta wonder if Diebold or Blackwater will be the winning bid.
Oh, right, it’ll be a no bid contract, silly me.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:46 pmUncle Ho, these bucking fastards would privatize their mother’s sewing circle if they or their cronies could make a buck and screw someone over.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:48 pmSame old shit from the Bush Administration, which has been quietly outsourcing Veterans services since it took office.
Take it from an old disabled vet: outsourcing will have two results, both negative:
1. Poorer service for vets
2. Enrichment of Bush/McCain cronies.
I only hope, that before any outsourcing takes place, that President Obama stops it and beefs up the VA.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:24 pmCome now. What evidence is that that KBR wouldn’t do a fine job ?
And if you loved the easy selection of a prescription drug plan for Medicaid / Medicare, just wait for the easy sign-up with KBR.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:53 pmEvery time the corrupt Bush administration, or any Republican public official, outsources our government’s responsibilities, it always ends up costing U.S. taxpayers more. Every time.
I’m a U.S.A.F. veteran. The idea of outsourcing VA responsibilities to some for-profit crony Republican contractor is an abomination and an insult to all U.S. military veterans.
Why do the Republicans HATE our democracy and our military veterans so much? For the same reason they HATE Social Security or any other government program whose low government operating costs give taxpayers more bang for their hard-earned bucks. (Oh, right, the culture of corruption Republicans can’t make a buck–i.e. steal–taxpayer money by inserting one of their crony Republican middle-men into the mix in these highly-successful and highly-popular programs…so they must destroy them and replace them with their crony-driven for-Republicans-only profit schemes. Crooks.).
September 9th, 2008 at 9:39 pmOutsourcing for the GOP means cronyism, corruption and theft.
They have emptied the US Treasury and left it stuffed full of IOU’s.
When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton replied;”Because that’s where the money is”
Why are Repubs so keen on privatizing government?
September 10th, 2008 at 8:43 amBecause that’s where unbelievable mountains of money are.
Watch out! There’s bound to be a cronie who’s income CHIMPY has not guaranteed. Next stop MEDICARE or SOCIAL SECURITY.
September 10th, 2008 at 11:36 amAre you serious? Exactly where did you get this information? The VA does an excellent job at processing Education Benefits accurately and timely.
September 18th, 2008 at 6:52 pm