Caring for veterans ... or not caring much about them?
You be the judge:
Nearly a year before they asked Congress for another $3 billion in funding, Veterans Affairs officials knew in late 2004 that their budget was seriously out of whack, congressional investigators said in a report released yesterday.The Government Accountability Office also found that the VA badly underestimated how many soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan might seek medical and other services, in part because of problems in getting accurate information from the Pentagon.
The VA relied on prewar data from the Defense Department in preparing its budget for fiscal 2005, even though the war was well under way, and estimated that 23,500 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom would seek care that year. Instead, the number was four times greater, almost 100,000, the GAO study said.
The problems persisted in 2006, the current fiscal year. The GAO found that the VA will have to provide care for 87,000 more Iraq and Afghanistan veterans than anticipated this year, costing another $276 million.
In general, it says, the VA budgets for fiscal 2005 and 2006 were based on "unrealistic assumptions, errors in estimation and insufficient data."
More recently, the GAO said, the VA has been up to two months late in turning over its required quarterly budget updates to congressional committees, while providing more detailed monthly reports to the White House budget office.
So. Whaddayathink?
