Romney promises VA revamp or end?

Romney promises VA revamp
By Camille Tuutti
Jul 25, 2012

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney wants to transform the Veteran Affairs Department, with an emphasis on technology and reforms to business processes. Among the key promises he made during a July 24 address to the VFW National Convention in Reno, Nev., is reduce the backlog for disability benefit claims by eliminating unnecessary red tape and adopting a consistent electronic claims processing system.

In addition, Romney’s reform plan would expand the VA health system to reach more of the 41 percent of veterans living in rural areas and make online consultations, tele-homecare and tele-monitoring more available.

If elected president, Romney said, he would also undo the $1.2 trillion in defense cuts slated to take effect Jan. 3, 2013. The across-the-board reductions, required under sequestration after a bipartisan committee failed to agree to more targeted cuts in 2011, would “severely shrink our force structure, and impair our ability to meet and deter threats,” he said.

“Don't bother trying to find a serious military rationale behind any of this, unless that rationale is wishful thinking,” Romney said at the Reno convention. “Strategy is not driving President Obama's massive defense cuts. In fact, his own secretary of defense warned that these reductions would be ‘devastating.’”

(Fact check: What Romney calls "President Obama's massive defense cuts" are part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which passed Congress with the votes of 202 Republicans -- 174 in the House and 28 in the Senate.)
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Here is part of what Richard Klass Colonel, USAF (ret.) wrote.

An Insult to Veterans

He asserts that the sequester cuts would weaken the Veterans Administration and that he would not let that happen. But President Obama has already ensured that the sequester, if it comes to pass, will not affect the VA. Gov. Romney did not mention his flirtation with replacing the VA with vouchers, a move that would decimate the VA's world class hospitals and research into veteran injuries such as loss of sight or limbs, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress.

He also seems to have ignored the fact that the GOP budget of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), that he supports, would cut $11 billion from next year's VA budget. And of course, he would not give the Obama Administration credit for the largest increases in the VA budget in 30 years and for the expansion of care for women, mental health services and ending the shame of veterans' homelessness.