Politics

Outrageous: VA dropped 20 million on art while veterans die waiting for healthcare

Homeless veteranCalvin Coolidge, the 30th President, once said: “A nation that forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.” Our current leaders have shown their disdain for our veterans by doing nothing to ensure those who fought and bled for the freedom of others are not discarded and forgotten.

It’s absolutely shameful to hear a report that the Veterans Affairs dropped 20 million dollars on art while aging veterans died waiting for healthcare.

An article published by Breitbart News over the weekend reported that the VA spent 20 million on art. This should be enough to infuriate even liberals, but unfortunately it probably won’t.

The money squandered was on things like a “27-foot artificial Christmas tree for $21,500 delivered to Chillicothe, Ohio and two sculptures costing $670,000 for a VA facility in California that serves blind veterans.”

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Are you feeling some anger now? You haven’t heard nothing yet, let’s explore some more of the money wasted.

More examples of the VA wasting taxpayer’s money includes $6.3 million to expand the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Some of the absurd things the money was spent on is, $483,000 for a large decorative rock and $807,000 was for the site preparation for the rock outside the building.

Now take a look at the inside, they built a $330,000 half arc in the lobby of the mental health clinic then spent $365,000 for a sculpture at the entrance to the pool, and $305,000 for a sculpture in the center’s main lobby.

Perhaps one of the most ridiculous things the money was spent for is “$285,000 spent for the wall of dozens of rocks that light up to spell out quotes by President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt–in Morse Code.”

A VA facility in San Francisco, spent $32,000 on 62 framed photographs from the local area, that amounts to around $500 per photo. In Puerto Rico the VA spent $610,000 on artwork and one in Alaska spent $100,000 on a sculpture.

The report also says that a year ago the VA issued a “moratorium on art purchases,” then went ahead and spent $1.8 million on art.

It’s said while the VA lavishly spends money that should be helping veterans they are “sandbagging billions of dollars in unpaid invoices associated with the Veterans Choice Program. The program is a recent reform that allows veterans to use private sector medical services to mitigate long waiting times and distances between residences and facilities.”

All this wasted money while supposedly more than “300,000 American military veterans likely died while waiting for health care — and nearly twice as many are still waiting — according to a new Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general report.”

This author finds it utterly absurd that our vets suffer and die waiting on a list for healthcare while illegal immigrants are catered to and given preferential treatment. It’s time for our leaders to get their priorities straight and take care of our veterans.

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