Archives for May 2014

The crisis of delayed care through the Veterans Administration is triggering close examination of the federal bureaucracy and the competence of VA management, but some fear the influence of organized labor is also adding to the time veterans must wait for treatment or to have their claims processed.

The issue at hand is known as “official time.”

“Official time is the euphemism for government employees doing the business of their labor union rather than doing the work of the government.  Different departments allow different amounts, but even an hour of your time shouldn’t be funded by tax dollars if they’re doing the work of the union.  That’s what the union dues are supposed to pay for,” said Fred Wszolek of the Workforce Fairness Institute.

As early as June 2013, Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) sent a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to express their concern that scores of VA employees working on “official time” were busy doing work for the unions rather than making life easier for veterans as they are paid to do.

“Documents from your department list 188 VA employees serving in 100 percent official time capacity during the time period spanning January 1, 2012 through February 2013. During this time of sequestration and tight budgets, it is important to know how so many employees can be spared to serve the interest of outside groups, instead of carrying out jobs that are essential to the health, safety and transition of our nation 19s veterans,” wrote the senators.

Wszolek believes it’s outrageous for taxpayers to be funding union labor for any length of time but he says the problem is most likely worse than the unions will admit.

“We’re not even sure that they’re properly reporting all of the official time that they’re taking.  They might be putting down that they did three hours of union business but really it was an entire day.  So it’s tough to tell whether this is having a major effect throughout the major workforce.  I would suspect that it is being under-reported and the value of the time that is being given away to the unions is probably dramatically higher than what we know,” said Wszolek.

Don’t expect any of that to change.  Wszolek says these workers have very little to fear given their current job security.

“Many of these employees are also covered by civil service.  So they have two levels of protection.  That may be why some of these VA employees were so ambivalent about the whole thing and were providing substandard care.  They’re almost impossible to fire under civil service rules and then they’ve got a union going to bat for them as well.  So they kind of feel as though they can get away with anything,” said Wszolek.

So why would the federal government agree to federal employees holding virtually all of the cards?  Wszolek says there’s no one really advocating for the taxpayers.

“The unions often times control the government, so then they’re kind of negotiating with themselves.  They’re negotiating with the people that got them elected, and so obviously they’re getting a pretty good deal,” he said.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the VA Management Accountability Act by a vote of 390-33.  It would give the secretary of Veterans Affairs more freedom to remove subordinates for incompetence or nonperformance.  Wszolek says that’s a good step but cannot figure out why it was needed or why Shinseki was urging lawmakers to oppose the bill.

“You almost have to scratch your head and think about this but why do we have to pass a special law to allow the senior managers of these departments to fire incompetent employees.  Why isn’t that the law?  Why can’t you get rid of anybody when they’re doing something so crazy?  The idea that the secretary opposes having that authority is mind boggling,” said Wszolek.

As for the the fate of official time, Wszolek says it’s here to stay, at least in the current political environment.

“There’s zero percent chance as long as Harry Reid is the majority leader in the Senate that we’ll ever get rid of official time.  His devotion to the unions is absolute.  There has to be a change in power in that house of Congress,” said Wszolek.

“It’s a no-brainer.  We are borrowing money from foreign countries to pay our bills.  It’s not like we’ve got spare money lying around.  We should be having every single minute of a government employee’s time focused on government’s business, not the unions’ business,” he said.

Michigan Rep. Dan Benishek says the legacy of bureaucratic mismanagement at the Veterans Administration runs long and deep, something he says he knows about not only as a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee but also as a VA surgeon for 20 years.

Benishek is in his second House term.  He left his medical career and won an open seat in 2010, after Democrat Bart Stupak elected to retire following his role in the passage of the new health care laws.  Benishek, who served at a hospital in Iron Mountain, Michigan, says the problems with VA management were obvious a long time ago.

“I know what that bureaucracy is like.  It was very frustrating for me to get stuff done within the system.  One of the greatest examples was that the director of the hospital would leave every two years.  That happened for 20 years.  So a guy comes in.  For six months, he doesn’t know where the bathroom is.  The next year he’s there.  In the last six months he’s worried about his next job.  That’s just a flaw in the management.  There’s no real leadership because there’s transition at the top.  Since I’ve been in Congress they’ve changed that,” said Benishek.

During his career as a surgeon, Benishek split time between the traditional local hospital and the VA facility.  While Iron Mountain is considered to have one of the better VA facilities, Benishek says the difference between the two was obvious.

“There’s no way the VA is as efficient as the private sector.  The people that are providing the care, the nurses and doctors, the people that provide the direct patient care are good people.  They’re working hard and they care for the veterans.  The problem is they’re just not managed right.  They have millions of dollars to spend on new windows but they don’t have thousands of dollars to hire another anesthetist,” said Benishek.

“It’s stuff like that that’s so frustrating and people making decisions at the upper levels make it difficult for people who are trying to provide the best care they can,” he said.

Since coming to Washington and serving on the House Veterans’ Affairs, Benishek says his frustrations with the VA persist but now it’s even higher-ranking bureaucrats causing the grief.

“Nobody’s really accountable.  I get sick and tired of these bureaucrats and undersecretaries coming before us to say, ‘Yeah, yeah, we know there’s a problem and we’re working on it.  Honestly, we’re going to have a fix in awhile.’  It gets pretty frustrating when veterans are dying and nobody gets punished for it,” said Benishek.

“In the private sector, if you don’t do your job you get fired.  In the VA that doesn’t happen.  We have a hard time finding out who is responsible for the mismanagement in different areas.  You ask somebody to come before you on the committee.  If there’s a problem in the Pennsylvania VA, you ask the people from the Pennsylvania VA to come but the VA doesn’t produce them.  They produce somebody in the VA three or four levels to try to not let the guy testify about how bad things are,” said Benishek.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved the VA Accountability Act by a vote of 390-33.  The legislation would give greater latitude to the secretary of Veterans Affairs to fire personnel for incompetence or nonperformance.  Benishek stresses that the secretary already has that power but it is seldom used.

“The problem is that so many people in the VA aren’t judged on performance.  That’s a culture that we have to change.  That’s a culture that should be in place already.  For example, if somebody doesn’t do what the inspector general says needs to be fixed, who is that person?  Why is the fact that they didn’t reply to an inspector general’s report put on their promotion record?  Why are they still getting bonuses if they don’t comply with the inspector general?  Why are they getting advancement?  Why isn’t there punishment for not getting their job done?” asked Benishek.

“That’s the kind of stuff we need to put a stop to and hopefully it really is the will of the administration to do that kind of work.  We’re prodding them to do more of it,” he said.

While the House vote was lopsided, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the lower chamber, strongly opposed it.  He suggests the bill would leave career civil servants at the mercy of political appointees.

“All of us are outraged at the allegations that have been made, but that’s not what this legislation is about,” Hoyer told Stars and Stripes. “This legislation is about a knee-jerk reaction to a very bad situation painting with a very broad brush.”

Benishek is stunned at Hoyer’s approach.

“This lack of scrutiny on the management team is disgusting.  This is an emergency.  People are dying.  This is a matter of life and death.  This is not some Department of Agriculture rule that’s not being fixed.  People are dying every day,” said Benishek, noting at least 40 deaths in Phoenix have been linked to a bureaucratic logjam.

“Isn’t anybody outraged?  I’m outraged.  I guess Mr. Hoyer’s not outraged.  I’m more concerned about the veteran than the senior members of the staff,” he said.

Benishek says the House will be pursuing additional legislation to compel reform at the VA.  He is also encouraged that the media are paying a great deal of attention to the crisis.

The VA Accountability is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate.  Florida Republican Marco Rubio tried to get approved on a unanimous consent request.  However, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernard Sanders (D-Vermont) objected, saying he needed more time to study the two-page bill and that he wants to hold hearings on the issue next month.

Calling it an “immoral” burden on families, farms and small businesses, Texas Rep. Kevin Brady is leading the latest House Republican effort to fully repeal the estate tax, which critics deride as the death tax.

The estate tax levies penalties of 40 percent on the inheritance of certain estates.  The 2001 tax cuts phased it out over 10 years and there was no estate tax in 2010.  Over the past three years, Congress engaged in fierce debate over the tax rate and how large an estate must be to meet the threshold for taxation.  As part of the “Fiscal Cliff ” deal in January 2013, the estate tax was permanently applied to individual estates valued at $5.25 million and assets of couples of more than $10 million.

Those rates lead Brady’s critics to allege this latest legislation only benefits the very wealthy, but Brady says the facts tell us otherwise.

“There’s something wrong and immoral about the government swooping in upon your death to take more than a third of the nest egg you’ve worked a lifetime to build.  I think this is the wrong tax at the wrong time and it really lands hard on families and farmers and small businesses,” said Brady, who elaborated on why farms and small businesses often end up in the estate tax cross hairs.

“They may have land passed down from their family.  They may have a building.  Equipment can add up very quickly.  Technology is very expensive.  So you think this is for the wealthy, but for the most part, these are families building up wealth, sometimes for the very first time.  In fact, more and more women and minority-owned businesses are getting caught up in the death tax,” said Brady.

Democrats regularly raise two other arguments. First, they allege Republicans are trying to eliminate another source of revenue at a time America can least afford it.  Brady not only contends that’s false but insists the opposite is true.

“It really hinders entrepreneurial activity.  It breaks up family farms and businesses.  It’s the number one reason businesses aren’t passed down to the next generation.  By eliminating this, it encourages people to put money and investment toward that business.  They don’t have to spend money on expensive life insurance and other estate planning and they can invest that back in their business,” said Brady.

“Because it grows the economy and encourages more investment in these local businesses and family-owned farms, it actually grows the economy without the death tax in place,” he said.

Republicans routinely refer to the estate tax as a form of double taxation because the government taxed it once as income and wants another bite at the pie after a person dies.  Democrats see it differently.  They argue that the decedent paid taxes once when the money was earned but the heirs are taxed the second time around.

Brady not only disagrees with the Democrats, but he believes the GOP characterization of the tax is too kind.

“Look at family farms that have had to sell off their property to have to pay this death tax.  In part of my community, families are taking out their third death tax loan because their grandfather and their father had loans outstanding.  Now they’re taking out another one just to keep the family farm and paid taxes on their whole life,” said Brady.

“I don’t think they’re merely double-taxed.  In some cases it’s tripled and four times just to keep the business and the family farm that they worked and created.  I don’t think the government has a claim over this nest egg at all.  I think the sooner we end that the better,” said Brady.

On the other hand, Brady says Democrats not only want to block his bill.  He says they are actively trying to change the estate tax laws in the opposite to direction to force more people into even higher rates.

“Democrats and the president are going exactly the wrong way.  Within weeks of that permanent exemption of the death tax and that permanent rate, the president was calling for fewer people to be exempted.  More people would be caught by it and paying higher taxes, which would make us, effectively, the highest death tax in the world.  That’s why we believe we need to push for ultimate repeal.  If we don’t, my worry over time is that they’re going to continue to wage this war on our family-owned businesses and farms and we simply can’t afford to lose it,” said Brady.

Today’s Three Martini Lunch features Brett Winterble in for Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review. They discuss the news that the VA’s Eric Shinseki may  be on the verge of being ousted from his leadership at the head of the VA. They talk about an incredible waste of funds at the VA with the news that developers were awarded $3 million in prize money in an app contest. And they close the segment with  a crazy story about men who drink human breast milk—as a nutritional supplement.

Today’s Three Martini Lunch features Brett Winterble in for Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review. They applaud the Washington Post’s criticism of President Obama’s foreign policy. They discuss one whistleblower’s description of the VA health care system as an organized crime syndicate. They find comic relief in CNN’s Carol Costello saying First Lady Obama signed a bill into law.

Today’s Three Martini Lunch features Brett Winterble in for Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review. They laugh over Nancy Pelosi’s remarks that Obamacare is a “beautiful” thing. They also focus on President Obama’s efforts to implement coal regulations without the help of Congress. They close the lunch with an administrative gaffe by revealing the name of a top CIA official in Afghanistan during President Obama’s recent Memorial Day visit.

The crisis of delayed care through the Veterans Administration is triggering close examination of the federal bureaucracy and the competence of VA management, but some fear the influence of organized labor is also adding to the time veterans must wait for treatment or to have their claims processed.

The issue at hand is known as “official time.”

“Official time is the euphemism for government employees doing the business of their labor union rather than doing the work of the government.  Different departments allow different amounts, but even an hour of your time shouldn’t be funded by tax dollars if they’re doing the work of the union.  That’s what the union dues are supposed to pay for,” said Fred Wszolek of the Workforce Fairness Institute.

As early as June 2013, Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) sent a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to express their concern that scores of VA employees working on “official time” were busy doing work for the unions rather than making life easier for veterans as they are paid to do.

“Documents from your department list 188 VA employees serving in 100 percent official time capacity during the time period spanning January 1, 2012 through February 2013. During this time of sequestration and tight budgets, it is important to know how so many employees can be spared to serve the interest of outside groups, instead of carrying out jobs that are essential to the health, safety and transition of our nation’s veterans,” wrote the senators.

Wszolek believes it’s outrageous for taxpayers to be funding union labor for any length of time but he says the problem is most likely worse than the unions will admit.

“We’re not even sure that they’re properly reporting all of the official time that they’re taking.  They might be putting down that they did three hours of union business but really it was an entire day.  So it’s tough to tell whether this is having a major effect throughout the major workforce.  I would suspect that it is being under-reported and the value of the time that is being given away to the unions is probably dramatically higher than what we know,” said Wszolek.

Don’t expect any of that to change.  Wszolek says these workers have very little to fear given their current job security.

“Many of these employees are also covered by civil service.  So they have two levels of protection.  That may be why some of these VA employees were so ambivalent about the whole thing and were providing substandard care.  They’re almost impossible to fire under civil service rules and then they’ve got a union going to bat for them as well.  So they kind of feel as though they can get away with anything,” said Wszolek.

So why would the federal government agree to federal employees holding virtually all of the cards?  Wszolek says there’s no one really advocating for the taxpayers.

“The unions often times control the government, so then they’re kind of negotiating with themselves.  They’re negotiating with the people that got them elected, and so obviously they’re getting a pretty good deal,” he said.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the VA Management Accountability Act by a vote of 390-33.  It would give the secretary of Veterans Affairs more freedom to remove subordinates for incompetence or nonperformance.  Wszolek says that’s a good step but cannot figure out why it was needed or why Shinseki was urging lawmakers to oppose the bill.

“You almost have to scratch your head and think about this but why do we have to pass a special law to allow the senior managers of these departments to fire incompetent employees.  Why isn’t that the law?  Why can’t you get rid of anybody when they’re doing something so crazy?  The idea that the secretary opposes having that authority is mind boggling,” said Wszolek.

As for the the fate of official time, Wszolek says it’s here to stay, at least in the current political environment.

“There’s zero percent chance as long as Harry Reid is the majority leader in the Senate that we’ll ever get rid of official time.  His devotion to the unions is absolute.  There has to be a change in power in that house of Congress,” said Wszolek.

“It’s a no-brainer.  We are borrowing money from foreign countries to pay our bills.  It’s not like we’ve got spare money lying around.  We should be having every single minute of a government employee’s time focused on government’s business, not the unions’ business,” he said.

Today’s Three Martini Lunch with Radio America’s Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review highlights unexpected support from House Democrats calling for President Obama to act on the VA health care scandal. Jim and Greg also talk about Al Qaeda resurgence and the administration’s refusal to acknowledge it. They finish by talking about Democratic senators pushing the NFL to demand that the Washington Redskins change their name.

A former Pentagon official says the history of the Veterans Administration is littered with stunning examples of waste and incompetence and the latest allegations of delayed care, secret wait lists and multiple sets of books at VA institutions only takes it to a new level.

Van Hipp, Jr. served as deputy assistant Secretary of the Army for Reserve Forces and Mobilization in the George H.W. Bush administration during the Gulf War.  He is now chairman of American Defense International.  He says the VA is a clear example of what Obamacare will look like on its present course but insists it doesn’t have to be that way.

“The military runs a separate hospital system for the active duty military and their dependents, just like the VA runs a hospital system.  The military system is much more efficient.  What’s sad is I’ve seen case after case after case where the military would develop medical technologies that they’re using in the hospitals and they’re using to take care of soldiers and their dependents.  They would literally try to give this stuff to the VA and they would turn it down,” said Hipp.

“I was shocked.  They would turn down things that the military was always trying to give the VA so they could go out and reinvent what the military had and charge the taxpayers to build a separate system.  I think you’re seeing the result of a lot of that right now,” said Hipp.

The VA is tasked with the care of tens of millions of veterans, and the numbers have risen greatly in recent years as a result of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Hipp says that may be a factor but it’s only making an existing problem worse.

“There’s no question they’ve been overloaded, but you know what?  There are things they could have done in management tools and things and technologies they could have put in place to help speed up the whole disability process and they haven’t done it.  They’ve had opportunities to prevent these kinds of problems for a long time, ” said Hipp, who says poor leadership over the years definitely plays a role.

“Extreme incompetence.  There are a lot of good people over the years who have been in management there who’ve tried to do the right thing and they have been hindered by various laws and things (telling them) what they can’t do.  Somebody needs to go in there and lead,” he said.

Hipp does give President Obama credit for the recent appointment of former USO Chairman Sloan Gibson to be deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs.

“This happened a few months ago, which tells me they knew about this problem before.  The new deputy secretary of the VA is a good guy and the kind of person they should be putting in there and should have been putting in there a long time ago,” said Hipp.  “He’s a West Point grad.  He’s a military man, but he’s also been in the private sector.  He’s been a successful banker.  So he brings that unique set of management skills to the VA.  That;s the kind of person they need to put more and more in these key management positions.”

On Wednesday, Obama said he would wait for the inspector general’s report before determining exactly what happened at the Phoenix VA and other veteran facilities where secret delays and multiple sets of books were alleged to take place.  Hipp says there should be a thorough investigation of this crisis but believes some changes could be made right away.

“The fact that there are problems in the VA, this is not news.  I’m not surprised this has been going on.  This time last year we were talking about the tremendous backlog of the disability claims, that they were taking months and months and months,” said Hipp.  “I wouldn’t wait on the IG report.  They need a plan of attack right now.”

Hipp also believes Congress can play a role in streamlining the massive bureaucracy that is grinding the VA to a near halt.

“One of the things I think they’ve asked for is to give the secretary more authority to fire people and get around some of the problems with employee unions.  Give him more authority to fire incompetence on the spot,” said Hipp.

Today’s Three Martini Lunch with Radio America’s Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review focuses on the VA health care scandal and President Obama’s press conference on what he’s doing about it. They focus on the President’s reluctance to admit that there is an issue. They also talk about the ineffectiveness of the Obama administration’s efforts to solve VA health care issues. And they close by discussing President Obama’s claim that VA health care is one of the driving causes of his presidential tenure.