Excuse me while I mount my Soapbox…

Ahem…

The US Department of Veteran’s Affairs is full of bureaucratic fuckery.  I said it. It is my truth. You cannot convince me otherwise. In 27+ years of working with, dealing with, and interacting with almost all levels of staff, at multiple regional sites, I can say with all honesty and sincerity that not a single year has gone by without some sort of breakdown in documentation, communication, process, compensation, or care.  That is not hyperbole, it is my experience of fact.

Currently, I am experiencing a problem with compensation that borders on Orwellian:  I have been assigned a debt that I do not owe, had to appeal that issue, won that appeal after providing 10+ years of documentation, received official notification of a decision in my favor of that appeal, and yet there is no mechanism to tell the collection group of the VA (DMC) that the now-won appeal means a deletion of the debt that I didn’t owe in the first place.  The path I have been given over the phone today is one where I am to file an additional appeal of “financial hardship” to cancel the debt.  It is not a hardship, it is just bullshit over a relatively tiny amount of money. 

I have called a VA representative 11 times in the last 3 months, faxed 212 individual sheets of paper, and written four different letters to each VA department involved over the minor accounting/records discrepancy.  If I am having this kind of issue and have had similar complaints/challenges every year, as mentioned, then what about the folks facing real crisis or hardship?  What does the bureaucratic loop look like for those vets?  How do they handle the uphill battle, duplication of effort, procedure?  How in the world does this personify the Abraham Lincoln penned VA moto: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle”?  I get the VA is complicated and their mission is both underfunded and plagued by mismanagement and scandal (Google “VA Scandal” for a LONG read…), but how long is this status quo just accepted?

There are good and well-meaning folks at the VA that push and strive for those of us in their charge.  I know some of them and related to a few.  I have heard stories of their own struggles in dealing with the looping logic of the VA administrative officialdom.  I don’t have an answer for problems that I have experienced, any salve for the wounds, I just need to rant a little and wish for a better process, better management, compassionate over-site, proper funding, and advocacy for veterans from inside the VA in an official form.

…dismounts Soapbox.