BOOM: Obama’s Sick Twisted Priorities Perfectly Exposed

From Military Times:

House lawmakers say the Veterans Affairs Department’s $2.6 billion budget shortfall for this fiscal year is further proof of administrators’ incompetence and poor planning.

VA officials have a slightly different take, saying the shortfall is a sign of their extraordinary efforts to get veterans the medical care they need, regardless of the cost. 

Either way, the department has a gigantic deficit to fill in the next three months.

And it could get bigger.

It also could mean furloughs, hiring freezes and program cancellations if a solution can’t be found.

“We are going to do the right thing for veterans and be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson told members of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Thursday. “But to succeed, we need the flexibility to use funds to meet veterans needs as they arise.”

Without that, he said, “we get to dire circumstances before August. We will have to start denying care to some veterans.”

For months, VA officials have pleaded with Congress to free up billions in money earmarked for the new Veterans Choice Card program, established by lawmakers last year as a way to speed up veterans’ access to medical care appointments.

In the last year, VA has seen the number of appointments jump by 7 million, almost one for every veteran enrolled in VA health care. More than half of those new appointments were made with outside physicians, in an effort to speed access.

Only a small portion of those came from the new Choice Card program, with fewer than 107,000 veterans signed up. As a result, Gibson said, VA has overspent on other outside care while leaving billions of dollars for that program untouched.

But it’s not the first time VA officials have suggested tapping into the Choice Card funds, a move that has enraged conservatives on Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports the Obama administration will give $419 million more in humanitarian aid to assist Syrian refugees and the countries that are hosting them.

The United States will give $419­ million more in humanitarian aid to assist Syrian refugees and the countries that are hosting them.

What do you think?