Taking the First Step at Veterans Affairs

Now that Washington has acknowledged cultural malaise and a broad failure to provide timely access to health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Congress and the executive branch are competing frantically to show the public how hard they are working to fix that failure.

It’s ugly. Congress is throwing money at the problem and improvising short-term Rube Goldberg “solutions” certain to have unintended negative consequences that will fuel future failures. The office of the inspector general, which napped through a decade of evidence that demonstrated the quality problem at the VA, has responded by subpoenaing whistleblowers who brought their complaints to outside advocates—a surefire way to stifle critics.