Memorial Day, originally known as “Decoration Day” when it was established in 1868, was set in late May “because flowers would be in bloom all over the country” to decorate the graves of America’s war dead. After World War I, the day’s significance was changed: It would honor not only the Civil War dead, but all those who died in all American wars.
The nation’s war dead often lost their lives trying to save their comrades in arms on the battlefield. This is one among many reasons that surviving veterans’ lives should be prized so highly. Sadly, although we honor them when they are dead, many are not being properly honored during their lives.
As many as 300,000 veterans tried to enroll for services from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and then died waiting for it to process their applications at treat them. We cannot know the exact number who died while waiting for medical care, because years of bureaucratic neglect have left the agency’s records such a mess that they cannot be sorted out. The VA keeps idenitifying thousands of living veterans as dead and purging them from its system.
What we do know is that tens of thousands of veterans’ applications still languish at the VA. Whistleblowers tell Congress that VA bureaucrats use technicalities to delay applications so fewer people appear to be trying to use the VA system and adding to its backlog. The more applications approved, the more energy the bureaucrats have to exert to meet performance targets.
The Washington Examiner reported in July that the bureaucracy was sitting on 34,000 applications from recent combat veterans. The excuse for VA inaction on them was that the applications didn’t include income information. But combat vets do not need to include it — they are automatically eligible for enrollment, no income verification required. As of November, just one VA office in Alabama was sitting on 2,000 such applications.
The VA slow-walked 16,000 applications long enough that veterans’ automatic eligibility for benefits expired. Malingering bureaucrats who perpetrate this are promoted, whereas whistleblowers face retaliation.
It was in this context that VA Secretary Robert McDonald recently downplayed wait-times in a conversation with reporters. Employing an ill-considered analogy to the queues at DisneyLand, McDonald said he wants to move away from wait-times as the measure by which VA performance is judged. That’s saying people should stop judging baseball teams by how many games they win.
The VA is failing not only today’s living veterans, but also the memories of those who died fighting alongside them. Congress must resolve on this day never to let up in its oversight and investigation. And all of the presidential candidates owe it to America’s servicemembers, living and dead, to present detailed plans to end this tragedy where McDonald has failed.
