Ben Carson wants to abolish the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and put its services under the Department of Defense.
Carson blamed the recent decline of military volunteers on national perception of the low level of care for veterans during his appearance yesterday on The Dave Ramsey Show.
He didn’t comment on the effect that 14 years of perpetual war might have on recruitment.
A concern for support and re-integration into American society drives his goal to abolish the VA department.
“When a person applies for the military, they should be in a support system immediately from day one. Particularly when they go through combat because that is when all the trauma is occurring,” Carson said.
He also advocated health savings accounts for veterans to use in visiting any hospital instead of a restricted VA hospital system.
The focus on the VA department came after Carson described an overinflated government.
“The size of the government has to be reduced significantly,” Carson said.
Gridlock in Congress has a simple solution.
“The reason that nothing has changed is because we don’t have aggressive leadership” from the White House, he said.
Whether a more aggressive tactic would work is, as yet, unclear.
