Pascal points out
in relation to a lot of the chatter about the VA issues, that everyone is under the impression that the VA (Or this or that agency) is “underfunded”.
Let me clue you all into something. There is NO SUCH THING as an underfunded agency.
In realworldland, “Underfunding” means “Businesses closing their doors”. Anywhere in government, ‘underfunded’ means “My uncle and my brother and my cousin needed jobs, and now there is no money left to do the shit this agency is supposed to do. I NEED MORE MONEY! I’M UNDERFUNDED!” This is an Ouroboro- as Professor Hale so aptly puts it- that will absorb resources no matter how many it is given- like a goldfish growing to the size of it’s container, like a walmartian spending to the limits of it’s SNAP card, there is no amount that any agency can absorb and not claim underfunding.

When you give away free stuff, the demand for it goes up.
You should clip that out and save it for later. It will come up again.
We have been fighting the war on poverty longer that anything else and the only way to keep enough poor around to justify its continue fight is to move the line defining poor.
I am involved with a recovery ministry and it flat out amazes me how all of these people coming to the services have smart phones and smoke. That is not poor.
I heard today that the VA has not been spending it’s budget.
Passing it forward. $525M
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/latest-news/va-ended-fiscal-year-with-million-surplus/article_f1586c36-08d5-11e3-a5e4-001a4bcf6878.html