A Great Mystery, Or

Why the VA Needs Fewer Hands to Do More Work

It has come to the attention of Nevada

Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen that the Department of Veterans Affairs is engaged in a most peculiar practice—dismissing those individuals charged with caring for the nation’s veterans. The unexpected development has left the senators and the veterans in a state of astonishment not easily put into words suitable for polite company.

Determined to unravel this mystery, the two senators have penned a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins, demanding an explanation for what inspired the department to thin its ranks. In particular, they wish to know why Nevada has suffered such a noticeable pruning of personnel and whether the affected individuals might be veterans—having traded one uniform for another, only to find that neither offers much security against bureaucratic shears.

“The VA plays a critical role in ensuring that our nation’s veterans receive the care, benefits, and support they have earned through sacrifice,” the senators declared in what can only be an appeal to common sense. “A significant reduction in staff could have serious consequences for both VA operations and our veterans in Nevada.”

Indeed, it requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that when one needs more work done, one might consider retaining rather than discarding those capable of doing it. Whether the VA subscribes to this or believes that medical care, benefits processing, and other essential services should get left to the whims of chance remains to be seen.

The nation’s veterans, no doubt, await an answer with bated breath—though one hopes not for too long, lest their health, too, be left to the efficiencies of modern cost-cutting.