VA Benefits Part III: Solutions

This is the conclusion of the three part series
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As I've pointed out over the last couple of days, there seems to be this "desire" from the federal government to increase benefits for veterans. Now, I've shown you the two proposals that have come out of both congress and the White House, and why I don't agree with them. So today, I'm going to do something different. I'm going to submit some ideas on how the government can actually increase benefits, AND reduce spending and/or invest its money for a better return.

First off, I'd like to again revisit the idea of healthcare for veterans. As I very briefly mentioned in part 2, I believe privatizing military healthcare would be a good idea. At least one worth looking into. Centrally Planned institutions have proven not to work. One only needs to look at the Soviet Union, or contemporary N. Korea, Cuba or even China's struggling space program. An idea that I have thought of is that the government can provide a civilian health insurance plan like most corporations. The difference however, is that one can actually choose whether to see a military doctor or a civilian doctor. Its really sad that I have to honestly say that I got better healthcare working as a security guard for Biola University than I do as an active duty member of the military. Now, by allowing military members to have a civilian health insurance, we can cut the amount of military doctors, or be able to send more military doctors to treat combat wounded soldiers. The government can also save cost by getting rid of military doctors that are pediatricians. Reducing costs, and being able to focus more on the mission? Sounds good to me. Unfortunately, I don't believe the government would do this since all we hear about from the left (who also, regrettably, has the political momentum) is how we need to socialize healthcare.

The other plan I have calls for an advanced benefit in the VA loan. Currently a VA loan is used for the purpose of buying a house. Now before I submit my proposal, I'd like to give you the back story for this idea. The government spends thousands of dollars to ensure that servicemen are able to prosper when they leave the military. We all get out eventually. Whether we serve one term or 30 years, everyone finally gets out and has to face the prospect of being a civilian. So, the government spends a lot of money to prepare us. The vast majority of recruits are kids that just graduated high school, have no skills and decided that serving their country would be a good way to open some doors for them. Also, it would be political-suicide for congress to have to explain why those who served are living in a cardboard box. So we get tuition-assistance for school while we serve. We also get the G.I. Bill for going to school. The majority of us get trained for skills that we will be able to apply when we get out (everything from mechanics to computer troubleshooters), and then we get the VA loan to help us get a home. All that money, and for what? So one more person can join the workforce. From my own personal experience, I can tell you that the government will have invested something around $500k. That's a half of a million dollars!!! For me! One out of several thousands! When I get out, I'll be well prepared, but I'll be just another employee.

So I thought of something else the other day. Granted, its more risky. Only 20% succeed the first five years, and only another 20% succeed out of the first 20% the next five years. So I don't have all the kinks worked out yet. But what if they could give a VA loan for opening your own business? Risky? Yes, but if done correctly, the returns would be huge. Instead of investing all that money for one employee, now the government would be able to invest money into someone who became an employer. Do you see where I'm going with this? Instead of the government putting out workers, it would put out leaders and entrepreneurs , who would have any number of employees under him. He would create more jobs, which in turn would strengthen the economy. If successful, he would earn more money than he would ever make as an employee, and use that money to further invest. And as we all know, the more a society invests, the better for our economy.

But there is a problem here as well. And its one that would require a change in thinking. The relationship between commerce and government has always been a hostile one. People succeed in accumulating wealth, adding jobs, investing in the market, strengthening the economy, and the government rewards them with higher taxes. Commerce then retaliates by moving their money to off-shore accounts (thus investing in foreign banks), moving their corporate headquarters to another nation (strengthening foreign economies), outsourcing jobs (raising our unemployment rate), and raising the cost of goods and services (causing inflation, weakening the dollar). While commerce wins the battle for themselves (and not that I blame them), government is the one driving them to do this.

So before we can even think about changing the VA loan so that it can benefit our country, the politicians within our government need to change the way they view commerce. The liberal left need to stop trying to wage war against the markets, and allow this country to become a business friendly nation again.

I hope you have enjoyed this mini-series. I also hope there was something out of all this that you were able to take and learn from. The biggest advice I can give from all this, is that no matter how good the government might make something sound, always ask yourself if this is the best they can do for our nation. Thank you for reading. God Bless.