Phoenix VA Scandal Illustrative Of Big Government Failure

     The recent revelations about the Phoenix Veterans Administration's secret wait lists and substandard care for our military men and women, is illustrative of the ultimate failure of big government. It should be a harbinger of the kind of bureaucratic, nightmarish scenario that will come to be all too familiar for every American if ObamaCare is allowed to proceed to its planned destination. Beyond the secret wait lists to which veterans were assigned for the purpose of keeping the VA's wait time below fourteen days, which in itself is an appalling figure, is the greed of government officials whose bonuses were based on their own specious record-keeping.
     The existence of a well-funded, fee-based system that allows the VA to seek private medical care for veterans whom they can not treat in a timely fashion, and the fact that it was not used by administrators who received bonuses for its non-use, makes the mistreatment of our nation's heroes even more appalling.
     The deplorable situation uncovered in Phoenix would be unacceptable enough, but by all indications it is being replicated in VA facilities throughout the nation. The veterans who have served their country honorably are placing their very lives in the hands of bureaucrats who have no more incentive to provide the best care than a mail carrier has to get letters in the right box.
     Bonuses in the private sector are culled from corporate profits and are merit based contingent on the employee's exceptional performance of their job. Government workers already receive twice the salary of their counterparts in the private sector, and gold-plated benefits. A bonus for doing a mediocre job is sinful and disgusting. Besides which, government is a non-profit, where the "donors'," i.e., taxpayers' money should not be allocated to lavish vacation conferences or bonuses for serving the public.
     Recently, it was reported that some Internal Revenue Service employees received bonuses even after having multiple reprimands recorded in their files for the time period in which the bonus was being paid. Some even owed back taxes! Instead of movements like Occupy Wall Street protesting against the one percent who invest in businesses that create jobs and propel the nation's prosperity, they should expend their energy protesting against the eight percent in government jobs who seem to think those for whom they work, i.e., the taxpayer, exist to serve them and their rapaciousness.
     The Phoenix Veterans Administration's scandalous behavior towards the veterans of this country is a symptom of government that has outgrown its accountability to the people it is suppose to serve, and whose avarice has created an entitlement to taxpayer money it does not deserve. Congress, the president, and all other government employees should receive their health care from the Veterans Administration. Maybe then freedom's most essential personnel, i.e., our military, will receive the care they so richly deserve.