For example, a VA facility dedicated to serving blind \u2013 yes blind \u2013 veterans spent $670,000 for two commissioned sculptures. Just last month, a VA spokesperson stood in front of the infamous $1.2 million \u201ccubed-rock\u201d sculpture in Palo Alto, CA and argued that this type of artwork \u201ccreates a healing environment.\u201d Yes, nothing creates a healing environment quite like long waiting lines that are in part the result of resources being misallocated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, the VA has modified their policy for buying expensive decorations – they merely require more signatures to authorize those purchases.<\/p>\n
So, why didn\u2019t the VA institute a permanent moratorium on pricey art?<\/p>\n
Well, it could be personal to the top administrators. Oil portraits, busts, and self-named buildings have a certain appeal to bureaucrats. In 2010, the VA spent $60,000 for two commissioned oil portraits of the previous Secretaries of Veterans Affairs: James Peake ($24,882) and Jim Nicholson ($24,675). Additionally, thousands of dollars were spent on a sculpture bust of Congressman Jerry L. Pettis in 2012 on a medical center that already bears his name within the Loma Linda VA system, California.<\/p>\n
All of these expenditures occurred during now-infamous VA scandal, when tragically, many calls to the suicide assistance hotline were answered by voicemail. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The culture at the VA is what needs to change. They throw huge parties for themselves, they game their own system to their own benefit, no one is held accountable for anything. While there are people who want to help veterans in the department, the overall culture is not one that helps veterans. It costs lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forbes talks about the Veterans’ Affairs Department and their massive expenditures for art work to decorate … VA chastised for art spending<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-veterans-affairs-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"VA](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/VA-spending-368x333.jpg\")
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