Veterans Administration
The Veteran's Administration has existed, albeit in different forms, since 1776. Until 1930, the various programs involved were run by at least three different divisions of the government. Further re-organization came in 1989, when the Department of Veteran's Affairs was made a Cabinet-level post by George H. W. Bush.
Speech Relevance[edit]
From 'A Time For Choosing':
The President tells us he is now going to start building public housing units in the thousands where heretofore we have only built them in the hundreds. But FHA and the Veterans Administration tell us that they have 120,000 housing units they've taken back through mortgage foreclosures. For three decades, we have sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning, and the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.
His point being that there was no need to construct new public housing when the government already owned plenty of housing already.
How, exactly, does the Veteran's Administration get foreclosed property? In the current VA system:
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) acquires properties as a result of foreclosures on VA-guaranteed and VA-financed loans. These acquired properties are marketed for sale through a property management services contract that was awarded to BAC Home Loan Servicing, LP.
From 'Encroaching Control':
Today, in our country, the most expensive government medical program in the world is our own Veteran's Administration hospital program. Now, none of us disagree with the idea that a man wounded in the service of his country is entitled to the finest of medical and hospital care that we can possibly afford and give him. But today three out of four veteran's administration beds are filled with patients suffering diseases or injuries neither originated by nor aggravated by military service. Indeed there are only 40,000 service connected disabilities in the whole United States, and yet every annual budget contains millions of dollars for veteran's hospital building the expansion of present facilities.
