GOP's Miller faces sales job
WASHINGTON — Before being elected to Congress, Rep. Jeff Miller was a real estate broker. His background in sales will come in handy as the Florida Republican tries to a sell a $17 billion deal to improve veterans health care to a GOP caucus that includes Tea Party members and other conservatives dead set against raising the deficit.
Miller, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, announced a compromise bill Monday to help veterans avoid long waits for health care, hire more doctors and nurses to treat them, and make it easier to fire executives at the Veterans Affairs Department.
The bill includes $10 billion in emergency spending to help veterans who can’t get prompt appointments with VA doctors to obtain outside care; $5 billion to hire doctors, nurses and other medical staff; and about $1.5 billion to lease 27 new clinics across the country, according to Miller and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Miller and Sanders say the bill will require about $12 billion in new spending after accounting for about $5 billion in unspecified spending cuts from the VA’s budget.
Despite the steep cost, Miller said he is confident he can sell the bill to fellow Republicans, including Tea Party members.
“Taking care of our veterans is not an inexpensive proposition, and our members understand that,” Miller said at a news conference Monday. “The VA has caused this problem and one of the ways that we can help solve it is to give veterans a choice, a choice to stay in the system or a choice to go out of the system” to get government-paid health care from a private doctor.
Pressed on the point by reporters, Miller said there will be “an educational process that will have to take place” before the House votes on the compromise plan later this week. “Obviously some of our members will need a little more educating than others.”
Rep. Tim Huelskamp., R-Kan., a Tea Party favorite and a member of the House veterans panel, said “throwing money at the VA won’t solve their problem,” adding that “a fundamental change in culture and real leadership from the president on down is the only way to provide the quality, timely care our veterans deserve.”
Sanders said funding for veterans should be considered as a cost of war, paid for through emergency spending.
The deal requires a vote by a conference committee of House and Senate negotiators, and votes in the full House and Senate. Miller and Sanders both predict passage by week’s end.
