Pete Hegseth

You and I would probably talk a lot about the military industrial complex, all these outside,

the companies that influence the way we procure weapons and the way we fight.

Well, there's the Veterans Industrial Complex, too.

And, you know, the traditional names, the VFW, the Legion, AMVETS, you name them.

They've got big offices in Washington, D.C., and they are invested in one thing, namely.

a bigger VA budget.

A bigger VA budget means more programs that they collaborate with.

They say it is to serve their members, but if you talk to their members, which is what we actually did in the organization, it's like, hey, we don't care what VFW headquarters thinks.

We care what the post-level thinks.

What do those guys think?

They're saying, hey, why am I driving 200 miles?

to go to some hospital where I'll wait for months for an appointment when I could be seen inside my own community if the dollars followed me and I wanted to do that locally.

Well, the VA hates that because it would, heaven forbid, their budget might reduce or their facilities might not be used as robustly, then they don't keep getting the money.

Well, then the vets groups don't benefit as much from that.

So it's a typical swampy feedback loop.

The politicians don't really know how the VA works.

And so they just want a good press conference and that means just writing bigger checks.

The whole thing never, but they get to feel good about it, right?

Oh, I support the vets.

I support funding for the VA.