VA spent $6.3 million on sculptures and fountains for their hospitals. Should they have?

Yet they were $2.6 BILLION short this year. Had to get it from somewhere to cover the Month of September. Oh yea, they got it from the VETs on Disability and the Doctors to treat them.
I spent 4 YEARS trying to get reevaluated as my Surgeon annotated in my Medical Records. My fusion has repercussions all through my spine that my Doc. won't treat because it's not where my Injury is. I have a TBI that causes Headaches that they only had to look at a scan to decide that they can DROP that from my Disability Rating with-in 6 Months? I initially didn't want to see the Neuro. Surgeon because it was something I had been dealing with since it happened in '07. Come to find out, the meds my Doc had me on were for my Headaches. She just had the script to low. The Neuro. PA. upped my dosage and they take the edge off a little better but the cause can't be found out until I can actually see the Surgeon which was supposed to be THIS Month. Apparently there's only ONE at practicing at The Robly Rex Center on alternating months. I have yet to receive notification to contact them for an appointment. I have called them on my own and have yet to even get an extension to Neuro. We signed a Contract in good faith when we joined. Most, if not ALL of us have fulfilled that Contract yet the VA can't or won't full fill their's.

I have been at a few hospitals that have had fountains & sculptures in various places. I found myself drawn to them as a place to de-stress, pray and contemplate.
As to the spending of budget dollars, the VA has little discretion once Congress appropriates the funds. Funds specified for upgrade/maintenance of buildings for example, cannot legally be used for other purposes. It's no different than trying to use funds appropriated for aircraft depot maintenance for weapons purchases. Yes, I'm fully aware the agency submits its budget request, but Congress can and often does change those numbers.

"Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, called the rock sculpture “wanton and abusive spending practices” by the agency."
The statement above is nothing more than Rep. Miller making political hay and I find it disingenuous and completely misleading. Mr. Miller, you may want to speak with your colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee about those wanton and abusive spending practices.

Don't get me started sir. I get it, grounds need beatification and atmosphere need to be welcoming but at what expense? I'd rather be treated in tent if it meant getting the right and adequate treatment as opposed to getting substandard treatment due to financial shortfalls at a beautiful facility. I mean if money is being used to put in a fountain and statues instead of allowing me to receive the right medications or tests which would help me get better faster then the problem is bigger then we imagined!

My wife keeps threatening to take one of the water bubbly colored light changing things from the VA health clinic and put it in our living room. ;)

COL Mikel J. Burroughs I can understand the need for calming items like fountains at the VA. I don't think that all of the items listed should have been funded, but I do think that having a peaceful area where a patient can go to just be is important. The issue is finding a balance between the healing value of tranquility and the cost of installing it.

Hell no, there are vets like myself who have legit claims with permanent injuries or medical issues that were wrongfully denied and deserve to be compensated first and foremost. I fell down a flight of stairs on a ship due to improper maintenance causing permanent nerve damage at the shoulder to 4 of 6 major nerves in located in both arms. I have a hard time doing much anything with my hands and have to adapt at home, work and school. I also have hypothyroidism along with my sister, we went through different VAs (her in San Antonio and me in Phoenix...) Same symptoms, both had confirming tests while in, she was diagnosed while mine was swept into my medical file at the hospital but withheld from my service medical file and personal knowledge. I got the records, a VA doctor to confirm and made notes, my civilian to confirm and wrote a statement. She got 100%, I was denied without being seen. But they sure have money to throw away on art.

If soldiers are not being taken care of and not getting the proper treatment and benefits, I say no they shouldn't have spent that amount of money.

If it was agency budget then the answer is clearly that it should have gone to care of veterans. If, however, that money came from outside the agency like GSA then its not a VA issue at all.

The feds as well as most cities require that a certain amount of the cost of a project must go to art.

If only 6.3 million for all of the hospitals across the country, I would say that's pretty good. Hospitals are a place no one really wants to go to....with the VA putting in art or fountains to make it more soothing and aesthetic, why not.