Editor’s Note: This also appeared in The Hill.

When I was a primary care provider in the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system, it wasn’t my job to think about all 9.1 million veterans enrolled in VA care. My role was to sit one-on-one with individual veterans, listen to their health concerns and find the best and most comprehensive way to address their medical needs.

Too often, the bureaucracy involved with servicing such a broad population got in the way of providing the individualized care that each of our veterans deserves.

The VA health care system relies on a dated electronic health record system that has been patched with periodic updates over the years but never modernized. Though every veteran in the VA is enrolled under a common system, their records are siloed under the particular VA hospital to which they are assigned. This means that when a veteran moves into a different VA health care system, like a different hospital system, or seeks care from a hospital outside their network, their records do not travel along with them without substantial time consuming effort by staff.

In 2018, electronic health records company Cerner acquired a much-needed contract to modernize the health records, which was the first step toward bringing all VA patients onto a combined records sharing system. Oracle Health purchased Cerner in 2022. Though leaders say system upgrades have improved Oracle Health’s record system, today, only six of 170 VA medical centers and 1,193 outpatient sites have migrated to the new system, with 13 new sites set to come online in 2026.

In this time, Oracle Health also fulfilled a contract to provide a new electronic health record to the entire Department of Defense system. The Pentagon and VA system will be fully interoperable by 2031, when the system is expected to be deployed across VA. It will take half a decade before new and existing service members have a single medical record that travels with them from the beginning of their military service, through their transition and beyond.

Until the VA’s records modernization takes place, the additional layers of administrative tasks associated with navigating a clunky, overburdened system diminish the quality of patient interactions with the VA, and they create unwelcome burdens for overtaxed practitioners.

Whenever I saw a veteran patient who was new to our clinic but had a history inside the VA, it became an exercise in sincere frustration. While I worked to establish rapport and understand a patient’s current complications, I also had to log in to a separate computer system to sift through old scans of medical and prescription records in hopes that some bit of historical information might help me understand a new concern.

In some cases, details that could make the difference between vastly different diagnoses were difficult to find in the overwhelming amount of data across multiple platforms. At other times, I could not find the results of recent labs or procedures, which forced me to re-order labs or procedures patients had already completed. This not only adds an extra cost burden on the VA, but increases frustration among veterans looking for answers to their medical concerns.

Most importantly, any time I had to populate important details from old records into a new record system or fill out new prescription requests, it took time away from being present with my patient as they sought my help.

Because the current electronic health records system is not streamlined with the Defense Department’s medical recordkeeping system, it can also be difficult to understand whether a veteran patient might be at risk for some of the complex diagnoses that are commonly associated with our nearly two-decade Global War on Terror, including toxic exposures, traumatic brain injury, operator syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Standardized medical records would save veterans and physicians from replicating unnecessary recordkeeping and smooth the pathway to the important work of healing.

The importance of updating the VA’s dated record system with precision cannot be overstated. Through their selfless service, VA patients earned their right to expect a standardized and excellent level of care across every VA hospital and clinic. For practitioners, having a reliable system that is easy to access and navigate preserves time best spent helping a patient, ensuring that every veteran feels seen, understood and cared for inside the VA’s expansive network.

This also appeared in The Hill.

A debilitating number of people remain steadfastly impervious to the following fact:

Stuff costs money.

I had a great contractor who helped me renovate my first house - a 1930 fishing shack on Maryland’s western shore of the Chesapeake Bay.  He described the art of building thusly:

“Air is free.  If you want to put it inside?  That costs money.”

Because money is required to pay for the cement, wood, dry wall, paint and other materials required to enclose the air.  And for the expertise and labor of the people who do the enclosing. 

Converting outdoor air into indoor air - costs money. 

So too is it with the air we use to wirelessly connect to the Internet.  Floating all around us is what is called wireless spectrum:

“All wireless communications signals travel over the air via radio frequency, aka spectrum. The TV broadcast you watch, the radio program you listen to, the GPS device that helps get you where you're going, and the wireless phone service you use to make phone calls and check Facebook from your smartphone -- all use invisible airwaves to transmit bits of data through the air.”

That spectrum - has always been there.  But now we’re using it for a bunch of really cool stuff - most impressively (to me) for lightening-fast connections to the World Wide Web. 

But converting the air into connections to the Internet - costs money. 

There are a lot of really smart people who devise, design and build the very intricate technologies necessary to make these connections happen. 

(I was honored to have met the woman - who was the first person to figure out how to connect cell phones to the Internet.  For how many trillions of dollars of wealth is her lightning-strike brainstorm responsible?  It boggles the mind.) 

Paying these minds - and for these technologies - costs money.

And how do these companies pay for all of these connection brainstorms?  They charge us for the connections they provide.  Because duh.

Here’s another fact to which a debilitating number of people remain steadfastly impervious:

More stuff costs more money than less stuff costs. 

If you use the Internet more than the guy next to you?  Providing your connection costs more than providing his.  Because duh.

So you should pay more than the guy next to you.  Because duh. 

Except there are LOTS of people who don’t understand this.  And most unfortunately, many of them are in government.  Where they can debilitate all of us with their profound ignorance.

US FCC Investigates Telecom Firms Over Data Cap Policies:

“The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced a formal inquiry into the use of data caps by telecom companies. The investigation aims to assess how these caps impact consumers and market competition, particularly in an increasingly connected world.”

You know how the world is increasingly connected?  Because the very smart people connecting us have been less fettered (but certainly not unfettered) by government idiocies such as this.  

What are data “caps?”  Well for one thing, they aren’t actually caps.  A cap indicates a maximum allowed amount.  Data “caps” - are no such thing. 

Here in Reality, you purchase from your wireless provider a specified amount of digital data.  That’s what these idiots call a “cap.” 

Except you are, of course, able to exceed that amount of data.  Which means it isn’t a “cap.”  What happens when you do?:

“(T)ypically, exceeding a data cap would require the subscriber to pay additional fees.”

You mean…you pay more for using more?  How outrageous.

When you go to the grocery store - you pay more for ten steaks than you do for one.  Because duh.

What the government is looking to do - is eliminate charging more for using more.

This is the government mandating grocery stores allow you to take ten steaks for the price of one.  

Which is a government price control. 

It will cause prices for everyone to go up.  Because the small data users - will have to pay more to subsidize the big data users. 

And Internet connectivity will go down.  Because mandating unlimited use for limited prices - means there will be less money to connect anyone.   

We’ll all get slower Internet - at much higher prices.

All of which is exceedingly obvious to anyone who isn’t an idiot.

Which, most unfortunately, is not LOTS of people in government.

I can’t find the clip anywhere - but I was once on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News Channel show.

Tucker - who is a genuinely good and nice guy - had me on to debate why rich people pay a lower tax rate than poor people. 

Which occurs because rich people don’t pay the higher income tax rate.  Because they set themselves up - to not make any income.  They set up their remuneration - so as to pay the lower capital gains rate.

Tucker wanted to raise the cap gains rate.  I began my response with something like “We can leave this segment arm-in-arm.  By agreeing to lower the income tax rate - to match the cap gains rate.”

I explained that government is a shotgun - not a rifle.  Raising the cap gains rate - would inflict a LOT of non-rich-people collateral damage.  Like tens of millions of retirees cashing out stocks, selling their homes, etc - in order to, you know, live.

Oh: And the cap gains tax - isn’t indexed to inflation.  Which is yet another advantage government gets - from inflating its money.  Beyond just diluting the tens of trillions of dollars of debt they owe?  They get to collect a LOT more on the non-indexed cap gains tax. 

So retirees are paying a cap gains tax - on a house they bought in 1958.  And was priced for 1958 - in 1958 dollars.  $1 in 1958 - is $10.91 today.  An inflated “increase” - of 991.01%.

And don’t get me started on farmers and ranchers.  Who are forced to sell their legacy lands - because they can’t afford the ridiculous property and inheritance taxes.  And when they sell - they’re banged with the cap gains rate on the multi-generation-inflated sales price. 

Ain’t government great?      

Oh: And there should be no cap gains tax at all.  You paid taxes when you made the money.  That should be your permanent get-out-of-tax-free card - on everything else you do with the leftover money.

Investments are risky.  You risk losing money - for which government gives you nothing.  But if you make money - government bangs you yet again with the cap gains tax.   

Why is the tax code this screwed up and skewed?  Because Globalist billionaires write the tax code. 

Years ago, comedian Dave Chappelle aptly described the Donald Trump phenomenon - by accurately analyzing Trump’s tax policy exchange with Hillary Clinton in the first 2016 presidential debate. 

Chappelle incorrectly, myopically ascribes Trump’s allure to exclusively poor white people (in part for comedic effect, I’d imagine).  But he gets Trump’s gist - including his tax gist - exactly right:

“That first debate.  I’d never seen anything like it.  I’ve never seen a white, male billionaire screaming at the top of his lungs: ‘This whole system is rigged’ he said. 

“And across the stage was a white woman, Hillary Clinton - and Barack Obama.  Sitting over there, looking at (Trump) like: ‘No it’s not.’

“I said: ‘Now wait a minute, bro - it’s what (Trump) said.’  And the moderator said: ‘Mister Trump, if the system is rigged as you suggest - what would be your evidence?’ 

“And you remember what he said, bro?  He said: ‘I know the system is rigged - because I use it.’  I said: ‘<Expletive>.’….No one had ever heard anyone say something that true.

“And then Hillary Clinton tried to punch him in the taxes.  She said: ‘This man doesn’t pay his taxes.’  He shot right back: ‘That makes me smart.’

“And then he said: ‘If you want me to pay my taxes - then change the tax code.  But I know you won’t - because your friends and your donors enjoy the same tax breaks that I do.’

“And with that, my friends - a star was born.  No one had ever seen somebody come from inside of that house - outside, and tell all the commoners: ‘We’re doing everything that you think we are doing inside of that house.’”

Do you think the Globalist billionaires - wringing the very last dollars out of the US’s collapsing empire - will allow even the slightest hiccup in the their ongoing, rolling heist? 

Heavens no….

Another Private Equity Investment on K Street:

“The past few years have seen private equity money pour into D.C.’s array of policy and communications shops as they experience booming demand for their services….

“Monument Advocacy became the latest lobbying and public affairs shop on K Street to cash in on Wall Street’s burgeoning interest in the influence industry, announcing an investment by Boston-based Everlane Equity Partners….

“In (another) of the latest examples, investment giant KKR in August bought out global communications conglomerate WPP to become the majority shareholder in consultancy FGS Global — ramping up its stake in the strategic comms shop a little over a year after its initial investment. (KKR holds a significant stake in Axel Springer, POLITICO’s parent company.)…

“Other government affairs shops that have attracted private equity money over the past couple of years include Firehouse Strategies, Precision Strategies, Subject Matter (now Avoq), Hamilton Place Strategies (now part of Penta), GuidePost Strategies and Bullpen Strategy Group….

“The thirst for acquisitions in the space isn’t limited to private equity, either. Last fall, advertising giant Omnicom snapped up the consulting and public affairs firms FP1 Strategies and PLUS Communications.”

Because when Globalist billionaires go to K Street?  They don’t hire - they acquire.  Why would they rent - when they can so easily afford to buy? 

And as mentioned: The Globalist billionaires also own many of the alleged “news” outlets that are supposed to be providing unbiased coverage of this Globalist billionaire takeover of K Street - and with it DC. 

Why Jeff Bezos Bought The Washington Post

Three guesses - the first two don’t count. 

As Bezos Called for Tax Hikes, Amazon Lobbied to Keep Its Tax Bill Low

And round and round we go - until the entire thing stops spinning. 

This disastrous end to the American empire - is ultimately the fault of the American people.

Whose decades of ignorant indifference - delivered the US its demise. 

You get the government you deserve.  Good and hard. 

Government is nothing if not consistent. 

It is, for example, consistently awful.  At everything our elected officials and unelected bureaucrats try to have it do.

On November 15, 2021, President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan, woefully misnamed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

Contained within that monstrosity - was $42.25 billion for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. 

And even before that, President Joe Biden was on the broadband equity case.  And by that I mean - he put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge:

“May 5, 2021: Vice President Harris Takes on the Effort for Internet Equity:

“'Vice President Harris is now in charge of a push to get better internet across the U.S. Getting this right could have big stakes for her political future.’”

Harris’ political future - is now.  She’s running for a promotion.  So - how’s she doing with our $42.45 billion?

Three months ago, we took a look:

“July 24, 2024: ‘Hundreds of broadband infrastructure builders are now sounding the alarm, writing that the $42 billion plan to expand Internet has been wired to fail.

“'President Biden put VP Harris in charge of this effort back in 2021 and 982 days later (and counting) not 1 person has been connected.’”

That’s an exceedingly awful result.  But that was three months ago.  Perhaps government has subsequently cleaned up its act - and started delivering with our many BEAD billions.

I kid.  I’m a kidder.  This is government - the king of consistency. 

As of September 18, 2024 - the BEAD program had still connected zero people.

Oh: And in November 2021, there were 25 different federal programs with “broadband as a main purpose.”  Because government is also consistent - in its wasteful redundancies. 

Let us review some things the bipartisan bureaucrats - who voted to waste our money on yet another broadband-by-government program - won’t tell you. 

How’s this for ridiculous: Government only counts a hardline, wired connection - as an Internet connection. 

Leave it to government to rigidly insist the most expensive, inflexible and outdated way to connect - is the only way to connect.

Government does this (in part) to “justify” continuing to waste tens of billions per annum on 25+ different broadband programs.  

By claiming many tens of millions of people who are actually connected - are “unconnected.”

Does no one in government have a cell phone?  Have they never heard of satellite Internet?  

Let us examine the connectivity of these alternate connections, shall we?

Video is currently the most bandwidth-intensive thing most people do on the Web. 

And you’ve been seamlessly streaming video on your cellular smart phone - for about a decade now.

But government doesn’t count a cellular connection - as a connection.

Elon Musk used his Starlink satellite Internet to connect a remote Amazon jungle tribe.  The video streamed so seamlessly - the tribe became addicted to porn.   

But government doesn’t count a satellite connection - as a connection.

Non-wired connections are so good?  They allowed then-President Barack Obama to praise himself for having connected 98% of Americans - in 2015.

Because back then, Obama was rightly counting all connections…:

“President Obama announced that we've reached our major broadband connectivity goal - 98 percent of Americans nationwide are now connected to high-speed wireless Internet, surpassing any point in history.

“President Obama…set the ambitious goal of providing 4G mobile broadband to at least 98 percent of Americans.”

If cellular was a “high-speed wireless Internet” connection a decade ago?  It is certainly an even better connection now - after a decade of MASSIVE speed and traffic-control improvements.

The average US cellular speed in 2016 - was 11.14 Mbps.  In 2023 - it was 27.06 Mbps.  Or more than double - from when Obama was heralding it as a high-speed connection.

And satellite Internet was barely a thing in 2015.  Now - it’s a real-deal alternative.  Ask Musk - or the Amazon tribe he hooked up. 

But government - post-Obama - decided to stop counting either cellular or satellite as a connection. 

Because government wanted to continue wasting hundreds of billions of dollars - on dozens of programs we haven’t needed in at least a decade. 

And, in fact, we actually didn’t need any of them at all - ever. 

Because all of the aforementioned connection successes?

Were delivered by the private sector. 

Despite - not because of - the government.

Because, as we know, government is consistently awful. 

Yet again, my Wallet Rule:

“You go out on Friday night with your wallet. You go out the following Friday night with my wallet. On which Friday night are you going to have more fun?

“Obviously you will have more fun with my wallet - because at the end of the evening you care what your wallet looks like. My wallet? You don’t care quite so much.

“Well, government is always using other peoples’ wallets.  And the Friday night never, ever ends.”

The federal government spent in 2023 - $6.2 trillion.  And violated the Wallet Rule with every last cent of it. 

Tp put the monstrous federal government spending in perspective?  The entire US economy in 2023 - was $27.36 trillion. 

The Feds spent 22.66% of EVERYTHING every man, woman and child combined made last year.

Oh: And it added $1.7 trillion to the total federal debt - to do it.

When you’re this far over your spending skis?  There are trillions of reasons why. 

Here’s one: If you're, say, buying a car for someone?  It doesn’t have to be a Rolls Royce.  A Chevy will get them to and from work right nicely. 

Well, government insists on being in the Internet connection welfare business. 

Despite the fact that the government is AWFUL at it. 

Kamala 'Broadband Czar' Update: Still Zero People Connected by $42+ Bil Gov Program

Despite the fact that 98+% of Americans have had high speed connections to the Internet - since 2015.

And the government - is buying Rolls Royce connections for pretty much everyone.  And not only is their connection choice the most expensive option - it is the least practical option:

“East Texas Council of Governments leaders are moving ahead with a multi-year plan to expand broadband internet access throughout the region.…

“The agency’s leaders are seeking almost $168.5 million in funding to install new fiber-optic internet infrastructure in counties throughout the region….”

Fiber-optic is ridiculously expensive - and difficult - to install:

“The process of laying fiber optic cables requires meticulous handling, mainly when cables are buried underground. Care must be taken during cable pulling to avoid sharp bends that could damage the fiber, especially with loose tube cables….

“Before any physical work begins, it’s crucial to design the network layout. This stage involves determining where the fiber optic cable will enter the system, calculating the cable’s minimum bend radius to avoid damage, and planning the path of the cable pull.

“Using the right pulling equipment is essential to manage the delicate nature of fiber cables.

“The trenching process for laying underground cable involves excavating a path for the conduit to house the fiber cable. Techniques vary based on soil type [1] and the depth required, with particular attention to avoid disturbing existing underground utilities like the power cable.

“Conduits are laid to protect the fiber optic cables after trenching. Conduits must be robust enough to protect the cables from environmental factors and potential physical damage.”

You can read on and on about what a giant pain in the posterior fiber-optic is.

And here’s where it gets REALLY stupid. 

You have to dig trenches and lay fiber cable - to pretty much everyone’s front door to connect them. 

And in rural areas - like the fifteen east Texas counties about to embark on this idiocy?  This is the ABSOLUTE STUPIDEST way to connect these people.

Marion County is one of the east Texas counties included in this fiber plan.  The 2020 census has its population - at 9,725 people.  The county is 380.9 square miles in area. 

That is 25.5 people - per square mile.  There is NO ONE living there, statistically speaking.   

The state of Texas is larger than France - with 268,597 square miles.  And many tens of thousands of its square miles consist of…absolutely nothing. 

And its population per - is 105.2 people.  Or more than four times that of Marion County.

And let’s say the $168.5 million is being spent equally amongst the fifteen counties.  That means $11.23 million will be spent digging up Marion County.  To connect…pretty much no one at all. 

And then someone will have to pay their monthly connection bills.  Is that going to be We the Taxpayers - yet again?    

There are some far-less-idiotic ways to connect rural America. 

In fact, as mentioned, America already connected everyone - way back in 2015. 

You’re all familiar with cellular phone service, yes?  The Barack Obama Administration certainly was - when it was bragging about it connecting everyone to the Internet a decade ago:

“President Obama…set the ambitious goal of providing 4G mobile broadband to at least 98 percent of Americans….

“President Obama announced that we've reached our major broadband connectivity goal -- 98 percent of Americans nationwide are now connected to high-speed wireless Internet, surpassing any point in history….”

And that was 4G.  We’re now implementing 5G.  Which is orders-of-magnitude faster than the 4G that connected 98+% of Americans a decade ago.

In 2023, the average cellular connection was 27.06 Mbps.  Which is plenty fast for everything nigh everyone does on the Internet.   

And everyone in east Texas already has access to the networks.  Because they’ve had access to the networks for a decade-plus.   

No $168.5 million of our money need be wasted - digging trenches and laying cables.

Except its government. 

So of course the money will be wasted.

Because that’s what government does.