[RealJustme]

You get the VA.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Department of Veterans Affairs faces a serious numbers problem - multiple, in fact.

It can't count how many veterans died while waiting for health care. It says some VA hospitals may have to close if the agency can't get an additional $2.5 billion. And a year after scandal rocked the department, congressional Republicans want to know why the number of employees fired is so low.

Congress approved a sweeping overhaul of the department in response to headline-grabbing woes, but the VA continues to be plagued by missteps, including an internal report indicating that nearly one-third of veterans with pending applications for VA health care likely have already died. VA officials said they were unable to determine how many veterans died, whether they truly were seeking VA health care or had merely indicated interest in signing up. Thousands of applications were accidently erased leaving the VA with no means to contact those who had applied.

To make matters worse, the VA said this week it may have to shut down some hospitals as soon as next month leaving 10's of thousands of Vets without medical care if Congress does not address a $2.5 billion shortfall for the current budget year.

The VA's request has met with resistance from lawmakers in both parties, who fault officials for failing to act earlier on the impending shortfall or fix other problems, including a failed VA hospital project in Denver that is more than $1 billion over budget.

The VA is a "broken bureaucracy" that "continues to be plagued by a culture of neglect and mismanagement that is denying veterans ... across the United States access to the quality health care that they were promised," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The solution would be that all Federal workers including Congress and the White House have to get their medical care through the VA, watch how fast it would be fixed by turning it over to a private organization.