Let me lead off by saying this is not about politics or party affiliation. We don’t do that- or religion- here for good reasons- the very least of which is we have more important matters afoot worth discussing regarding our Alma Mater VA. That’s the focus of this website. VA ratings trends. Changes in attack patterns. New pitfalls to avoid. Successful techniques. These are valuable assets to have in your tool pouch when you suddenly realize a brilliant strategy that’s worked for years is suddenly dead in the water. The ability to restrategize is essential in the game of Win or Die. Retreat is not an option.

Secretary Collins is a great choice for VASEC (VA Secretary). He has a lot going for him. He’s photogenic. He’s a Veteran-albeit a Weekend Warrior which sorta counts as 1/4 of a Veteran. He’s a chaplain so he’s a good listener.  He’s got that head bob when he talks like that doggie with the bobbly head you glue down up there on the car dashboard. For some reason, that seems to be a requirement for TV journalists and politicians.

Now about that report card. A lot of my Veteran clients send me links to UTube™ Monday Morning Quarterbacks who do five-minute blurbs that scare the shit out of them. They want to know why I didn’t tell them how to get to 100% in five easy steps or why I didn’t talk about filing for MUCMAs. If you listen to these guys ( who are Veterans), you realize it’s a business proposition. They’re selling memberships for information that was in the newspapers and on last night’s CBS news at 1800 Hrs.  Here’s a few I’ve received.

That’s cool. Everybody has to make a buck. Hell, I’ll even pitch in and buy them a razor. But basically, they’re selling something they’ve done themselves- a one time-example: file for PTSD or tinnitus and win and then advance by going from 30 to 70% TDIU (or 100%) in less than 2 years. None of them suggest you seek professional help and go for SMC where the real benefits are hidden.

Secretary Doug visits a lot of VAMCs and CBOCs and gets lots of press. You’ll note he only visits brand spanking new clinics with state-of-the-art medical devices. You’ll never see him at American Lake VAMC in Lakewood, WA standing in front of a hissing steam radiator next to a 40-year-old blood pressure machine. Mind you. I’m not denigrating Sec. Doug. I’m merely pointing out he spends an inordinate time out gladhanding around our fruited plains instead of at work in DC fixing our problems.

As for progress on VA appeals taking forever and a day, read Wes McCauley’s recent article at UnitedforVets. Turns out they’ve been funnin’ us just like in the old days before the VJRA when we gained judicial access to the Federal Level in ’88. Think this through. Sec. Doug tells everybody at VA what to do. What the hey? That’s his job. Just like it was Denis the Menace’ job before him ad infinatum back to Derwinski, So if the BVA is dogging it -and has been for years- including under our former president from 2020- 2024 and before that, then this isn’t opposing political parties in power pulling the strings back and forth. It speaks volumes to what Congress really thinks about its Veterans. Let them eat cake.

I’ve been sitting in the VA Peanut Gallery now since 1989. I’ve witnessed VHA personnel who “neglected” to tell Veterans they treated day-in and day-out over the years about the deadly, fatal Hepatitis C virus they carried in their bodies. It was right there in their (and my) VA VistA records in black and white. This little shenanigan went on from 1998 until Veteran HCV deaths became rampant in the mid-2000’s.

Sec. Doug is also unfortunately at the beck and call of the President. That might explain why we are in what some characterize as “turbulent times”. From my  37-year perspective, I’d ask when we have not been in turbulent times. Each era of political dominance tugs VA in a different direction. One faction will stress buttressing the existing system with just a little bit more money to patch the cracks. The next opposing party in power might stress the importance of reforming the pathetic paper files system of the Veterans Benefits Administration-the very last Agency to do so…in 2013. But they made VA carve the funds out of their existing budget.

Do I blame Sec. Doug for all Veterans woes? Yes and no. If you feel his heart’s in the right place even if he’s doing more photo ops than Jennifer Lopez every day, then you an optimist. But if you have any moral fiber in you, you wouldn’t work for someone who is intent on pushing the VA medical system toward a more sustainable private model for half the cost. But that’s just one facet of the VA enigma. My two cents is that I wouldn’t take my dog to a VAMC-even if it was free. They tried their damnedest to kill me for 14 months. Vets have to go somewhere but why do we have to drive 75 miles to get to “free medical”?

VA’s problem is Congress. Your representative and my representative are the problem. If they are hell bent to spend our tax dollars measuring how many times a butterfly sneezes a day, I, for one, am going to object. If you want to start a war, or even just a little “conflict” in a far  away country, that’s all well and fine. But Congress needs to set aside funding in advance for the inevitable collateral damage that will accrue like a bad loan at 18% interest for the next 60 years. You can’t pin that on Sec. Doug.

Right now we are in an interesting (and evolving) period of VA medical care. The idiots at Fort Five sides began a new war in 2001- not that they had a choice- before all the Vets of the last War (Vietnam) had passed through the medical system. The same thing occurred earlier back in 1966 when the Vietnam Vets began to overwhelm the system while the Korean War Vets were still over-utilizing the VAMCs . You can’t build your way out of that. The repair order is to sky down and quit being the World’s policeman. I’m not sure if that is in America’s best interests but this is not a discourse on politics.

As I said above, certain procedures or long-accepted jurisprudence is changing. It always does. It’s like Las Vegas. When the House starts losing money at table games, they change the rules or send in the crooked dice. What most Veteran folks, and the Utube VA Quarterbacks don’t get to see, don’t know about, and won’t hear about until it becomes a common practice, is what began about two months ago. Someone in the VA hierarchy had to endorse this chicanery. A Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) couldn’t conjure this up without some heavy duty support from above… and I don’t mean Congress. VA law works very pedantically. Trees grow faster.

The judicial branch (CAVC, CAFC and SC) are still repairing gross violations of law perpetrated on us Veterans from decades and scores of years ago. Each revelation is met with the mea culpas of the guilty. But someone in power had to set the wheel in motion to forbid entitlement to benefit X unless you were born on a Thursday. Barry v. McDonough was not Denis’ fault but he was tasked with defending the indefensible because that was the way they always did it. And he lost.

This is the fight folks like Wes and I enjoy. I question everything in VA law. I refuse to accept it as gospel. That direction leads to Flat Earth Society membership. I’m going to show you all a new trend in VA law. About two months ago, a gal who’s husband I represented was denied two (2) rates for aid and attendance (a&a) for two separate diseases. As all the SMC experts on Utube will be telling you next week after they scrape this article, that leads to SMC O and a kicker up to SMC R1. In Bill’s case, R2 was in order because he died during the fight. They can’t tell you which regulation I am using-§§3.350(h)(1)(3); 3.352(b)(3)- but they can tell you it’s true. That’s good, I guess. At least the word is getting out. They say plagiarism is its own compliment.

But, interestingly, VA raters and the Grand Poohbahs of the GS-13 DRO club over at Yuku© will swear up and down on a stack of M 21s it’s forbidden by law. I’ve always encountered this denial at the local Fort Fumble level. As the VA Coaches  like to say, “That’s what the Board of Appeals is for!”. But what happens when some chowderhead BVA judge gets a bee in her bonnet and says the same thing? Where in hell did that come from? This is when you thank your lucky stars Congress let us into the Big House up at 625 Indiana Ave. NW back in ’88.

Screenshot

This is where people like Wes and me plan to fight back. Many would throw in the towel and begin subscribing to the M 21 dicta. Since I’ve done almost 100 double a&a appeals (or double L appeals where the Vet had an L for loss of use and one for a&a) already with zero denials, Wes began digging into the BVA’s library of SMC and came up with 174 clearcut cases over the years. This establishes that it is permissible. So why all of a sudden did it become pyramiding? Congress didn’t orchestrate it via statute so who’s feeble mind gave birth to this abortion?

BVA SMC 170 two AA grants

Here’s an example I mentioned above.  Bill and Sue were long time friends and part of our original Hepatitis C Veterans Support Group (HCVETS) when we crossed paths in ’08. This was back in the day when there was no cure for hep c. If you were somehow cured via Interferon with Ribavirin, you probably didn’t have any teeth left, had DM II and hypothyroidism and were chugging lactulose like water to piss out all the ammonia in your blood. Your bones looked like Swiss cheese. Your chance of liver cancer was 60%. Your life expectancy was 35 years after you got it from the jetguns, unsanitary dental work or a transfusion from SFWs or GSWs.

redact BVA 10182 filed 8.16.2025

Redact BVA Only one a&a 7.29.2026 (2)

I got Bill up to SMC M in ’14 and he waved off further help. He, like a lot of Vets, was afraid of poking the bear. That is, until he began to die from cancer. I bought him a great IMO from my folks at Mednick Associates and won it at the Board. We went back for the R1 and R2 for the last three months of his life.  And, as I said, we were informed there was a new rule that forbid two a&a ratings. This one is now at the CAVC (26-7077) so we’ll soon see if this can be quashed before it metastasizes into more like it. And yes. I do blame Sec. Doug for allowing this to happen on his watch.

Fighting VA is like a whack-a-mole game at the circus. As soon as you develop a strategy and begin winning at it, along comes a gomer from their dirty tricks department and starts inventing all manner of Thursday Rules on why this isn’t possible. The operable word is “theory”. VA is wrong 74% of the time based solely on CAVC vacate/set aside and reversal statistics. So much for that hokey palokey 98% accuracy they advertise.