Ben Carson stated that, “We don’t need a Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs should be folded in under the Department of Defense” in order to reduce the size of the government.

Carson, appearing on the “Dave Ramsey Show” Wednesday, stated there needs to be a support system for soldiers that should assist “a year before their time of discharge to be working on their integration back into society. There shouldn’t be a period of unemployment when they come out of the military.”

Ben Carson: The other thing that has to be done, is the size of the government has to be reduced significantly. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re doing that doesn’t make any sense. We have a Department of Veterans Affairs. We don’t need a Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs should be folded in under the Department of Defense. And it should be a smooth transition. We need to be looking at the way we take care of soldiers. You know, 14% down recruitment for our volunteer army right now. Why, because they are looking at what we are doing to our veterans. When a person applies for the military, they should be in a support system immediately from day one. Particularly when they go through combat because that is when all the trauma is occurring. And we should have people in place a year before their time of discharge to be working on their integration back into society. There shouldn’t be a period of unemployment when they come out of the military. And they should have a health savings account which allows them to go to any medical facility in the country and we should be delighted to take care of them. And we should use our VA facilities for specialized care for traumatic brain injury, limb replacements, and research.

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