Linda J. Bilmes

Professor of public policy, Harvard University

Will Shafroth

President and CEO, National Park Foundation

Robust public–private partnership is critical to the future of the national parks.

&quot;Americans place a value of $92 billion on the national parks and National Park Service programs -- more than 30 times the amount the government currently appropriates.&quot; (Vashishtha Jogi/Unsplash)

The parks belong to all of us, and we all share the responsibility of supporting them.

A Centennial — And Uncertain Future — For America's National Parks

Linda J. Bilmes and Will Shaforth write that climate change, growing tourism, decaying infrastructure and declining federal support all jeopardize their future. (Cam Adams/Unsplash)

BILMES, Linda Natl Parks BANNER

Environment

Opinion

Despite much effort, money and goodwill, the U.S. has no serious strategy for tackling the full range of challenges that veterans and their families are facing.

The question is whether we can expect the federal government to fix all the problems by itself.

A Call For A National Strategy On Veterans

Linda J. Bilmes: Despite much effort, money and goodwill, the U.S. has no serious strategy for tackling the full range of challenges that veterans and their families are facing. Pictured: Sue Lippert, center left, and her granddaughter, hold signs thanking veterans as members of the U.S. Coast Guard march by in the Pittsburgh Veterans Day parade on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014, in Pittsburgh. (Keith Srakocic/AP)

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Life

Politics

policy

The VA was set up to serve a military that was pre-Internet, pre-antibiotics, pre-all-volunteer armed forces. It was an era when far fewer soldiers survived their battlefield injuries.

Scandal Over Medical Care For Veterans

...it makes no sense to require each veteran to go through the VA’s protracted and expensive [claims] process. Instead, discharging service men and women should be required to undergo an "exit" medical examination that is the mirror image of the extensive medical examination he or she receives on enlistment.

...if veterans can’t obtain timely treatment at a VA facility, the VA should reimburse them for medical treatment outside the system.

Yesterday's VA Is Serving Today's Veterans. Therein Lies The Problem.

The Department of Veterans Affairs was designed to care for veterans of another era's wars. Pictured: Three statues portraying a wounded soldier being helped, on the grounds of the Minneapolis VA Hospital, Monday, June 9, 2014. An audit of 731 VA hospitals and clinics found that a 14-day goal for seeing first-time patients was unattainable given increasing demand for health care. (Jim Mone/AP)