Blumenthal: Cut waste, but don’t destroy VA and DOD

There's no question that there's waste in the VA

There's waste in the Pentagon. We need to reduce it wherever we can

It takes careful, thoughtful ysis of specific areas of activity. Can we order scalpels at a lower price

Can we purchase medical equipment or do construction at lower costs? Are there areas where we have too many people

But to say we are cutting 83,000 people and we don't know where or we won't tell you where, that's the wrong approach

That is using the chainsaw. That's the Elon Musk approach, which is applying an algorithm

rather than personal, individual, thoughtful, calibrated, and well-calculated cuts. The commander of the BFW came before our committee and he said you know when I was wounded shrapnel in my arm surgeon took a scalpel He didn use a chainsaw And that the approach that we should be using

in all of government, the DOD, as well as the VA. So cooperation, compromise, absolutely

on legislation and also on eliminating waste. Reform is necessary. I am encouraging

the kind of disruptive approach. We need people ready to innovate and break the old molds and

think anew. That's what a new administration does. But if you're going to remodel your house

let's say your living room you want a new bathroom or kitchen you don't burn down the house and then

rebuild the whole house you can approach each room individually and more cost effectively

than just burning down the house so I think it's a it's a matter of how to approach it

not whether to do it