I don’t know what is more outrageous:

• the fact that both the VA and DoD have technologically out-of-date and insufficient HIT systems, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars ANNUALLY to support them
• the fact that after nearly a decade of efforts — interoperability between the systems is still a ‘future promise’ instead of an everyday reality
• that politicians (President, Congress) make grand promises, divert lots of attention and money and have absolutely zero accountability to achieve meaningful results

I sympathize with the hard working and well-intentioned folks within the DoD and VA that build and procure their HIT systems — the context and rules within which they operate are screwed up to say the least.     That said, I can’t get myself too excited about the ‘sky is falling’ chorus around the upcoming budget cuts from the ‘sequester’.   This is but one example (of hundreds) where current government spending (I’m sorry “investment”) is not increasing productivity, real GDP or infrastructure for the future.