Here's another idea: Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Nicholson and former VA Chief of Staff Thomas Bowman, writing in The Washington Post, suggest that the VA speed things up by making a presumption of disability. For example, if a vet claims compensation for five conditions, and it's clear that at least one of them was service-related, grant him a temporary rating of, say, 30-percent disability until the rest can be adjudicated. This would provide some benefits, at least. They also suggest that the VA operate like the IRS--presume claims are correct, just as the tax man "grants" that those 1040s have been filled out correctly. (Audits to follow.)

The VA has never been known as a swift and efficient, much less creative, operation, but America's veterans deserve better than they're getting. On Veterans Day, President Obama said, "[N]o one who fights for this country overseas should ever have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the care they have earned when they come home." Nor should they have to wait for what seems like forever for benefits prescribed by law.