In regard to your question, sir, we're very distinctly aware of one thing. Take, for example, how many times I've had to listen to “there's $5 billion of new spending in the budget”, and that just keeps getting flogged back and forth, but when you study it, you realize it's spread over many years. I can do the math.
On top of that, when we don't adjust the goal posts, it doesn't matter what's behind it. If you can't get through that doorway, if you can't get through the goal posts, all you do is increase the size of the pot that's unattainable on the other side, which then gets returned to the national treasury. When you have $5.4 billion or $5.6 billion over five years, that doesn't mean it's going to be delivered to veterans: it means it goes into the pot that is still as unattainable as it was in a previous administration.
I've heard about the culture change that keeps being talked of, so I'll tell you what I said when I was asked this by the department. I told them that one of two things is going to be true here. If you've changed the culture so much that things are being seen in a new light, then all my brothers who have been previously denied should get a new shot. If they've been denied under the previous culture, then they should get another crack if it's different with this new, more liberal culture, for lack of a better term.
That's what we're dealing with here, but the department is silent on that. I asked that in May, and then the senior ADM who said he would answer it at the last stakeholder meeting didn't attend. That's what we're up against here.
Does that answer...?