Construction of the new Army medical center at Fort Bliss in El Paso is almost two years behind schedule and could be more than $100 million over budget before it’s completed.
Two years is an awfully long time for our nation’s heroes to wait for new hospital beds. And Donald Trump’s tax returns notwithstanding, $100 million is still an awful lot of taxpayer cabbage.
One might argue that at least the William Beaumont Army Medical Center is no Aurora, Colorado, Veterans Affairs hospital, still unfinished, with the meter running on more than $1 billion in cost overruns and years past its estimated original completion date.
Still, the troubles at Fort Bliss should come as no surprise. A check on the past two military hospital projects — in Killeen and San Antonio — shows the same budget bloat and dilatory scheduling.
It’s almost impossible to find a hospital project overseen by the federal government anywhere in the country that has come close to meeting its original budget and completion date.
“It’s a pattern of getting away with these cost overruns over and over and over,” said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.
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