According to one media report from the VoteVets organization, “The Trump administration is trying to convince the public they’re not doing anything to harm vets, but it’s B.S. Republicans just put services to Veterans on the chopping block. Massive cuts to SNAP — when 1 in 20 Veterans receive SNAP benefits. Massive cuts to Medicaid — when 1 in 4 Veterans qualify for Medicaid. Musk working to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — which fielded 100,000 consumer complaints every month from Veterans and Active Duty. They’re laying off the people protecting our Troops and Veterans from financial scams. Privatization of the VA is their end goal. Always has been.
“And while Trump’s order to freeze funding might have been paused by a federal court, here in the real world there are rampant reports of impacts to the VA, and to Veterans benefits. Clinics shut down for lack of funding, researchers told to stop work, indiscriminate cuts and mass firings. And just two days ago, Trump and Elon gave 1000 VA employees their notice. 1000 VA employees, fired.”
Employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs are worried—Trump policy changes are already being felt by the country’s 9 million Veterans for whom the VA provides lifelong care and benefits.
According to NBC News, nearly a dozen VA employees working in various capacities across the U.S. — from a boiler plant operator in Nebraska to a cancer researcher in the northwest — spoke with NBC News about how the changes have already affected their jobs.
More than half of them used the same word to describe what they’ve experienced: chaos.
“This is unprecedented and it’s a disgrace that will take a swell of people in this country to protest these cuts—these were promises to all veterans. I cannot believe, as I stand here, that Americans will watch our country collapse as Veterans are treated this way,” said Army Veteran Charles Rhoades of Surprise Arizona.
Democratic California Representative Mark Takano said at a rally outside the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., on February 13, “When you come after the VA, you come after veterans. Some politicians who never miss a photo opportunity with veterans are trying to destroy the very system they rely on.”
