Am I (and others) supposed to feel relieved? Grateful? VA Secretary Doug Collins now says instead of cutting 80 THOUSAND people from the VA Healthcare system it will be ‘Only 30k’ by the end of this fiscal year. (That’s Sept. 30) He claims it won’t affect the quality of care, and even that things will improve. I call bullshit and I can guarantee you plenty of Veterans will be doing so in the days and weeks to come.
Full disclosure upfront. I get my healthcare from the Veteran’s Administration. I’m a senior citizen and can say in over two decades of care from VA Medical Centers in two states it’s as good or better than anything I got in the private sector. Could it be even better? Of course, but conservatives have furiously fought to keep the system from EVER being properly and fully funded. Too many people don’t know that, or if they do really think about it. So, bearing that in mind you’d be correct to assume I was shocked and angered when Trumpty 2.0 came in, put the rabidly ANTI-VA Doug Collins in charge, and he announced intentions to cut 80k jobs from the VA Healthcare system. And it DID affect me personally as a much needed service was denied to me after DOGE helped Collins get the ball rolling.
The thing is, while we know Trump has NO respect for either our active duty troops or Veterans and only sees us as props for his photo ops when he’s in the mood to cosplay tough guy there’s an awful lot of us. One consequence of Baby Bush’s War On Terror was a couple of decades of deployments to hostile places. Lots of people signed up after 9/11. Nothing like after Pearl Harbor but still people signed up. And like I said it seemed like our troops being deployed in significant numbers to war zones would never end.
That means there are a lot more of us than there would have (or should have) been. And we are past the old days when Veterans only had the VFW and American Legion to advocate for them. I don’t have much use for either group and here’s why. Imagine if a DEMOCRAT was President and tried to do what Trumpty (using Collins) is doing. They’d be out there both at public events and giving interviews to any news host who wanted to talk to them expressing OUTRAGE! Anyone who ever even thought something positive about such a Democratic President, or any Democrat would be branded as “unpatriotic” and worse! Yet the response from both these once respected and powerful groups has been… weak. At best.
However we now live in an age where there are other groups, and those groups can harness the internet and social media to raise hell. That includes me, here on Politizoom as I’m the only staff writer who’s also a Veteran. There’s plenty to be pissed about today, despite this article from The Hill with its headline about a ‘dramatic’ reduction in the planned cuts to the VA. Remember what I said earlier. The system has never, ever been fully funded because conservatives want the whole thing privatized. When you account for that cutting 30k jobs, especially in such a short time is like cutting off a hand. With no means of tourniquet to control the bleeding.
Yes, Collins (as well as Trumpty and others) were surprised at the blowback. His claim (noted in the linked article) about the agency being “bloated” was recognized for the pure bullshit it was. Don’t think for one second the effort to GUT the VA won’t continue, but the administration needed an off-ramp. Given the massive unpopularity of what the GOP did last week by giving Trumpty his 4th of July wish the last thing they need, especially with them using active duty troops for local law enforcement was the headache of perhaps even the VFW and Legion finally joining in and blasting them over drastic cuts to the VA. So Collins is settling:
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has abandoned plans to cut more than 80,000 employees, scaling back that number to just under 30,000 after a massive outcry from veterans, advocate groups and lawmakers and an exodus of individuals from the agency.
In a Monday news release, the VA said it was on pace to reduce its total staff by nearly 30,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year due to “the federal hiring freeze, deferred resignations, retirements and normal attrition.”
But Blumenthal, in a statement released Monday, warned that even as the VA abandons “its disastrous plan to fire 83,000 more employees,” its announcement makes clear it “is bleeding employees across the board at an unsustainable rate because of the toxic work environment created by this Administration and DOGE’s slash and trash policies,” referring to the Department of Government Efficiency.
He stressed that the staffers who have left “is not ‘natural’ attrition, it is not strategic, and it will inevitably impact veterans’ care and benefits—no matter what blanket assurances the VA Secretary hides behind.”
**********************************
We thank all of you who have donated. You’re keeping this blog on the internet, believe me. One of the battles we fight is the inconstancy of ad revenue because politics in this country is so polarized and a lot of advertisers just seek to avoid the political. They’d rather advertise on food blogs and be safe, doughnuts before democracy. All we’re trying to do is stay in business because we believe the work is important. Thank you if you can assist. If we didn’t need it, we wouldn’t be asking. Ursula
It’s the republican way.
Complain government is broken.
Break it, so it is, by under-funding and under-resourcing it.
Privatize, sell it to their rich friends, to run it even worse but cost more.
Profit personally at everyone else’s expense.