VA Secretary Doug Collins has chosen to throw the dedicated workers who provide health care to our nations veterans not ‘under the bus’ but under the treads of a tank to be ground up. ‘Little’ Marco Rubio stuck up for his people at State. Kristi Noem, notorious shooter of energetic puppies stood up for her people at DHS. Even Kash Patel, KASH PATEL stuck up for his people at the FBI telling Musk where to stick his insulting email to all federal employees. Not Doug Collins. How big a pile of noxious sh!t IS Collins that even Patel showed more guts than he’s done? Let’s face it, even if someone could legitimately reply to Musk that last week they’d cured cancer, cured COVID, cured bird flu, cured Alzheimers, AND created a nerve regeneration treatment that would restore full physical function to para and quadriplegics it wouldn’t be enough. Musk would fire them for not inventing mortality. At least for people uber-rich enough to afford the treatment!
Conservatives have long dreamed of killing off the VA, in particular the Health Care system. They want VA Healthare PRIVATIZED. They flat-out HATE the system which despite some well publicized issues a few years back year-after-year enjoys overall high approval ratings from those of us who utilize the VA Healthcare System. It is true Socialized Medicine and more importantly has built up over so many decades specialized knowledge of certain issues particular to Veterans ranging from physical care to mental health. There is NO private health care system with anywhere near the institutional knowledge the VA has when it comes to treatment of Veterans.
New VA Secretary Doug Collins has long advocated doing away with the VA. So, it makes sense he’d be appointed to run it – into the ground. Now Musk’s infamous email over the weekend gives him a shot at wholesale firings. Or so he thinks. The Courts might have something to say about that and given the backlash that’s building perhaps Musk will back off a bit at least for the time being. However the turmoil that Musk created got kicked into overdrive when Collins pointedly refused to follow the heads of other major agencies and tell Musk to get stuffed. Nope. HE said ‘comply’ and instead of an understaffed agency’s workers trying to serve the needs of Veteran’s they’re spending their day trying to come up with why they shouldn’t be fired!
This is deeply personal for me. I have serious health care issues and rely on the VA for my health care. Yes, since I’m a senior citizen now I qualify for Medicare but the co-pays are notably higher and frankly I wouldn’t be able to afford medications and doctors visits, much less another hospitalization or ER visit if forced into Medicare coverage. I’d become homeless (if not already – Musk hasn’t gone after HUD yet but he will and when he does I have grave concerns my housing subsidy will be renewed this summer) and probably dead within a year. So hell yes it’s personal!
However, as this article from HuffPost tells us Collins is rolling over for Musk and DOGE. Unlike the FBI, State Dept., DHS and I hope others he’s rubbing his hands in glee. This is as I said something conservatives have long wanted, an excuse to just shut down the whole VA healthcare system. Collins went so far as to make it official:
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has advised employees to respond to the Office of Personnel Management’s insulting email to the federal workforce titled “What did you do last week?”
“I am informing you that the email is valid,” Chris Syrek, the VA’s new chief of staff, told agency workers in a Sunday night message viewed by HuffPost. (The bold was Syrek’s.)
He added, “In responding to the email, please do not send any classified, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), or personally identifiable information, links or attachments.”
I have two P.O.S. Republican Senators as I live in North Carolina. Ted Budd seems to go out of his way to avoid taking constituent calls, not that I don’t try. Thom Tillis who’s been in office longer used to be reachable. Usually, even in his DC office a staffer would pick up the phone and discuss an issue. The past few weeks it’s straight to voicemail. That suggests to me he’s getting an earful and not just from Democrats like me. So Tillis too is in ‘Try to ignore them and hope it all blows over’ mode when it comes to the confirmation votes he’s made, and Trump’s and Musk’s antics.
Still, I delivered my message. Which was to get to the damned floor of the Senate and give one of those ‘floor speeches’ Congress Critters do when they want to make a point. To call out both Musk and Collins on this ‘Give me five things you accomplished last week by midnight Monday or get fired’ email. EVERY Senator and Representative should give essentially the same floor speech, with the ‘Reply’ to Musk’s insulting demand:
- Monday – I served the needs of our nation’s Veterans
- Tuesday – I served the needs of our nation’s Veterans
- Wednesday – I served the needs of our nation’s Veterans
- Thursday – I served the needs of our nation’s Veterans
- Friday – I served the needs of our nation’s Veterans
Going into details of specific cases would violate federal laws including HIPPA.
THAT should be the response to Musk and Doug f**king Collins should be cc’d in the reply!
Contact your own Senators and Representatives and suggest they go to the floor and give one of those one-minute floor speeches using what I outlined above as their template.
Now it’s time to call my Representative’s office. Deborah Ross at least is a Democrat. Our own side at least should be raising hell.
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why would the military engage in war overseas then come back home to no healthcare or resources from the VA? All of this 💩 Elon, Trump & Congress will collapse on to themselves.
Ever since it was apparent back in 2016 Trump would be the GOP nominee I haven’t been the same. Or thought about my country the same. What the hell happened that someone like that would get actual consideration to be President from a major political Party? Much less nominated and into the WH, and not just once but twice now. I’m in my late sixties now and growing up I saw both the best and worst of this country. But for all it’s flaws I believed in it, that regardless of how best to improve it and provide opportunity to all most people on both sides of the political divide had the interests of our country and freedom at heart. And as a student of history, even living through those tumultuous times and subsequent ones I saw us inching, if too slowly towards the goal of becoming ‘A more perfect union.’
Until Trump. I’ve talked about my dad and those scars he suffered on a bombing mission over Europe in WWII (and all the subsequent surgeries) and how he worked so assidiously to keep them hidden even from his own view. I know how he’d feel. He actually saw the rise of Reagan before it happened and laid out how things would swing back and forth and wind up where we are. And his statement that ended the conversation, that I’d live out my life under a different form of government made my blood run cold. Seeing it happening and trying to fight it actually becoming so (And we are WAY too close) still does.
I was twenty-six before I joined the Marines. But being a small town kid I guess the influence of all those I knew who’d served in WWII and even some old-timers who’d served in WWI instilled something in me. So despite being past the age where most sign up, and even when post ‘Vietnam Syndrove/Fatigue’ was at its highest I felt a duty to serve. It wasn’t admired or cool to be in the armed forces back in the 1980s either. Those of us who served then aren’t forgotten like those who fought in Korea wound up being (a true national disgrace) but we were pretty much ignored in the wake of Desert Storm and of course after 9/11. Still, until the rise of Trump I was proud to have served. Even if the time frame I was on active duty didn’t count for much – either with the public or in extra consideration for federal jobs. Why? I recall seeing the movie The Presidio, and I was married back then. My wife didn’t understand why a certain scene had me sitting there with tears running down my face. I think of it sometimes and found it online, and in the context of this country and its leadership (I use the term both ironically and loosely) seems prescient – at least the first part before he starts talking about the Statue of Liberty which just makes me sad:
I’m an old geezer myself, air force veteran, and the VA in Joplin takes very good care of us down here. I live in a HUD/ VASH subsidized apartment, and we’re all very grateful Uncle Sam takes care of us so we’ll. So yes Denis, we worry about the same things you do! One more thing – a lot of our vets here are marines, I think you jarheads are half-crazy but thank God for the United States Marine Corps! Semper fei.
I grew up just on the other side of the Mississippi. Eight miles from it, and about a 40 minute drive from Cape Girardeau. The town still had 10k people when I left for the Marines but it was starting to die already and is definitely doing so now. Down close to 7k. My sister (two years older) has begged me for years to, if not move back home at least move within driving distance. I know I’m not welcome back there except for a handful of people. It’s pure MAGA now and even has a P.O.S. Trump Seditionist Congress Critter (Mike Bost – I went to school with his older sister) so no way in hell. When I became disabled after transferring to NC I had some back and forth with an old friend from over in Carbondale about perhaps moving to Murray, Kentucky. He and his wife were both professors (he was music, she was dance) at Murray State and could have introduced me into a nice social life. That kind of petered out in part because I didn’t have the money to move.
My sister claims over north of Cape there is a community that’s Veteran heavy but never seemed to get me any details. I suspect she looked into it and found someone with my views would be about as welcome there as back in my hometown which deep down inside she knows wouldn’t welcome me back home. I of course have heard of Joplin. Never had an opinion about it one way or the other. Sounds like it would be a nice place to live although quite a drive to visit home or have her come visit me. A lot less than the Raleigh area though!