GOP wants to cut $30 billion from veterans spending
“The Republican Party is always looking to ‘thank Veterans for their service’ but when it comes time to put your money where your mouth is this is what they do,” tweets Rep. Eric Ager, one of our local Democratic state House members. “So many veterans in NC like me rely on the VA for healthcare and this won’t help.”
This is what the GOP wants to do to those veterans. Democrats Rep. Mark A. Takano (Calif.), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) and Rep. Chris Deluzio (Pa.) write at Military Times:
Thirty million fewer healthcare visits. Fewer staff, increased claims backlog, longer wait times for benefits. Almost a $30 billion shortfall for veterans funding. That’s the uncertainty that awaits America’s veterans, should Congressional Republicans succeed in dramatically slashing federal spending as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy proposed on April 19.
Last Congress, we honored our promise to toxic-exposed veterans by providing benefits and care to approximately three million veterans exposed to toxins, including burn pits. However, this achievement is meaningless if the funding to implement it is gutted. Republicans have promised to reduce funding to fiscal year 2022 levels —which risks a 22% decrease in resources for veterans’ care and benefits. And many of them are calling for even deeper cuts.
Cutting care and services by nearly a quarter is a disservice to the men and women who have served this country, and befuddling given how often Republicans wrap themselves in the flag and embrace the veteran community.
Here’s what House Republican’s proposed cuts would mean for veterans — reduced veterans’ access to care, fewer staff to process claims, longer wait times for benefits, less support for national cemeteries, weakened VA cybersecurity and telehealth services, and a further deteriorated VA infrastructure. VA Secretary McDonough says the cuts could mean a potential reduction of 30 million healthcare visit for veterans and the loss of over 81,000 VA employees providing benefits to veterans.
This news is guaranteed to land with a thud in veterans’ communities nationwide. As members of Congress who sit on committees with jurisdiction over veterans issues, we hear from veterans, and the organizations that advocate on their behalf every day. We encourage our House Republican colleagues to ask our country’s 19 million veterans whether they think slashing investments in their well-being makes sense. Our guess is they won’t like the answer.
There’s a saying, “either put up or…” It’s time for Republicans to put their money where their mouth is, and demonstrate their commitment to America’s veterans by producing a budget that honors those who served, lest they allow veterans’ healthcare and benefits to be held hostage by the extreme wing of their party.
Veterans’ care and benefits are sacred promises we pay to our veterans as part of the cost of war and in acknowledgment of their sacrifice. We owe it to our nation’s veterans to honorably recognize their service — not subject them to political hijinks with potentially disastrous consequences.
“This is what they do”
How many times have we seen this movie? Plenty, in Ager’s view. “This is what they do.”
Robert Reich wrote in 2020:
But now Trump and Senate Republicans are repeating history. In 2016, when Trump was asked about the debt, he claimed “We pay it back so easily.” Then he blew up the debt by passing a giant tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.
So even though Trump inherited the longest economic expansion in history, he increased the ratio of debt to GDP to over 105 percent. And Republicans have reverted to the same, old playbook – threatening to cut Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare because, they say, “we can’t afford” these programs.
Time and again, Republicans scream about the national debt when a Democrat is in the White House, cleaning up the mess they caused. But when there’s a Republican administration, they couldn’t care less about the debt. When Mitch McConnell was asked about soaring debt and deficits his response was, “It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem.”
Neither are veterans. Let one know every chance you get.