By Mike Killalea, NSD president
Thanks to Elon Trump, the Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to slash more than 80,000 jobs from the agency that provides health care and other services for millions of veterans, according to an internal memo obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Ironically, 60% of vets voted for Trump, according to AP.
Here are some stories of vets impacted by Elon Trump: https://apnews.com/article/veterans-doge-va-trump-cuts-marines-opinions-370be785e1117ab0d82a58c95c639420
The VA’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top-level officials at the agency Tuesday that it had an objective to cut enough employees to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000. That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees after the VA expanded during the Biden administration, as well as to cover veterans impacted by burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act.
"VA, in partnership with our DOGE leads, will move out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach to identify and eliminate waste, reduce management and bureaucracy, reduce footprint, and increase workforce efficiency," Syrek wrote in the memo, referring to the Elon Musk-led White House office that has, in Musk's words, been taking a "chain saw" to the federal government.
The VA manages a $350 billion-plus budget and oversees nearly 200 medical centers and hospitals. Veterans have shown up at town hall-style meetings with Republican lawmakers to voice their anger, and groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars are mobilizing against cuts.
Ironically, 60% of vets voted for Trump, according to AP.
The PACT Act expands and extends eligibility for VA health care for Veterans with toxic exposures and Veterans of the Vietnam era, Gulf War era, and Post-9/11 era.
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