President Trump denigrated Senator John McCain for being captured by the North Vietnamese and called soldiers who served in Vietnam suckers and losers. This is the way Trump thinks about those who serve in our military and protect our country. Now this great patriot with his DOGE sidekick is in the process of gutting the Veterans Administration which provides medical and psychological care for our veterans.
Actually, America’s entire health care system is in trouble under the direction of President Trump, Robert Kennedy, Jr, and Elon Musk. They are not only attacking the VA but the National Institute of Health, the CDC and the FDA. And in addition, the Environmental Protection Agency is being neutered, the agency that monitors pollution and its impact on Americans’ health. All of these agencies are vital in keeping Americans healthy, with the NIH, CDC and FDA responsible for developing medical innovations that benefit all Americans. In addition to past discoveries, these agencies fund new research on cancer, cardiovascular and infectious diseases. But aside from these health agencies having their personnel cut, the VA and veteran’s health is particularly affected by the unholy trio mentioned above.
Trump’s axman, Elon Musk, who came to America from South Africa, and has no emotional connections to our veterans, has already fired some 1000 VA employees. But the Trump administration would like to get rid of 80,000 VA personnel, which would absolutely cripple the organization. Even currently, there appears to be a shortage of VA employees, with long waits for medical appointments. At the start of 2025, the VA had a workforce of 473,000 personnel, of which 30 percent were veterans themselves. Apparently, about 40,000 of total personnel were probationary employees.
Musk and DOGE would like to drop VA personnel to under 400,000. According to Rep. Mark Takano, a Democratic Congressman from California and the ranking member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, the cuts to the VA would not just affect health care for veterans. They would cause chaos and impact every aspect of the VA. Benefits would be delayed along with claims processing. Student veterans and their schools would have great difficulty getting the assistance they needed. Physical therapy, mental health services, delayed surgery, transportation services would all be affected.
Veterans are also employed in many different departments of the Federal government in various positions, and we don’t know how many of them would be fired. But Trump and Musk don’t care. We’re only talking about suckers and losers. We have our billionaires and multi-millionaires to think about and we need money so that they can have tax cuts enabling them to take home even more money. This isn’t a government for the people and by the people. It’s a government for the wealthy with billionaires in charge. Isn’t that what Americans want?
We need the VA to be kept whole, with perhaps even more personnel hired. And we need the NIH, CDC and FDA to be fully funded. The health of our veterans and all Americans is more important than providing tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
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Tags: CDC, DOGE, Elon Musk, FDA, firing employees, NIH, President Trump, Robert Kennedy Jr, VA
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020