DOGE puts dollars over veterans
I recall a time when the GOP posed as the staunch defenders of America’s military, including military veterans. But Republicans have stopped saluting veterans and save their salutes for tax cuts.
“The Veterans Affairs Department is planning to lay off tens of thousands of employees throughout its organization later this year, according to an internal memorandum distributed to top staff on Tuesday.
“VA will soon kick off a departmentwide review of its mission, organization and structure, according to the memo, which was obtained by Government Executive. It will work in partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency to create a workforce optimization plan, VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek said in the document. Syrek said VA will “move aggressively” to implement its plans that reduce management and bureaucracy, cut the department’s footprint and “increase workforce efficiency.”
The only “efficiency” DOGE is interested in is efficiently gutting government and efficiently cutting taxes for the 1% and corporations. America’s veterans are just collateral damage.
DOGE is gutting the VA
I spent over two years at Camp Lejeune minus the nine months I was stationed in Cuba with 8th Marines. When you go and take a shower or drink water on a military base, you expect it to be potable or drinkable. Unless you go to the Commissary to get drinking water (which I do not recall seeing) or drink soda or exist on beer, you are sh*t out of luck. We were captive to a water supply which was tainted with various chemicals.
It wasn’t that the Marine Corps did not like me. I was a Sergeant E-5 at 2 years and three months. I wasn’t a “grunt” as they called them or classified as an 0311. I was a 2800 classification with a clearance. I was well liked even though I was disagreeable in many instances.
I kind of wonder what the hell happened to Corporal Vance (you know the Vice President?). After 4 years and being in an area of conflict giving tours to visitors, he left the Corps as a Corporal(?). My nephew who also served in the Corps made Sergeant at three years. That is another story. We still talk from time to time.
If you were at Camp Lejeune for any length of time you may have drunk the water or showered in it. It was impossible not to do so. As a result, many of us are paying a price today of being inflicted with some type of cancer or disorder which is life threatening. A lot depends on what it impacts. For example, it could impact your bone marrow which could result in a cancer or low platelets and red blood cells.
When platelets disappear, you become a bleeder. More than likely you will be hospitalized for weeks until they give you a drug which works to stabilize you. There are many of us who have some type of disorder or cancer. Congress did pass the Pact Act which allows for those who were at Lejeune to receive care for free.
For years, many veterans did not have such care available to them. The military denied any type of responsibility for the water contamination. This carried over into the VA.
Many of us have already died if they were in the Corps in the sixties or seventies having been stationed at Lejeune for 30 days or more. The VA will treat you and will resist taking any type of responsibility for the results of the contamination. Many are in their late sixties and mid-seventies now. If you wait long enough, the problem goes away. Another solution . . .
The VA has helped many veterans. There is no denying such. There is always excuses for not doing something. Awww, you got that somewhere else, etc.
I do hope Congress is smart enough to disallow any cutbacks on the VA. It does not have enough of the resources now to care for veterans.
Phillip Longman called the VA the, “Best Care Anywhere.” This came after many years of have issue with its care much of which was due to resource, politics, scandals, etc. There is still a need for good Veteran Care in the US due to the conflicts we are involved in and the exposure to containments.
You would imagine that being in favor of government services for our veterans would be a non-partisan matter, but it hasn’t been so for a while now. We seem to have moved even farther back than we were in 1932 with troops firing at the Bonus Army.