As a disabled veteran, I’ve entrusted my life to the Division of Veterans Affairs (VA) since 1999. When an ovarian cyst ruptured, the VA was there. When my service-connected migraines made each day life insufferable, the VA was there. And after I suffered a stroke in 2019, the VA was there, managing my care, making certain I had entry to rehabilitation, and actually serving to me get again on my toes.
Now the Trump administration, with the complete backing of the brand new VA Secretary Doug Collins, is planning to slash 83,000 jobs from the VA again to ranges seen in 2019—stripping the very basis of the care that veterans like me, and tens of millions of others, depend on. This isn’t simply reckless; it’s a betrayal of each veteran who served this nation.
The VA’s mission, as enshrined in 2023, is “to meet President Lincoln’s promise to care for individuals who have served in our nation’s navy and for his or her households, caregivers, and survivors.” Slicing these jobs spits within the face of that promise. It’s a violation of those that defended our nation—on a service that so many individuals depend on.
The numbers don’t lie. In 2021, 52% of veterans relied on not less than one VA profit or service, and 6.2 million veterans used VA healthcare. And because the passing of the PACT Act in August 2022, almost 740,000 new veterans have enrolled in VA’s advantages, together with over 333,000 from the PACT Act inhabitants—veterans of Vietnam, the Gulf Battle, and the Put up-9/11 conflicts. In simply over two years because the PACT Act was enacted, the VA has supplied vital well being care and advantages to tens of millions of veterans and survivors affected by poisonous publicity.
The truth is, the demand for VA healthcare will not be lowering; It’s rising at an unprecedented price. For this reason chopping VA staffing to 2019 ranges shall be catastrophic. Since 2019, the veteran inhabitants looking for care has grown, with extra veterans ageing into the system and requiring specialised therapy for combat-related accidents, PTSD, and poisonous publicity diseases. Rolling again to pre-pandemic staffing ranges ignores these realities and units veterans up for longer wait occasions, diminished specialised care, and life-saving therapies will doubtless skyrocket. Veterans will undergo, and a few of us will die ready for care that they had been promised. This isn’t simply coverage—it’s negligence, plain and easy.
However the betrayal doesn’t cease there. 1000’s of veterans work for the VA, devoted to serving their fellow service members. These job cuts is not going to solely damage veterans who want care, but in addition those that have made it their mission to take care of others. The VA was constructed to assist those that have sacrificed for this nation—why is that this administration turning its again on us?
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I’m not simply involved for myself—I’m terrified for our senior veterans, these with extreme fight accidents, survivors of navy sexual trauma (MST), and people battling PTSD. They may bear the brunt of this merciless choice. As veterans already face alarming suicide charges—in response to a 2024 VA report, an estimated 17 veterans die by suicide day by day. Slicing off vital assist will solely worsen this disaster, leaving our most susceptible with out the care they desperately want and deserve.
After we abandon our veterans, we abandon the very values this nation claims to uphold—obligation, honor, and dedication. This isn’t nearly coverage; it’s about individuals—those that have risked every part in service to this nation, solely to be solid apart once they need assistance probably the most. If we let this occur, we aren’t simply failing veterans; we’re failing as a nation. The price of inaction is measured in lives misplaced, in households shattered, and within the erosion of belief between those that serve and the nation they swore to guard. We can’t name ourselves a nation that helps its troops if we flip our backs on them the second they want us most.
If these cuts occur, what number of veterans will undergo? What number of shall be misplaced? Think about that greater than one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been identified with PTSD, and that quantity is taken into account too low as a result of it solely accounts for veterans who search help by means of the VA. There are additionally a whole lot of 1000’s of Vietnam veterans and veterans of different conflicts with PTSD, TBI, and MST.
We’re not preventing this battle alone. Organizations like Frequent Protection, Indivisible, and VoteVets are main the cost, mobilizing veterans and allies to push again towards these harmful cuts. These teams perceive that defending veterans’ rights will not be about politics—it’s about holding a sacred promise to those that served. Their work proves that we are able to and should take motion to cease this betrayal.
We fought for this nation, and now we should struggle once more—not with weapons, however with our voices. We should demand that the VA and the Trump administration honor their obligation to us. We should name, write, and attend city corridor conferences hosted by our representatives and allow them to know we are going to maintain them accountable. We should be part of with advocacy teams preventing to guard VA sources and veterans’ rights. We can’t and won’t be ignored, forgotten, marginalized, and betrayed. As a result of slashing VA jobs is not only a coverage failure; it’s a betrayal of the oath we took to serve and defend this nation.
