Norfolk, va. (AP) – Stephen Watson served in the Marines for 22 years and received from the Department of Veteran Affairs because of a traumatic brain injury. He supports President Donald Trump and advisor Elon Musk’s cost reduction program if the VA concerns.
“We are not better because we are veterans,” said Watson, 68, from Jesup, Georgia. “We all have to step back and realize that everyone has to take a little on the chin to control these budget affairs.”
Gregg Bafundo served during the first Gulf War and has nerve damage on his feet when he transports weight as a sea man. He says he may have to contact the VA to take care of the care after being released as a wilderness Ranger and firefighter by the layoffs of the US forest service.
“You will bring people like me and my marines who rely on the VA in the ground,” said Bafundo, 53, who lives in Tonasket, Washington.
The step of the Trump government to end hundreds of VA contracts – after the public outcry – and ongoing layoffs influence the veterans of the nation, a critical and politically influential constituency. More than 9 million veterans receive physical and mental health care from the VA, which is now being examined by the Musk Efficiency of the Ministry of Government.
The VA manages a budget of more than $ 350 billion and monitors almost 200 medical centers and hospitals, many in Republican countries and districts. Veterans have appeared in the town hall style meetings to express their anger and mobilize groups like the veterans of foreign wars.
According to AP VUTECAST, veterans are very likely, a Republican, a Republican, as Vice President Kamala Harris, a democrat, in the presidential election in November in November. Almost 6 out of 10 voters who are veterans supported Trump, while about 4 out of 10 voted for Harris.
Joy Ilem, National Legislative Director of the non -party group disabled American veterans, said that their group had examined how the ongoing cuts could affect care.
“You could lose trust in the veteran population about some of these things that happened and the way they happened,” warned Ilem.
The White House said last week that it would like to reduce VA contracts worth 2 billion US dollars, which would affect cancer treatment to the ability to assess toxic exposure. The department quickly stuck the cuts after concerns about the effects on critical health services.
In the meantime, more than 1,000 VA employees who served less than two years have been rejected last month. According to Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., Da, the researchers who worked on cancer treatment, opioid dependency, prosthetics and fire pit exposure.
VA Secretary Doug Collins said this week that the efforts are concentrated on “finding defects”.
“Everything we do is designed and will not reduce the advantages of the veterans or veterans they deserve,” he said.
In a statement on Tuesday to the Associated Press, the press spokesman for VA, Peter Kasperowicz, said the agency “put veterans in the center of the department”.
“Every dollar that we spend on wasteful contracts, not mission -critical or double activities, is one less dollar that we can spend on veterans, and in view of this choice we will always be on the side of the veteran,” wrote Kasperowicz.
The Republicans pointed out that the VA employees who were released during a first round of layoffs in February were released, such as those who worked for a crisis hotline. During a subsequent round of discharge, the VA has 15 other employees who were in jobs who supported the crisis line, including a trainer for the telephone helpers, according to congress employees who pursue the cuts.
The VA has long confronted demands for reforms
The VA has been plagued for years by allegations of destitute medical care and excessive waiting times. A decade ago, the investigators had widespread problems with how VA hospitals plan to appoint after allegations that up to 40 veterans died while they were waiting for care in the Phoenix Hospital. A group of employees accused the Ministry of referring to potential whistleblower. President Barack Obama, a democrat, finally used a program that enables veterans to go outside the VA system to seek medical care. The selection program was expanded by Trump during his first term.
Richard Lamb, who was shot down twice in Vietnam as a helicopter crew leader in Vietnam, said that the department should be “cut to the bone”.
The 74 -year -old lamb said he broke vertebra every time his helicopter was shot down. For decades, he said before a private doctor – not found the VA – compression fractures and carried out an operation.
“I would be happy to see VA, not torn down, but tidy, tidy up and rebuilt,” said Lamb, who lives in Waco, Texas. “The VA should be a wonderful thing for veterans. It is not. It sucks.”
Daniel Ragsdale Combs, a veteran of the navy with a traumatic brain injury, is very different.
Ragsdale Combs, 45, suffered his injury when he reacted to the order of an aircraft carrier and hit his head over a hatch. He receives group therapy for mental illnesses caused by the injury, however, he has heard that he had heard that these sessions could be canceled or reduced due to lack of personnel.
“I am deeply concerned because the VA was nothing but great for me,” said Ragsdale Combs, who lives in Mesa, Arizona. “I am angry, upset and frustrated.”
Lucy Wong relies on a team of VA doctors in the Phoenix area to treat her scleroderma, an autoimmune disease that attacks the connective tissue. She said she developed the disease in the 1980s as a medical technician in the Navy, worked with toxic chemicals and extreme stress.
Driving is tough. She fears that the VA will cut Uber trips to its medical dates.
“I ask if Trump cuts something back here and the answer is:” not yet, “said Wong.
Josh Ghering, a former marine from Parsons, Kansas, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said that he had to fly to San Antonio for an appointment with a neurologist before he retired because he retired to back problems, including herniat discs. He wondered why he couldn’t get the same appointment at home.
“I think you’re in the right direction,” said Ghering, 42, about Doge. “But you have to be more thorough with what you do to ensure that you do not cut jobs.”
Are those expected from the service members of VA cuts?
The members of the nation have never been a political monolith – and the same applies to their views of the VA. But the separation between two marines on the opposite sides of the country not only raises a question about Doge, but also about the military of America: Who is expected to sacrifice?
Watson, the former Navy in Georgia, suffered various injuries during service, including a traumatic brain injury when a cable grabbed and a box fell on it. He said he was ready to accept fewer visits to his VA doctor and forego other amenities in the country’s service.
“Many veterans who voted for Trump understood that this would be his policy and are now shouting bloody murder because the ax will fall on the VA,” said Watson. “And for me it’s just a bit self -centered.”
Bafundo, the Navy in the state of Washington, has withdrawn against the idea that all Americans are victims when, as he sees it, he really falls back “on the little guy”.
America’s billionaires will not protect any of the loads, he argued, while Musk, who is the richest person in the world, and hardly or hardly any taxes.
“If we want to sacrifice, the rich have to sacrifice,” he said. “And frank not.”
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Grove, which were reported from Washington.
