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Trump administration plans to cut 80,000 employees from Veterans Affairs, according to internal memo By Curt_Anderson March 5, 2025 1:32 pm Category: Military (0.0 from 0 votes) Rules of the Post Write A New Article How To Post Here

Hey, veterans: what have you done for us lately? Anyway, I am sure there will be no degradation of services provided to America's vets.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning a reorganization that includes cutting over 80,000 jobs from the sprawling agency that provides health care for many former service members, according to an internal memo obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

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.

Cited and related links:

1. apnews.com

Comments Start Below

by HatetheSwamp on March 5, 2025 2:22 pm The VA is a bureaucratic disaster and has been for decades. My dad was a WWII veteran. He didn't touch with a ten foot pole even once. Your blind adoration of the bureaucracy is just plain silly, Curt. by Curt_Anderson on March 5, 2025 2:29 pm I am sure that the VA’s bureaucratic inefficiencies will be remedied by wholesale firing of staff. by HatetheSwamp on March 5, 2025 2:49 pm And, tightening management. Based on your comments, I assume that you think a national debt of more than $36,000,000,000,000 is too small? by oldedude on March 5, 2025 3:17 pm Again, for the folks that don't care or understand this for what it is. FIRST. The VA does NOT treat the illnesses, they'll tell you that. They treat ONLY THE SYMPTOMS. That's why many of the veterans end up with opioid and anti-depressant addictions. AND many times, there have been pharmacists and medical staff sending these drugs to each other. The Vietnam Veterans were stonewalled from Agent Orange poisoning for almost 50 years. In that time many of the veterans died from cancer, kidney failure, and about a dozen additional illnesses. The VA "refused" to connect the illnesses. They were under a mandate from their leadership not to. Same thing with PTSD. THe VA has a drugless treatment but refuses to use it. There's no money going to big pharma if they do that. The kickback in drug money is astronomical. At least as big as Medicare. I waited 30 years to be seen for the issues I have. I am getting a lawyer to hopefully get my percentage up. The VA is so ineffective, Phoenix VA WAS KNOWN for the number of suicides (pistol rounds to the head) in their parking lot because of the lack of care for PTSD. In April 2014, an investigative report uncovered a disturbing truth: the Phoenix VA hospital had been concealing Veterans’ appointment wait times by maintaining secret lists, resulting in at least 40 Veterans tragically passing away while awaiting medical care. According to Phoenix's instructions, the VA had to have a veteran (not an employee) call 911 to report the blood splatter and pink mist all over the parking lot so the ambulance would pick up the veteran and take them to get medical care at a hospital. There are some "laughable moments" also. It took the VA until the 1990's to get WOMAN'S RESTROOMS installed in all their facilities. Because according to them, Veterans were considered "men." RE: Photo Story. Yesterday (2/24/17) while at the Durham, NC VA Hospital, my husband Stephen McMenamin and I witnessed some very disturbing events. The man in the wheelchair on the left, were waiting in that waiting room at least 3 hours. The man bent over grabbing the chair, was yelling in pain and was borderline convulsing and almost falling out of his chair he was in so much pain. No one paid him any attention until I approached a nurse to please check on him. This gentleman sat in the waiting room in extreme pain for hours upon hours with very little attention paid to him. The gentlemen seen in the two photos on the right, came in extremely sick. He could barely walk, sit up, or breathe. My husband had been directed to a chair just off the waiting area because it reclined (my husband was being seen for extreme lower back pain). Upon this man walking in and telling the nurse he needed to lay down, and her telling him to have a seat (with very little regard for his well being), my husband got up and offered this man the reclining chair. This man sat in the chair for probably about 15 minutes before he was told he had to get up immediately. Upon being approached by the nurse (who was extremely rude to him), he told her he could not sit up and he needed to lay down. She completely disregarded him and demanded he go sit in the waiting room area, leaving the recliner completely empty. Upon seeing this, and seeing how rude the nurse was being, my husband approached the nurse and asked why this man was not allowed to stay in the recliner given that my husband had been sitting in it for 30 plus minutes. The nurse refused to provide any explanation or even her name, and stormed off while this man was still struggling. The man then asked multiple times for a place to lean back or lay down, and was completely disregarded by the nurse. Eventually after being completely neglected, he laid on the floor. freebeacon.com azpbs.org cnn.com by HatetheSwamp on March 5, 2025 3:35 pm OD, Within microseconds of sending my response to Curt, it struck me that you are the real authority. I have two frames of reference on the VA. One is my father and his disdain for it. The other is some experience from my years as a minister. I always felt bad for the vets who relied on the VA for medical care. In my experience, it was horrid at best. by oldedude on March 5, 2025 5:19 pm Thanks, I'll keep thoughts about your dad. If you have some background I could remember him by just for a reference to honor him. Unit, places, etc. If you don't, that's cool. WWII vets are the absolute greatest generation. They're unbelievable. I met one guy that was a Pearl Harbor. One of the battle ships was upside down in the water, so they drilled "air holes" to keep the sailors alive. All it did was to fill the hull with water. They listened to them drown. The look in his eyes was totally haunting. Their choice was to let them die inside the ship, or to kill them inside the ship. That guy has so much trauma in his life. Just from that day. And he was out trying like hell to save lives from a sneak attack. And he lived through the war as a submariner. Sorry, I digressed. And yet, his story deserves to be told. Those are the stories I remember when people say they have it so bad and go into a pity party for themselves. It's not just me. That is the really sad part about this whole thing. I'm an Auxiliary member of the Vietnam Veterans of America. The total bullshit they had to go through (and still do) is criminal. WWII was worse, but that was more about not knowing what they were up against. "Combat Fatigue" was something you just got over. No one had a clue what to do. Traumatic Brain Injury was also new, and the VA is still 20 years behind what they use for athletes. A football or Hockey player get a hard hit. Don't pass out, nothing like that. They get tested immediately. A veteran is hit by an IED, in an enclosed vehicle (where the pressure multiplies) and if they aren't "knocked out" there is no affect according to the government. No scans, nothing. They treat them for depression (thank you big pharma) and the headaches/ migraines. I'm at 80% disabled right now. Hopefully, in a year, I'll be rated at 100% disabled. I have to drive to Tampa another dozen times to get that done. Full day trip driving down, my appointment, driving back at 5:00. Just to get refused so I have to reapply so they wait for me to die and they don't pay me. by HatetheSwamp on March 6, 2025 4:15 am My dad was an interesting guy. He was as private a person as I've known. All he ever said is that he was a fireman in the Army Aircorps, in Alaska... until the dementia began to take over. He became more emotional then. And, he began to reflect his earlier life more and more. He broke out in tears over remembering the bodies of some of the men in the air crews returning from bombing runs, presumably over Japan. But, he didn't ever say a lot. And, I don't know much. by Ponderer on March 6, 2025 5:29 am olde dude can do without the VA, so therefore all veterans can do without the VA. Got it. by HatetheSwamp on March 6, 2025 5:31 am And, my dad could too. But. That doesn't justify the inefficiency and poor care. by Ponderer on March 6, 2025 7:36 am Please feel free to make your case how no care is better than poor and inefficient care............. by meagain on March 6, 2025 8:12 am I wonder how reducing staff will improve matters. An intelligent approach would be to review the VA nadate and its ability to carry it out. To reform it and to increase staff if that is the only problem. And this, pb. "Based on your comments, I assume that you think a national debt of more than $36,000,000,000,000 is too small?" Do you think this is about the National debt? If it is, and that is the problem, then do you think reducing that takes precedence over the problems of veterans? It isn't, though. It is like everything else going on about creating a government of the Tech billionaires, by the tech billionaires, for the tech billionaires. It is that last gasp of Capitalism that Orwell foresaw when he called Fascism " the assault of Capitalism on the unions. by HatetheSwamp on March 6, 2025 8:16 am "Please feel free to make your case how no care is better than poor and inefficient care....." huh Truly, huh!!!!! Go To Top

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