Many veterans told the Guardian they came to the nation’s capital on their own after hearing about the rally online.
The VA secretary, Doug Collins, has said the cuts are designed to trim bureaucratic bloat and will have no impact on veterans’ healthcare or benefits.
Now we are seeing the promises made to us come under attack,” said Kyleanne Hunter, the chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a Marine Corps veteran who flew multiple combat missions as an AH1-W Super Cobra attack pilot.
A blue-ribbon commission established by the agency last year found veterans received significantly better care at lower cost from the public system.
Shortly after taking office in January, Trump ordered a pause on the US refugee admissions program, putting translators’ safety in doubt.
More than 5,000 veterans and their supporters gathered in Washington on Friday to demonstrate against the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) proposed 80,000 job cuts and the termination of hundreds of contracts for veterans services with local organizations, causing a flurry of red, white, and blue American flags to fly across the National Mall.
David Magnus, a navy veteran who chose to travel from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after learning that his doctor was quitting during a recent mental health visit, expressed her hope that veterans will be able to receive their benefits in the future. “The VA was good” before Donald Trump took office again in January, but since then, medical staff members have experienced harassment that jeopardizes the system as a whole.
“There was a time when you could call and get a response,” he said. “There is so much going on right now that they are unsure of where to place you. “.”.
According to organizers, there were over 200 related events nationwide, including vigils at VA clinics and watch parties, in addition to the march in Washington. After learning about the rally online, a number of veterans told the Guardian that they traveled independently to the nation’s capital.
The cuts, according to VA Secretary Doug Collins, are intended to reduce bureaucratic red tape and will not affect veterans’ benefits or healthcare. According to a Guardian report from last month, the organization that treats over 9 million veterans has already entered a crisis. Patients’ physical safety has been jeopardized, hospital units have been closed, and appointments have been canceled across the country.
A private voucher program that would offer subpar care would replace the VA, the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, which consists of 170 government-run hospitals and over 1,000 clinics, according to demonstrators.
Our generation is dedicated to service. We offered our services and took the initiative to lead. As the head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a Marine Corps veteran who flew numerous combat missions as an AH1-W Super Cobra attack pilot, Kyleanne Hunter said, “Now we are seeing the promises made to us come under attack.”.
Spending on “medical services” is cut by $12 billion, or almost 20%, in the administration’s proposed budget for the VA, which was unveiled on Friday. However, this cut is offset by a 50% increase in funding for veterans seeking private healthcare.
One of the roughly three dozen nurses that the National Nurses United union brought to the rally, Sharda Fornnarino, a navy veteran, said, “We’re already being starved.”. Fornnarino, who works for the VA in Denver, Colorado, claimed that critical healthcare jobs are going unfilled while Washington politicians discuss permanent staff reductions.
According to a blue-ribbon panel the agency formed last year, the public system provided veterans with noticeably better care at a lower cost. They claimed that private providers functioned with little oversight and “are not required to demonstrate competency in diagnosing and treating the complex care needs of veterans nor in understanding military culture, which is often critical to providing quality care for veterans.”.
According to VA, the budget proposal “eliminates unnecessary programming and bureaucratic overhead that does not directly serve the veteran” and “prioritizes care for our most vulnerable veterans, including those experiencing homelessness or at risk of suicide.”.
The march took place on the 81st anniversary of D-day, the pivotal moment in the war against Nazi Germany during World War II when Allied forces overran the beaches of Normandy. According to the organizers, the “Bonus Army” march on Washington in 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, when thousands of veterans of the First World War gathered on the National Mall to demand promised benefits, only to have the US military sent against them, served as even more of an inspiration.
Christopher Purdy, an Afghanistan war veteran and march organizer, said the Bonus Army rally helped pave the way for the New Deal social programs and ultimately the GI Bill, which gave veterans of the Second World War access to healthcare, higher education, and home ownership.
Trump’s decision to ban travel from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, where many of the protesters served alongside translators who risked their lives for the United States, was criticized by other speakers. Trump’s decision to halt the US refugee admissions program shortly after taking office in January raised concerns about the safety of translators.
“We all left behind people who are now marked,” said Nadim Yousify, who joined the Marine Corps after working as a US government translator in Afghanistan before coming to the US in 2015.
