Minnesota Democrats push back against planned VA healthcare cuts
Proposed cuts to Veterans Affairs could eliminate 80,000 jobs
A veterans town hall organized by the Minnesota DFL and the Democratic National Committee Friday carried the message that celebrating the military rings hollow if you’re ignoring the veterans who served.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (FOX 9) - A veterans town hall organized by the Minnesota DFL and the Democratic National Committee Friday carried the message that celebrating the military rings hollow if you’re ignoring the veterans who served.
The timing of this was very deliberate, coming the day before the massive military parade in Washington D.C. to celebrate the Army’s 250th birthday.
MN Democrats push back against planned VA healthcare cuts
Military veterans were in Bloomington on Friday voicing their concerns about proposed cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The proposal would eliminate about 80,000 VA employees.
Planned job cuts at VA
The backstory:
The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking at cutting around 83,000 jobs later this year in an effort to modernize and streamline the sprawling system that provides benefits to veterans.
Last week, that prompted protests rallies by veterans across the country, with the largest gathering at the National Mall in Washington DC.
"If these cuts go through it would absolutely compromise VA’s ability to care for these veterans," Congresswoman Kelly Morrison said to the vets gathered for the town hall. "In my view, it would be an absolute dereliction of our duty to our vets."
Impacts of budget bill
What they're saying:
Denis McDonough, who served as Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Biden administration, told the crowd that the country has a duty to care for them.
"The promise at the heart of the Veterans Affairs Department is when you get our back, we get yours," McDonough said.
But there is real fear that the job cuts and other potential budget cuts to social services could adversely affect veterans.
For example, Sen. Klobuchar said, 25,000 veterans in Minnesota rely on Medicaid and 12,000 rely on food assistance, both of which would see cuts in the budget being debated in Congress.
She hopes for major changes in the bill and said there are a number of her Republican colleagues who’ve expressed serious reservations about any cuts impacting veterans.
"All we need is four of them to stand up in the House and four of them to stand up in the Senate and that’s it, that budget goes down," Klobuchar said. "And so that’s what we’re pushing for right now."