TRUMP, THE VA AND THE OTHER HALF OF THE STORY
John Kelly, the retired four star general and former fired Trump Chief of Staff has had his stories about Trump dishonoring our fallen soldiers debunked by other aides and even Gold Star Families. Fired employees usually don’t have anything nice to say about former employers. Lots of times they even lie.
Trump has stated that the Secret Service canceled the France Ceremony due to the weather. The July 4th Military Parade was never held.
His remark about liking people that were not captured was directed towards John McCain when he was running for President against Trump. Trump was degrading him as being a war hero whose only claim to fame was being shot down. Those remarks are on video and No, I am not necessarily defending them.
• Yes, a VA hiring freeze is in place, but it has a procedure to fill critical needs. It also exempts thousands of health care jobs from the freeze.
• Out of 472,00 employees only 1000 VA jobs have been cut so far. The plans are to reduce the workforce to the 2019 levels by cutting 83,000 over the year. Most of the increase since2019wastohandleAgent Orange claims. The VA states it will not negatively impact their operation, mission, benefits, or services to families or vets.
• All administrations replace the Inspector General with their own person. No one hollered when Obama and Biden put theirs in place.
• The TWO Directors that served women and minorities are political appointed positions and are typically replaced with every new administration. No women and race hater here as implied.
• Schedule F -That’s right, If you are a career supervisor in a policy making position that won’t carry out administration work policies under your constitutional oath and the vesting of executive authority in the President, you may be dismissed. You are not required to personality or politically support the current President or his policies, but you have to do you job and follow the oath that you swore to.
• Unauthorized Buyouts. It appears that Congress, Unions and Judges all have a say, and the President can not offer more. Maybe he really isn’t even in charge of the Executive Branch as stated in Article ll, Section l of the Constitution. This should go to the SCOTUS. District Judges should stay in their District.
• The proposal to cut VA disability benefits is to cut those benefits that are not directly military related.
• Trump states that he has never read Project 2025. Have you?
• The VA has 90 million contracts. The plan was to cancel 800 unnecessary and duplicate contracts. They canceled 585. Most were office duty types that VA personal could do themselves.
. The VA issued a press release on 2/13/2025 that stated Benefits are not being cut and positions that are involved in administrating benefits are not being eliminated. They also promised that vets and their families will not suffer but will see improvement in services and benefits.
• According to the VA and other news reports all their federal funding freezes were lifted on 1/29/25.
That’s the rest of the story. Estimated savings 900 million that will be moved to VA benefits for vets and their families.
Thank You For Your Service
John Schuetze Bandera, Texas
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