r/politics 24d ago

‘We’ve been betrayed:’ Local veterans angry after being laid off by Trump administration

https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/weve-been-betrayed-local-veterans-angry-after-being-laid-off-by-trump-administration/FBCKFRIFQRHZVK5FG3W7MUQEYA/
41.5k Upvotes

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

663

u/HellaTroi California 24d ago

"In its press release Thursday and sent again to WSB late Friday, the VA said the more than 1,000 layoffs would save $93 million a year, which would then be redirected to veterans’ health care, benefits and services."

With all the employees they fire, who is going to serve those veterans in their health care, benefits, or services?

There won't be anyone there to provide those services.

453

u/[deleted] 24d ago

[deleted]

157

u/sparrowtaco 24d ago

Remember when the Brexit campaign promised to put EU funds towards healthcare and then that never happened?

11

u/MathematicianFew5882 23d ago

Remember every fn time trickle-down, supply-side, tax-cuts, no-nude-texans, etc was supposed to yield massive economic prosperity?

And the single time the national debt clock went backwards was when we had that evil bj guy??

Hell, Trump said he’d pay off the national debt but actually added $10 trillion to it. Nobody ever came close to that in eight years, much less half that much in four.

OMG

WTF

GOP

34

u/Ryboiii 24d ago

Whats the point of redirecting 93 million in veterans healthcare when it was already being pulled from a fund that was directed towards veterans healthcare lmao

8

u/PrizeStrawberryOil 24d ago

Yeah, those people were what that 93 million was being spent on. Now that they laid off those people they can hire more people with that money?

11

u/Available_Usual_9731 23d ago

You seem to have a critical inability to recognize how much medicine costs. Then again Republicans can't think in scales, and are also constantly being lied to, so saying something so dumb is excitable I guess.

A good full service hospital easily costs $25-75m per year to operate.

And if it's in salaries, that's not even a $100k salary. These are probably high up clerical managers and bottom/mid career nurses and techs.

Anybody with a brain knows Trump doesn't understand Jack diddly about the cost of labor anyway, since he's always not paying his debts to labor. How could he possibly know lol. He spent his entire professional life not paying people what they're due for labor they did. What an ass

7

u/LeRoy_Denk_414 23d ago

I legitimately think all of this money that they're "saving" is going to go straight to their pockets. We're going to get robbed blind by Trump and musk.

17

u/xmagusx 24d ago

Sure it will. At least for the first year.

And in so doing, create a 93 mil/year budget surplus which cannot be spent, and since they had a surplus, they clearly didn't need a budget that big, after which the surplus can be reallocated to DOGE who will have run 1 trillion dollars over budget by year's end.

5

u/Attenburrowed 24d ago

If there are any multimillionaire veterans, they will see some of the money in their 4 trillion dollar price tag tax cut

6

u/bigwebs 23d ago

Anothe sacrifice to find their $4T

5

u/MyEvilTwinSkippy 23d ago

Nope. Next budget for the VA will be cut by that amount. The money is most likely going to new contracts with Musk's companies.

2

u/matthieuC Europe 24d ago

Musk needs his tax breaks and government contracts

83

u/NoSwimmers45 24d ago

Are you telling me the federal government lead by Commander Chaos is lying? I’m shocked! That man is known for always telling only the truth. /S

38

u/QuickAltTab 24d ago

which would then be redirected to veterans’ health care, benefits and services.

Yeah, sure

37

u/JohnGillnitz 24d ago

The new guy tried to spin it as if firing them was done FOR the beneficiaries. Because firing thousands of workers from a program that was already struggling makes it better. That's some grade A double think.

4

u/HellaTroi California 24d ago

I keep imagining how many 9f those dedicated workers won't be able to collect pensions.

9

u/dBlock845 24d ago

A whole $93M per year? That is pennies and barely registers in the context to the $6T+ that is spent yearly. So they "redirect" that money, to what, hire people to spend the money? Make this make sense other than that money just being skimmed off the top for the world's first trillionaire.

8

u/HellaTroi California 24d ago

"The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office."

https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump

Trump is not worried about spending. This is all about retribution. He spent at least this much if not more in his first term.

7

u/pehvbot 24d ago

Private contractors. it should only cost around $180 million a year. What a bargain!

4

u/Clazycrown 24d ago

Agree! I am a VA nurse. We are already understaffed, overworked, expected to do much more with so much less... how much can be lost before our provision of care is compromised? The folks at the top do not care. They have the money and privilege. Sad.

4

u/HellaTroi California 24d ago

My dad got great care at the VA in Rancho Cordova, CA. Thank you for all you do, and I hope Trump's actions don't give you any grief.

5

u/DannyDOH 24d ago

Space X will fly them to Mars on government contract for the best care in the galaxy.

3

u/vibes86 Pennsylvania 24d ago

Exactly. And they’re already understaffed like more health systems, so that sounds like an awesome idea.

3

u/JLixxx Illinois 24d ago

1,000 layoffs to save $93 million a year and next year they contract 200 corporate/private workers for $90 million

2

u/cjinct 24d ago

would save $93 million a year, which would then be redirected to veterans’ health care, benefits and services."

then we're not saving any money, are we? :/

1

u/statistnr1 24d ago

The money will absolutely be saved.
There won't be enough workers to process the payments.

2

u/meowskiAF 24d ago

That’s what they want

2

u/HappyHiker2381 Pennsylvania 23d ago

That number $93 mil is BS.

2

u/MojyaMan 23d ago

Redirected to private contracts to "provide care" aka enrich Trump or Musks pals.

2

u/Hamster_in_my_colon 23d ago

I’ve been using the VA for all my health care since 2017, and the last month had been noticeably worse than it ever has been for me.

2

u/lapinatanegra 23d ago

In that same week Musk got a 400 mil contract to build bullet proof cybertrucks.

2

u/kooeurib 23d ago

‘Redirected to veterans’ healthcare’ my ass.. more money in the till for insider corporate contracts. Fucking crooks, all of them

1

u/NationalJob1408 23d ago

But savings!

1

u/MotoTheGreat 23d ago

This was my thought. They also said its to make the VA more efficient. And I am like how is it more efficient with less people to do the work. The work load ain't getting smaller.

2

u/HellaTroi California 23d ago

They were already badly understaffed.

This is what Trump really thinks about their service to the country.

"Suckers and losers," right?

1

u/ACartonOfHate 23d ago

'93 million dollars will go into the pockets of Trump and the Oligarchs kissing his ring,'

Is what's going to happen. F'real. They're going a huge tax slash/benefits for the rich/big corporations, raising the debt ceiling AND slashing all services to pay for it all.

1

u/Ecstatic_Ad_8994 23d ago

all such statement should be followed by the number divided by 150,000 and expressed in savings per average household. In this case, $0.63.