DOGE's cuts are harming veterans
That's not efficient. It's cruel, it's wrong, and it's unAmerican.
By Paul Eaton
One thing we can all agree on: the government should be efficient and it should serve the people. As a retired major general, I have led many organizations, large and small. All could be improved, before and after my tenure. And so it is for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). However, a “ready, shoot, aim” approach is not the way to go.
Elon Musk is an un-elected billionaire who bought access to the president through millions of dollars spent last election cycle so he could launch his DOGE program—the Department of Government Efficiency—that is firing hard working, essential, middle-class employees, including veterans.
Firing veterans who perform essential duties isn’t government efficiency, it’s cruel. Service members deserve opportunities to transition back into the workforce and should be guaranteed support—not the added stress of unemployment. To restate the point here: The real Trump/Musk objective appears to be cruelty more than efficiency.
What Musk is offering is nothing more than chaos and catastrophe, and it’s hurting the very people who put their lives on the line for the country we love.
DOGE has made direct cuts to the federal workforce and implemented policies to reduce the federal workforce through attrition (such as the hiring freeze and return-to-office requirements). These cuts are having a significant impact on veterans employed by the federal government, both at VA and other agencies. Veterans who rely on the VA are already being impacted and more and more will be harmed over time, as DOGE cuts continue and the VA is left without the resources it needs to provide quality care and benefits that veterans need—and earned through their service.
There are many misconceptions about who makes up the federal bureaucracy. The people being aimlessly fired are not beltway paper-pushers. The majority live outside of Washington, D.C. Furthermore, veterans and military families are taking a harder hit than other communities.
Let’s take a look at the numbers.
Veterans make up 30% of the federal workforce—far higher than their representation in the private sector. More than half of the veterans employed by the federal government—about 340,000—are disabled. Attacks on the federal workforce thus disproportionately impact veterans, and disabled veterans in particular.
Many veterans, including a disabled veteran who served for 18 years in the Army and a 10-year Marine veteran, were among the 1,000 VA employees recently fired by DOGE. A disabled Army veteran who served for 20 years, including two deployments to Iraq and one to Afghanistan, was five weeks from completing his probationary year when he was fired from his job at a VA hospital. Veterans have been fired from other agencies as well, including a disabled Navy veteran who served for 11 years and was told she was being fired for poor performance despite receiving only positive evaluations.
In addition to VA health care and benefits, veterans rely on the Department of Education, which provides GI Bill oversight and additional loan support to student veterans; the Department of Labor, which helps veterans, service members, and military spouses find jobs; the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides support for homeless veterans; the Small Business Administration, which provides resources for veterans who own or are looking to start businesses; and many others departments. Cuts to staff and resources for those agencies will significantly impact veterans.
We don't need to wait to see the disastrous consequences of the actions DOGE is taking. We already know the impacts. Veterans who rely on the VA are already being harmed by DOGE cuts. Veterans Crisis Line employees have been fired, and suicide prevention training sessions have been postponed or canceled. Veterans’ health care appointments have been cancelled and postponed for months because of staffing shortages.
New clinics have been delayed because they can’t hire enough staff. VA hospitals have seen reductions in beds and operating rooms. And, because volunteer drivers can’t get credentials, disabled veterans have had their transportation options reduced, all according to lawmakers.
Veterans will suffer even more as DOGE continues to cut VA resources. These cuts will likely mean longer wait times, and clinical trials might be halted. New disability claims raters from are blocked by the hiring freeze, so veterans will likely be forced to wait longer for their disability claims to be processed, adding to the already severe backlog of claims.
As a senior adviser of VoteVets, I am proud of the recent efforts to organize the veterans community, and I’m even prouder of the elected Democratic veterans we have helped across the country at the federal and local levels who are speaking out and taking action. But we should not be standing alone. No matter your politics or for whom you voted in the last election, I ask you to take a stand and contact your representatives. The decisions DOGE is making now not only make our government less safe and efficient, but they also directly harm the veteran’s community.
Harming veterans isn’t efficient, it’s un-American. That’s what DOGE is doing. We must stop it now.
Maj. Gen. (ret.) Paul Eaton is senior adviser to the Vet Voice Foundation. He is a former deputy chief of staff for operations and training at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
I’m glad you wrote about this issue. The cuts of vital services to veterans in unacceptable. Our daughter is a clinical psychologist who counsels veterans with PTSD at a VA Hospital. She is very concerned about her vet clients who are already having great difficulty. Taking away mental health professionals and others in health care is something they’re already facing at the VA. All from two super wealthy men who’ve never served and with no real understanding of what the federal government does. Elon Musk just got someone to brief him on the federal budget process recently! He thinks he understood the entire federal government in 45 minutes? It’s insane. They’ve approached this massive challenge like two drunk frat rats. They’re already impacting other businesses, too. I was just at the medical center provided by our insurance, and the nurse said they’ve been told to expect layoffs there, too.
I didn’t know any of this about veterans and the federal workforce. Thank you.
What has happened to the idea of “accountability?” Republicans shrug at brazen acts that, as you say, are cruel and un-American. This is incomprehensible, just as January 6th was incomprehensible. It is the work of tyrants.
But we need to focus on the veterans, on their needs, because all signs are the tyrants are going to continue being tyrants. My senator is Tammy Duckworth who is out in front on veterans’ issues. I’m proud of her.