PARMA, Ohio — Veterans and their supporters upset over proposed cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs rallied outside the VA Clinic on Brookpark Road in Parma Monday.
The VA reportedly aims to cut around 80,000 workers this year in the latest phase of the Trump Administration's efforts to reshape the federal government. A move that raises concerns with Jack Palush, a Vietnam Vet from North Royalton.
"Years ago when I got back from Vietnam, the VA wasn't in good shape. Over the years they've really done a much better job, they treat us with respect and dignity," said Palush. "They got dedicated employees in there."
Edwin Foster drove in from Middlefield with a poster he had made of family members who served in the military, including his parents, who both served in the Navy during World War II.
"He spent two years in combat," Foster said of his father. "So that we have freedom and if he was here he would just literally vomit."
Cleveland VA employee Allicia Jennings came over on her off time, something she says some VA employees have little of these days.
"You would not believe some of the nursing staff that work somewhere between 30, 40, 60 extra hours in a pay period because their areas are short because people get sick, people get tired," said Jennings. "And just to sit up here and say that somehow you're going to cut 80,000 jobs it's not going to affect care. That's just not realistic."
Especially since the passing of the PACT Act in 2022 that opened the door to benefits for Veterans exposed to toxic burn pits that previously weren't covered. Like Tim Hauser, whom we introduced you to three years ago.
He fought the VA for 25 years to get covered, which, under the PACT Act, he now is. Hauser, among those on hand today, concerned that the door opened to him and 5 million others through the PACT Act could be closed due to these cuts.
"To have the possibility that this is all going to go away, including the VA altogether, people need to know exactly what's going on," said Hauser.
Last month, Senate Republicans voted against a resolution to protect the PACT Act. Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted voting against it. Last week, Moreno defended the cuts to the VA.
"The VA had about 400,000 employees back in 2019, Joe Biden grew the employment to about 470,000," Moreno said. "So what Doug Collins, who is the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, has said is, 'Hey we need to right-size the V.A. down to 400,000."
Moreno pointing to one example of a VA worker from Toledo who called his office upset over his firing.
"His job at the VA is to greet people. So when you walk into the VA, he greets them. 'What do you need, how can I help you, here's where you go for this, here's where you go for that,'" he said.
Moreno said that when they looked into it further, they found that the VA the Toledo man was assigned to was in Parkersburg, West Virginia. "He hasn't been there in 3.5 years. You can't greet people remotely. That's why he got fired."
David Shulkin, the former Secretary of the VA in President Trump's first term, said reforms are needed, no doubt, but questioned the logic of the cuts.
"We could not continue the status quo. The wait times were going up, there are 935,000 claims in backlog benefits," Shulkin told CNN. "Veteran suicide is actually on the rise, we have tens of thousands of homeless veterans. So we do need to take a look at how to improve this system, but I don't know any system that slashes its way to excellence."
While the layoffs are talked about, "what we haven't really heard are the plans to make this system better," he said.
In the meantime, rally organizers plan to stage weekly protests like this, with one scheduled for next week in Akron.
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