Musk Is Screwing Over 18 Million Veterans— That'd Be A Political Death Sentence For Many Republicans

Will Musk Be The Eventual Fall Guy?

When I was a kid, Social Security was always described as the third rail of American politics, meaning instant death if a politicians even spoke against it. Since then, much to the chagrin of Republicans and their big donors, Medicare has achieved a similar status. But so has the V.A. Politicians can’t mess with veterans and get away with it. So when Musk— who has already been firing veterans from jobs all over the federal government— announced he would be cutting 15-20% of the V.A. workforce, something like 80,000 jobs, Republican politicians— especially ones who have to face the voters next year— started getting uncomfortably nervous.

Gaya Gupta reported that “According to a memo obtained by the Washington Post, the cuts are meant to reduce the department’s workforce to just under 400,000 employees, its size in 2019. Christopher Syrek, VA’s chief of staff who signed the memo, wrote that the department will work with the Elon Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service and ‘move out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach’ to identifying inefficiencies. Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins said in a video posted on social media that the cuts would not reduce health care or benefits for veterans and their beneficiaries,” an obvious ass-covering lie.

“The sprawling department, which provides medical care for millions of veterans and their families,” wrote Gupta, “is the latest target in Trump’s push for sweeping cuts across the federal workforce, which has about 2.3 million civilian employees. In February, VA announced layoffs affecting 2,400 workers and made plans to cut hundreds of government contracts, which it rolled back less than a day later… VA is among the largest employers of federal workers, with most employed operating its network of hospitals around the country, according to Pew Research Center. Groups representing veterans and federal employees quickly decried the planned cuts Wednesday, saying they will inhibit the department’s services for veterans and their families. VA did not respond to a request for comment. ‘The VA has been severely understaffed for many years, resulting in longer wait times for veterans in need,’ Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement. ‘The DOGE plunder of career VA employees, adding to the illegal mass firings of thousands of probationary employees, can only make matters worse.’”

There are something like 18 million veterans are across the country— and in every district. These, however, are the dozen congressional districts with, more or less, the most veterans, along with their Member of Congress, who would be defeated if there were seen to be hostile to veterans’ interests:

• CA-52— Juan Vargas (D)

• TX-21— Chip Roy (TX)

• FL-01— [open] Matt Gaetz (R)

• VA-08— Don Beyer (VA)

• NC-03— Greg Murphy (R)

• CA-21— Jim Costa (D)

• TX-13— Ronny Jackson (R)

• GA-06— Rich McCormick (R)

• AZ-08— Abraham Hamadeh (R)

• CO-05— Doug Lamborn (R)

• WA-06— Emily Randall (D)

• HI-01— Ed Case (HI)

Runners-up are: 

• CA-50— Scott Peters (D)

• TX-31— John Carter (R)

Meredith Hill and Jordain Carney were unsparing in describing the GOP’s predicament in their report Thursday, noting that as Señor Trumpanzyy and Musk “lay waste to scores of federal programs and the careers of thousands of government workers, Republicans on Capitol Hill have mostly kept their objections to themselves— with one big exception. Military veterans have been disproportionately affected by the administration’s early cuts, and GOP lawmakers have unleashed a rare tide of public pushback. That reached a crescendo this week as the Trump administration raises the possibility of large-scale dismissals of Department of Veterans Affairs employees. Mass firings at the VA began weeks ago, spurring a flurry of panicked calls from GOP lawmakers to the White House. But a new memo outlines the potential for 80,000 more firings across a roughly 480,000-person department.

Federal job cuts generally affect veterans more profoundly, since they are given preference in government hiring. The provision of health care and other services is directly threatened by cuts to the VA, and those impacts have been a frequent concern at the spate of town hall protests GOP lawmakers have encountered in recent weeks.

There are signs the message has gotten through. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that senators raised the issue of VA cuts directly with [co-president] Musk during the lunch meeting at the Capitol on Wednesday.

“I’m hoping there will be some clarification on that issue soon,” Thune told a small group of reporters.

Sen. John Barrasso, Thune’s No. 2, said that while they didn’t get confirmation of the VA cuts, Republicans stressed to Musk that Collins needs to be involved, with “the concern being that we want to make sure that veterans get the care that they need.”

…Democrats, who have been searching for a political foothold as they try to fight back against DOGE, blasted the proposed VA cuts. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it “a betrayal of our promise to our service members” that will spark “longer wait times, fewer appointments, less health care service for our veterans.”

Across the Capitol, the more DOGE-friendly House GOP is more willing to give the administration leeway on efforts to slash the size of the federal workforce. But even GOP leaders who are normally quick to praise Musk’s slash-and-burn operation are sensitive about the VA and impacts on veterans.

“We’re going to talk to the secretary to see what their needs are,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA). “You had, in a lot of these departments, a large increase during COVID, some of which may have been needed but a lot of which wasn’t justified.

“So you need to sort through what actually helps the veterans versus what actually takes money away from veterans benefits,” Scalise added.

House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul said in an interview Thursday he needed to study the VA cuts in more detail. But he had a visceral reaction when informed of the level of workforce cuts in the memo.

“Jeez,” McCaul said, his eyes widening.

“I worry because our veterans are hurting after Afghanistan; PTSD has gone way up,” McCaul added. “Suicide rates gone way up, and morale has gone way down. So I worry in the sense that I don’t want that to be a signal that we don’t care about our veterans.”

Some House Republicans, including some with a high number of veterans in their districts who get their care from the VA, offered measured support.

“I trust the president,” said Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), adding “there are a lot of complaints” about the VA. Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) added that he had faith in Collins to make cuts that “create efficiencies and actually improve care” at VA.

But Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA)— a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee whose state includes large numbers of federal workers and veterans— warned the job cuts would have real impacts on his constituents.

“I think everybody looks at it and says, ‘Let’s get the federal government to the right size that’s sustainable.’ Companies do that all the time,” Wittman said. “But I also want to be mindful that these employees are really good people. They work hard, and I want to make sure we keep in mind the impact that it has on them.”

At least Wittman had the savvy to say they work hard. Cheering the mass firings about 10 days ago, Marjorie Traitor Greene, said “federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees do not deserve their paychecks,” and described their roles as “not real jobs producing federal revenue” but rather “consuming taxpayer dollars.” Sounds like she's describing 95% of Republican members of Congress.

There was some buzz yesterday, that Trump convened a Cabinet meeting and told his cabinet secretaries that they run their departments and they make the firing decisions not Musk. That’s an about-face! He even told them to be precise and use a “scapel” [sic] not a “hatchet,” although he was probably trying to say not a “chainsaw.” But if he was reining in Musk— who was also at the meeting— it was the gentlest of tugs on the rein, afraid, as always, of offending Musk, and adding later that “if they [the cabinet secretaries] don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”