DOGE: Wielding a hatchet at the VA

The Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters

'Honestly, the last time I felt this level of fear was in combat,' said one decorated veteran turned veterans’ therapist

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

By The Week US

published 17 March 2025

A “climate of fear” has enveloped the Department of Veterans Affairs, said Sonner Kehrt in Mother Jones. Guided by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration has cut 2,400 jobs at the agency over the past month. And last week, VA Secretary Doug Collins announced plans to ax 80,000 more employees this year—about 17 percent of the department’s entire workforce. Despite repeated claims from administration officials that the layoffs will not affect the 9 million vets who rely on the agency for medical care and other services, VA workers say the cuts are “already hurting” patients. Suicide prevention trainings have been canceled, and therapists who work with PTSD patients have been fired. Some vets have seen mammograms and other crucial exams delayed for months because of staff shortages. Meanwhile, VA workers are struggling to focus on providing care as they worry about whether they’ll even have a job tomorrow. “Honestly, the last time I felt this level of fear was in combat,” said one decorated veteran turned veterans’ therapist.

But this broken agency needs radical reform, said Wilson Beaver and Ka’Von Johnson in the Miami Herald. Despite the VA’s record $308 billion annual budget, veterans are often left waiting months or even years for benefits and care. A 2022 watchdog report found that 68 percent of claims “were mishandled” due to department error, while more than one-third of cases “lacked proper documentation.” Those mistakes had real consequences: In 2022, some 153,000 VA disability claims were backlogged for more than 125 days. Cutting back the layers of bureaucracy is the best way to free up more money for “care services and benefits.”

Laying off frontline VA staff will do nothing to improve efficiency or care, said Raja Ramaswamy in The Indianapolis Star. Longer wait times will force vets to delay treatments, “worsening health outcomes” and pushing many toward for-profit healthcare, “often more expensive and less effective than the care provided by the VA.” Just a few months ago, veteran’s benefits “seemed like the third rail of American politics,” said Sarah Jones in New York magazine. Democrats and Republicans alike championed the VA, in a bid to court vets and also moderate and conservative voters. But for profit-obsessed politicians like President Trump, VA patients are just another group of “takers and moochers.” Some 60 percent of veterans may have voted for Trump, but in the president’s eyes, Musk’s “billions carry more weight than the uniform ever could.”