May 27, 2025
Dear editor;
This Memorial Day I want to thank all the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice. With the Donald Trump administration’s painful actions affecting most Americans, and especially our military veterans, the best way to express my thanks during Military Appreciation Month is to stand up for them, and all those Americans affected.
My father served in the Marine Corps for 28 years and he’d be furious to see how this president treats veterans. Former POWs like former-senator John McCain were not “losers” and “suckers,” to quote Donald Trump, but true American heroes.
Unfortunately, Elon Musk’s DOGE and the Trump administration aren’t treating vets heroically in the budget that’s now in the Senate. For example, the Veterans Administration plans to eliminate 83,000 jobs. One-fourth of VA employees are vets. But the Inspector General’s 2024 Report shows that 137 of 139 VA health centers have severe staff shortages in at least one area, particularly nursing and psychology. Expect long wait times to get even longer.
Medicaid and food assistance will have $1 trillion cut, affecting almost 80 million poor and disabled. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates this could strip health coverage from 7.6 million people and SNAP (food stamps) from 3 million. Nearly 10% of veterans use Medicaid for at least some healthcare benefits, and 1.2 million vets receive aid through SNAP.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among veterans under age 45, with 17 vets taking their lives every day, and yet hundreds of Veterans Crisis Line employees have been let go. Tragically, the toll-free 988 national suicide hotline has also been omitted from the budget while we’re in the midst a suicide epidemic.
Medical research cuts at the National Institutes of Health (more than $17 billion), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ($3.6 billion), are likely to eventually affect us all, and VA research has been drastically cut for prostate, kidney and bladder cancer. Funding for vets exposed to burn pits and Agent Orange is gone.
Trump’s negative news onslaught is discouraging, but we are not powerless! Democratic senators are unified against these cuts, and there are Republican senators who are sensitive to the pain their constituents will feel. An online search can help you find their office phone numbers, and learn who is pushing back. Respectfully call them and relate personal stories of veterans and others who have been or will be hurt, and encourage them to be courageous and withstand these budget cuts.
Also, you can participate in the nationwide No Kings rally Saturday, June 14 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Geneva off South Randall Road from Fabyan Parkway to Fargo Boulevard, or Chicago and the suburbs.
The time to fix the budget is now! Don’t look back in July with regret. Tell a friend!
Please support a free press which makes this conversation possible.
Albert “Bo” Smith, Geneva