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Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

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Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#61

Post by scarface_74 »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #9
jorblumesea wrote: post #4

Ignoring the obvious humanitarian aspect of it (veteran suicide rate, societal promises of healthcare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honoring_our_PACT_Act_of_2022 ), politically you have to wonder why do this. Vets usually vote conservative, are often employed by the VA. It's an economically unstable time with other administration policies like tariffs. It won't reduce the deficit by any significant %. VA hospitals a…

It really seems like that a large number of politicians no longer seem to think that their actions will impact future voting. And I mean this on both sides, there's a lot of inaction on the D side. I wonder if popularism has just broken our electorate where they're convinced everyone is going to vote the way they are going to vote regardless of who they're voting for and thus there's no need to actually represent the…

If you are in a safe Republican district and you probably are because of gerrymandering, your concern is not losing to a Democrat, it’s being primaried by a Trump endorsed Republican funded by Musk where he also uses X as a bully pulpit.

The main things that many Trump supporters care about is fighting for “American culture”, trying to stymie it from becoming a minority majority company, those evil trans people using the wrong bathroom, immigrants bringing diseases and crime and woke something or other.

Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#62

Post by bpt3 »

kstrauser wrote: post #54
blindriver wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate this attitude. "$24 billion a year is nothing compared to the deficit so we should just ignore it and keep spending." Spending cuts have to start SOMEWHERE. Saying $24 billion is ignorable is insane. We are in a critical debt situation and my children's future is at stake.

Here are the official spending numbers[0]. The largest categories are: * Social Security * Medicare * National Defense * Interest payments * Health * Income Security * VA Benefits Which of those categories are we overspending on? Which specific cuts do you want to make? It's impossible for one to claim they're serious about saving money without talking about slashing Social Security, Medicare, and the military, which…

What gives you the impression we don't tax the rich?

The American middle and lower class are the least taxed individuals in the developed world. The upper classes, especially given a disproportionate percentage live in places like NYC and CA, are carrying EU-levels of tax burden already.

I'm certainly open to changing how things like dividend income are treated, but the rich don't have enough money to solve our budget problems.

I think your question about what spending to reduce was intended to be rhetorical, but the answer is: everything.

Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#63

Post by kstrauser »

myko wrote: post #34
redeux wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The primary problem with the VA is not the staffing level, it’s the quality of care and responsiveness. If these additions were put in place address those problems then I’d argue they’re necessary. We made a commitment to our military members when they agreed to the oath of enlistment/office and we aught to live up to that. The VA doesn’t and shouldn’t have unlimited funds but at the same time, cutting personnel with…

> it’s the quality of care and responsiveness Both great in my experience, and in my friends I have seen in the VA system. That said, I still hear old veterans bitch about it like it sucks, even as they're completely taken care of and hand held throughout the care process.

I'm a vet and so are many of my friends. I expect and demand that the VA honor the pledges it made to them. However, you might be right about some of that. Some of the VA complaints I've heard didn't sound that bad compared to what I've experienced with private insurance and large hospital systems. Which is not to say that it can't be, or shouldn't be, better! It should be, for everyone! But I confess that "I had to argue with the VA to approve my hearing aids" isn't exactly worse than trying to get UnitedHealthcare to pay for an ordered MRI.

Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#64

Post by bpt3 »

mindslight wrote: post #28
blindriver wrote: post #15

Holy hell, they hired 83,000 people since 2019? Does no one care we are $36T in debt? 40% of our income taxes go to paying just the interest on our debt!

These days I just assume that anybody driving focus to the "debt" and specifically "paying interest on the debt" has no idea what they're talking about. Write it on the blackboard 50 times: the budget of a sovereign nation issuing a reserve currency is not analogous to household finances! As a follower of Austrian economics, monetary creation by the government most certainly does matter. But this myopic focus on "deb…

Are you aware of the percentage of all federal spending that is consumed by interest on the debt, and more importantly the forward looking projections for that metric?

If so, how can you claim said debt is meaningless?

Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#65

Post by kstrauser »

bpt3 wrote: post #62
kstrauser wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are the official spending numbers[0]. The largest categories are: * Social Security * Medicare * National Defense * Interest payments * Health * Income Security * VA Benefits Which of those categories are we overspending on? Which specific cuts do you want to make? It's impossible for one to claim they're serious about saving money without talking about slashing Social Security, Medicare, and the military, which…

What gives you the impression we don't tax the rich? The American middle and lower class are the least taxed individuals in the developed world. The upper classes, especially given a disproportionate percentage live in places like NYC and CA, are carrying EU-levels of tax burden already. I'm certainly open to changing how things like dividend income are treated, but the rich don't have enough money to solve our budge…

> What gives you the impression we don't tax the rich?

Math and history. One example explainer: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/80552/total-tax...

> The upper classes, especially given a disproportionate percentage live in places like NYC and CA, are carrying EU-levels of tax burden already.

Citation urgently needed. That doesn't jibe with literally any report I've read about such things, except from anti-tax extremist organizations.

Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#66

Post by mindslight »

bpt3 wrote: post #64
mindslight wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days I just assume that anybody driving focus to the "debt" and specifically "paying interest on the debt" has no idea what they're talking about. Write it on the blackboard 50 times: the budget of a sovereign nation issuing a reserve currency is not analogous to household finances! As a follower of Austrian economics, monetary creation by the government most certainly does matter. But this myopic focus on "deb…

Are you aware of the percentage of all federal spending that is consumed by interest on the debt, and more importantly the forward looking projections for that metric? If so, how can you claim said debt is meaningless?

What do you mean "consumed" ? Government spending is only hard-limited by keeping up this Federal Reserve dog and pony show that seeks to handicap the government's own monetary sovereignty. What you're actually talking about is the risk-free interest rate given out to entities that park their money in Treasuries, which is itself set by the government!

This is most certainly not to say that the government could just create an unlimited amount of money and expect there to be no repercussions! Rather the overall point is that it's specious to analyze a government budget in terms of "debt", especially while giving a pass to all of the monetary creation that happens outside of the legislative (loans issued/bought by the Fed).

Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#67

Post by WalterBright »

mindslight wrote: post #28
blindriver wrote: post #15

Holy hell, they hired 83,000 people since 2019? Does no one care we are $36T in debt? 40% of our income taxes go to paying just the interest on our debt!

These days I just assume that anybody driving focus to the "debt" and specifically "paying interest on the debt" has no idea what they're talking about. Write it on the blackboard 50 times: the budget of a sovereign nation issuing a reserve currency is not analogous to household finances! As a follower of Austrian economics, monetary creation by the government most certainly does matter. But this myopic focus on "deb…

The problem with the debt is interest is paid on it. Keep adding to the debt, and the interest payments will cause a doom loop ending in fiscal catastrophe.

If the government instead switched to simply printing more money, we'd have runaway inflation, and history tells us what happens next (Weimar Republic).

Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#68

Post by bpt3 »

kstrauser wrote: post #65
bpt3 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What gives you the impression we don't tax the rich? The American middle and lower class are the least taxed individuals in the developed world. The upper classes, especially given a disproportionate percentage live in places like NYC and CA, are carrying EU-levels of tax burden already. I'm certainly open to changing how things like dividend income are treated, but the rich don't have enough money to solve our budge…

> What gives you the impression we don't tax the rich? Math and history. One example explainer: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/80552/total-tax... > The upper classes, especially given a disproportionate percentage live in places like NYC and CA, are carrying EU-levels of tax burden already. Citation urgently needed. That doesn't jibe with literally any report I've read about such things, except from ant…

> Math and history. One example explainer: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/80552/total-tax...

I honestly have no idea why you think information about aggregate tax revenue over time is relevant to your original claim. If you want to see the tax rate increased on the upper extremes (like the top 400 mentioned at that link), I would too but it's a drop in the bucket.

> Citation urgently needed. That doesn't jibe with literally any report I've read about such things, except from anti-tax extremist organizations.

From https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/eu/top-personal-income-ta...

The average statutory top personal income tax rate in the EU is 42.8%.

"For comparison, the average combined state and federal top income tax rate for the 50 US states and the District of Columbia lies at 42.14 percent as of January 2025, with rates ranging from 37 percent in states without a state income tax to 50.3 percent in California."

Feel free to call the Tax Foundation an "anti-tax extremist organization" if you'd like, but I wouldn't agree and they are just reporting facts here.

Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#69

Post by toomuchtodo »

blindriver wrote: post #15

Holy hell, they hired 83,000 people since 2019? Does no one care we are $36T in debt? 40% of our income taxes go to paying just the interest on our debt!

Raise taxes progressively, we can afford it, but the people in control don’t want to so we’re going cut to the bone government services that aren’t intended to be profitable or a business while the debt continues to grow (as there isn’t sufficient discretionary spending to be cut that would materially lower the debt trajectory).

There is no other way out. "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else." -- Churchill

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/a-visual-breakdown-of-who-o...

https://usafacts.org/government-spending/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQoh9jdRZPM

Re: Leaked VA memo calls for up to 83,000 layoffs to reduce workforce to 2019 levels

#70

Post by seanmcdirmid »

bpt3 wrote: post #68
kstrauser wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What gives you the impression we don't tax the rich? Math and history. One example explainer: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/80552/total-tax... > The upper classes, especially given a disproportionate percentage live in places like NYC and CA, are carrying EU-levels of tax burden already. Citation urgently needed. That doesn't jibe with literally any report I've read about such things, except from ant…

> Math and history. One example explainer: https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/80552/total-tax ... I honestly have no idea why you think information about aggregate tax revenue over time is relevant to your original claim. If you want to see the tax rate increased on the upper extremes (like the top 400 mentioned at that link), I would too but it's a drop in the bucket. > Citation urgently needed. That doesn…

Could we stop talking about top marginal income tax rates as if graduated income taxation wasn't a thing? You will pay less taxes in California than Mississippi or Alabama if you are poor.

Even if you are a single person in California making $400k/year (which I would call pretty rich!), you are only paying 8.38% of your income in state tax (you don't even hit the 13.3% bracket until a million dollars or so?). In total, you are paying 39.22% of your income in taxes (including federal and payroll). As a baseline, if you are in Texas which doesn't have state income tax, you are paying around 31% for the same income.

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