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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

#21

Post by bdangubic »

blindriver wrote: post #17
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…

Veteran suicide can be massively helped with psilosibin and ketamine therapy, things that I hope RFK Jr will implement quickly.

yea, if you watched / listened / observed / ... RFK Jr you can definitely conclude that he is ALL ABOUT drugs and more drugs... :)

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

#22

Post by CharlieDigital »

apsec112 wrote: post #3
simonsarris wrote: post #2

It's so difficult to evaluate this stuff from afar. In 2019 there were 399,000 workers. Now 482,000. In 2022, the Biden admin tried to slash 50,000 workers and was stymied, and then the VA hired 61,000 the following year. What's the right number? I'm sure people leaning one way politically will confidently say one thing, though they may have said something else in 2022, and vice versa. I find it hard to have a proble…

The PACT Act was a new bipartisan statute, passed in 2022, that expanded the VA's responsibilities and how many people were eligible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honoring_our_PACT_Act_of_2022

I feel like this should be higher because of facts.

    The PACT Act is perhaps the largest health care and benefit expansion in VA history.[22] The PACT Act brings these changes:

     - Expands and extends eligibility for VA health care for Veterans with toxic exposures and Veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf War, and post-9/11 eras
     - Adds 20+ more presumptive conditions for burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic exposures
     - Adds more presumptive-exposure locations for Agent Orange and radiation
     - Requires VA to provide a toxic exposure screening to every Veteran enrolled in VA health care
     - Helps VA improve research, staff education, and treatment related to toxic exposures
Literally things that we should do if we are going to send kids off to fight and then expose them to these things.

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

#23

Post by ravedave5 »

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!

Neither side cares we are in debt, see the spending plan put forth.

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

#24

Post by stonogo »

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!

The PACT act increased the number of veterans eligible for VA health care by hundreds of thousands.

Additionally, I question whether attacking the VA's budget, which in its entirety is less than four percent of government spending, is the place to start looking for efficiencies, especially since nearly three percent of the spending budget is unreported.

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

#25

Post by AcerbicZero »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #7
simonsarris wrote: post #2

It's so difficult to evaluate this stuff from afar. In 2019 there were 399,000 workers. Now 482,000. In 2022, the Biden admin tried to slash 50,000 workers and was stymied, and then the VA hired 61,000 the following year. What's the right number? I'm sure people leaning one way politically will confidently say one thing, though they may have said something else in 2022, and vice versa. I find it hard to have a proble…

My biggest issue is that the current cuts are not being done with any sort of plan beyond "What can I get away with". Hiring at big organizations is complicated and people are not fungible no matter how much companies like Amazon push them to be. Wanting to slash 50k and hire 61k could make total sense if the overlap of skills is limited or non-existent. I'm pretty left leaning these days, and I'd be fine with cuts,…

I get this vibe, but I also wonder roughly how much intentionality and thought went into hiring these folks in the first place? Kinda seems like when it comes time to hire they're mostly focused on "what can I get away with".

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

#26

Post by [deleted] »

redeux wrote: post #20
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…

Vets aren’t as conservative as you might think and they’re a vulnerable population without a strong collective voice. The vets that actually have a voice were usually officers who showed little empathy for the rank and file to begin with, so why would they now?

[deleted]

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

#28

Post by mindslight »

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 "debt" completely hides the actual separate dynamics like domestic people/institutions parking their savings, foreign entities buying treasuries for longer term stability, or the political martingale of accounting for legislative monetary creation as paper "debt" to the Federal Reserve.

The current cries about government spending are basically aiming at killing the goose that lays golden eggs because some people got frustrated by having to spend some of the proceeds of selling the eggs on the goose's own feed.

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

#29

Post by hypeatei »

hello_moto wrote: post #14

The Administration actions are all to fund the $4.5 trillion tax cut. * DOGE - Cut Expenses * Tariff - Bring Revenue (another form of Tax, the victimized countries can't/don't influence USA politics); this is essentially Sales/VAT Tax without being said as Sales/VAT Tax. * Cutting Aids - Cut Expenses * Ukraine - Cut Expenses They're looking for all avenue to fund $4.5 trillion tax cut for the Billionaires. That is th…

That's not the main reason either, actually. There is no way that you're going to find $4.5T in "waste, fraud, and abuse" unless you consider anything you don't like as that.

What they're really doing is handicapping as much as possible to make government appear inept so that they can come in and privatize.

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

#30

Post by apical_dendrite »

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!

Congress passed the PACT act that expanded healthcare and disability benefits for veterans who had been exposed to burn pits, agent orange, and other toxins.

These are decades-old problems that the government refused to address until 2022.

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