Trump, Vance, and MAGA Mike Johnson’s 2025 Agenda Would Slash PACT Act Protections and Rip Away Care from Veterans Exposed to Toxic Burn Pits Arrow

DNC National Press Secretary Emilia Rowland released the following statement:

"After Trump spent his first term calling service members 'suckers' and 'losers' and pushing for devastating cuts to veterans' hard-earned benefits, Vice President Harris worked alongside President Biden to deliver health benefits for over a million toxic-exposed veterans in spite of Republicans' attempts to block the life-saving care. Republicans' Project 2025 agenda for a Trump-Vance administration would go even further, calling for hard-earned health care and disability benefits to be ripped away from our veterans including PACT Act beneficiaries. This election is a choice between leaders who will continue to deliver on our sacred promise to those who've served our country and a ticket that's broken that promise time and again. From Donald Trump and JD Vance to MAGA Mike Johnson, any so-called leader working to rip away access to lifesaving medical care from our nation's veterans is fundamentally unfit to serve."

Trump and his MAGA cronies are trying to hide their Project 2025 blueprint behind his second term agenda. Here's an overview of his real plans:

Project 2025 calls for the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) to place new limits on what claims will make current and future recipients eligible for disability benefits: Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership, p.650:

"The VA's Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) has assigned disability ratings to a growing number of health conditions over time; some are tenuously related or wholly unrelated to military service. The further growth in presumptive service-connected medical conditions pursued by Congress and Veteran Service Organizations, begun with Agent Orange and most recently for Burn Pits/Airborne Toxins, has led to historic increases in mandatory VBA spending in recent years.

The VA has a time-phased plan to reassess the VASRD and its ratings for compensation, but this internal process can be slow and laborious, requires Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approvals, and can become politically charged both in Congress and with VSOs. The next Administration should explore how VASRD reviews could be accelerated with clearance from OMB to target significant cost savings from revising disability rating awards for future claimantswhile preserving them fully or partially for existing claimants."

In other words, this plan would:

• Rob brave veterans and active service members of billions of dollars in hard-earned benefits.
• Drastically reduce the federal workforce, which employs 300,000 veterans, leaving a substantial number of veterans, many of them disabled, without jobs.
• Privatize the Veterans Health Administration, allowing Trump's ultra-rich buddies to profit off of Americans who made the fearless sacrifice to serve our country.
• Slash disability compensation for veterans who were injured in the line of duty and strip some disabled veterans of these benefits entirely.
• Bar certain groups of veterans from enrolling in Veterans Administration medical care.
• Shut down VA hospitals and clinics that veterans rely on for lifesaving health care.

House Republicans have repeatedly proposed drastic cuts to veterans health care programs, including Medicaid and Medicare.

Fox Business: "The House Republican Budget Chair once again called for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA, saying it is 'inevitable' that they will be on his chopping block."

Protect Our Care Fact Sheet: "Republicans Propose Budget That Will Raise Health Care Costs and Rip Coverage Away from Millions of Americans"

The White House: "Undermine Medical Care for Veterans: Cutting funding by 22 percent would mean 30 million fewer veteran outpatient visits, and 81,000 jobs lost across the Veterans Health Administration-leaving veterans unable to get appointments for care including wellness visits, cancer screenings, mental health services, and substance use disorder treatment."

White House Fact Sheet: "The Republican Budget would side with Big Pharma to increase drug prices and seniors' out-of-pocket costs by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act.

"Medicare would no longer be able to negotiate lower drug prices. Big Pharma would once again be allowed to set whatever price they want, leaving seniors and taxpayers on the hook and facing higher prices.

"Big Pharma would no longer pay Medicare back when they increase drug prices faster than inflation, allowing them to jack up prices with no accountability.

"Seniors would go back to paying up to $400 for insulin, instead of the $35 price cap per monthly insulin prescription they have today."

Vice President Kamala Harris worked alongside President Biden to pass the PACT Act despite Republicans' attempts to block the lifesaving bill. So far, over 1 million PACT-related claims have now been granted - with more than 888,000 veterans and survivors across all 50 states and U.S. territories now receiving new benefits.

New York Times: "President Biden announced on Tuesday that his administration has approved more than one million claims from veterans injured by toxic exposures during their service, actions made possible by a new law he championed, officials said."

Spectrum News: "March 5, 2024 marks the first day of one of the largest expansions in VA health care for veterans across the country."

"Starting on March 5, veterans with toxic exposure from the Vietnam War, Gulf War and post-September 11th era, will now be covered."

White House Fact Sheet: "Under President Biden's leadership, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has processed claims at the fastest rate in history, and is delivering health care to more veterans than ever before."

MAGA Mike Johnson, Trump's top minion in Congress, voted against the historic PACT Act.

Military.com: "Here's How New House Speaker Mike Johnson Voted on Veteran and Military Issues"

"On veterans issues, last year he voted against the PACT Act, considered the biggest increase of veterans benefits in a generation that expanded benefits and health care for those exposed to toxic substances during their military service."

"Johnson also voted against a year-end package of smaller veterans and military family measures last year. Among other provisions, the bill mandated that states recognize service members and spouses' valid professional licenses from other states and ensured veterans won't lose GI Bill benefits if schools have to close in a future emergency like they did for the COVID-19 pandemic."

Many extreme MAGA Republicans in the Senate tried to block passage of the PACT Act - literally fist-bumping one another for their attempts to deny benefits to veterans.

CNN: "Senate procedural vote on burn pits legislation fails amid widespread Republican opposition"

NPR: "The Senate passed a bill to help sick veterans. Then 25 Republicans reversed course"

"They are: John Barrasso, Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, Mike Braun, Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn, Tom Cotton, Kevin Cramer, Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst, Deb Fischer, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Jim Inhofe, Ron Johnson, John Kennedy, Roger Marshall, Mitch McConnell, Rob Portman, Ben Sasse, Tim Scott, Rick Scott, Dan Sullivan and Todd Young. Sens. Additionally, Sens. Steve Daines and Roger Wicker voted against the bill after not voting in June."

HuffPost: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was captured on video Thursday fist-bumping Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) shortly after Republicans managed to block the PACT Act, which would allow soldiers, sailors and airmen exposed to pits of smoldering waste in combat zones to be covered by the Veterans Affairs health care system for linked illnesses. Many are suffering from cancer."

Trump has made it crystal clear that he does not respect veterans and their service to our country, calling fallen veterans "losers" and "suckers" and pushing to slash disabled veterans' benefits while president.

The Atlantic: "Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are 'Losers' and

'Suckers'"

"When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris, in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that 'the helicopter couldn't fly' and that the Secret Service wouldn't drive him there. Neither claim was true.

"Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, 'Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers.' In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as 'suckers' for getting killed."

USA Today: "Although President Donald Trump's proposed budget plan for the 2018 fiscal year would increase spending across the Department of Veterans Affairs, the proposal would also slash individual unemployment benefits for disabled veterans by more than $40.8 billion over 10 years."

Military.com: "Elderly Vets Could Face Benefits Cut Under Trump Budget"

"Veterans Affairs Secretary Dr. David Shulkin defended Wednesday a proposal in President Donald Trump's federal budget plan that would cut a benefit paying thousands of dollars annually to disabled elderly veterans."

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