The event was billed as nonpartisan, but the Washington gathering featured numerous signs and protests against President Donald Trump, VA Secretary Doug Collins and billionaire Elon Musk, accusing them of betraying the country’s promises to troops.
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“Are you tired of being thanked for our service in the public and stabbed in our back in private?” Army veteran Everett Kelly, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, asked the crowd assembled just a few blocks from the White House.
“For years, politicians on both sides of the aisle have campaigned on their support of veterans, but once they get into office, they cut our benefits, our services. They take every opportunity to privatize our health care.”
The event — coinciding with the 81st anniversary of D-Day — was modeled on the Bonus Army protests of the 1930s, when veterans who served in World War I gathered in Washington to demand extra pay they had been denied after leaving the service.
Organizers said this public protest needed to highlight worrisome plans from Trump and Collins to cut roughly 80,000 VA staffers in the coming months and shift more money from the federal health care system to private-sector clinics.
VA officials in a statement dismissed the concerns and the event as misguided.
“Anyone who says VA is cutting health care and benefits is not being honest,” said VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz in a statement.
“The Biden Administration failed to address nearly all of VA’s most serious problems, including rising health care wait times, benefits backlogs, and major issues with survivor benefits. Under President Trump and Secretary Collins, VA is fixing these problems and making major improvements.”
Department leaders have sparred with Democratic lawmakers in recent months over details of those plans, and over the assertion that VA is a fundamentally broken organization in need of major reforms.
Irma Westmoreland, a registered nurse working at a VA hospital and the secretary-treasurer of National Nurses United, said workers are already dealing with new restrictions and issues of short-staffing, with fears that more are on the way.
“It’s important for every person to keep their job, from the engineering staff to the housekeeper to the dietary staff,” she told the crowd, eliciting applause. “When cuts are made, the nursing and medical staff will have to pick up all their work that needs to be done.”
Organizers encouraged veterans at Friday’s rally to take their protests back home, through local activism and awareness campaigns, to ensure veterans services remain unharmed.
For their part, VA officials dismissed the event as little more than union complaints and pledged to press ahead with their reform proposals in the coming months.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
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