Ramaswamy wants to defund unauthorized government programs - like veteran healthcare
Ramaswamy wants to defund unauthorized government programs - like veteran healthcare
In 2024, the Veterans’ Health Care Eligibility Reform Act of 1996 accounted for nearly $120 billion in government funds despite its appropriations being authorized through 1998
Summary
Vivek Ramaswamy, recently appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has proposed defunding federal programs that lack current congressional authorization.
This could affect programs like veterans’ healthcare, NASA, and early education initiatives, which still receive funding despite expired authorizations.
Ramaswamy argues that cutting these programs could save billions, and he’s committed to targeting expenditures that “don’t advance the interests of American citizens.”
DOGE, co-led by Elon Musk, aims to curb government spending, with Musk estimating potential cuts of up to $2 trillion.
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How is veteran healthcare unauthorized?
It was authorized, but it had an expiration date. Now it's something that we just take for granted so much we never even thought about having to re-authorize it.
OIC. Well snowballs chance when orange twit assumes the throne
Really surprised he’s the first republican to try cutting it. They’ve been going after vets for years.
It's a political hand grenade. Of course Trump is the only one willing or able to eat it.
Is it really a political hand grenade? Seems like majority of vets vote red no matter what.
Nah, they're observant. They have to be. They're trained to be. They may be young and dumb, but they'll see shit like this. Trust me, I've been there. The young ones may vote red but the older ones dont. And that matters in the military.
I'd like to believe you, but 65% red is a pretty high number. https://responsiblestatecraft.org/veterans-vote-trump/
That's in the face of nearly every military leader that had contact with Trump saying he was unfit, Trump having that weird campaign event at a cemetery, etc.
65% with Fox News being shoveled into every chow hall in the military, open recruiting for the republican party, and forced church. That's the highest they're able to get. And a bunch of those do pay attention. In 2020 Active duty voted blue because conservative service members either crossed party lines or stayed home. The veterans who swing hard right get fully captured by the alt right you tube crap too. Come for the cool guns, stay for the speech about Trump. Gods I could go on for hours about that whirlpool of tactical influencers.
But the upside is that anyone who has even a couple braincells no onboard the right wing train bounces right off that stuff. And he might delete our healthcare, but to be honest, and this is the important bit; Veterans don't have enough votes to swing national or state elections. He does this and it's everyone listening to us complain about the sudden lack of healthcare after 2 major wars that he has to worry about.
Watching the latter half of GWOT veterans eat the bait on the Republican line has been really painful for those of us who got home in 2004 and found out what Bush had been telling the people while we were fighting. At least Obama was honest about why he sent us over. It was a fool's errand but better than a snipe hunt disguised as regime change.