House Republicans blasted the Biden administration Thursday over “partisan misinformation” about how their debt ceiling bill impacts veterans.
In a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, 56 House Republicans, led by Congresswoman and Navy Veteran Jen Kiggans (R-VA) blasted McDonough for a press release claiming that returning spending to 2022 levels — effectively a 22% cut from current levels — would do harm to America’s veterans. The White House has continually claimed in recent weeks that the spending caps would target veterans.
“As you are aware, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) issued a press release falsely stating that the proposal which became the Limit, Save, Grow Act would threaten medical care for 30 million veterans, worsen wait times for hundreds of thousands of veterans and survivors applying for benefits, and fail to honor the memory of all veterans,” the members wrote. “Mr. Secretary, the Department’s assertions are dishonest and shameless. The facts are that nowhere in the Limit, Save, Grow Act is it indicated that the VA budget would be cut. The intent of the legislation is to set a topline number for the entire federal budget.”
The members also pointed out that House Republican leadership has already promised to fully fund the VA. “The leaders of the Congressional bodies that oversee and fund the VA have all firmly stated that veterans’ earned care and benefits are not on the table,” they wrote. “The VA purposely chose to ignore these facts in favor of baseless political talking points.”
“Many members of Congress are deeply troubled and personally offended that the Biden Administration continues to use these dishonest talking points to create panic and fear in our veteran populations,” the members wrote. “Our veterans made great sacrifices so that we may have the privilege to live freely in this great Nation. They did not make those sacrifices to be a talking point for a political party’s gain. They did not sacrifice themselves so they could be used as a pawn to create fear and anxiety among their fellow veterans. Political games have absolutely no place in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.”
The “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023” was passed along party lines last week. Among other proposals, the bill would return federal spending to 2022 levels. Those rollbacks would effectively cut spending by 22% from current levels, but the bill does not specify where those cuts will come from. The bill also caps new spending increases at 1% for a decade, recoups unspent COVID funds, and rolls back several key Biden priorities.
Despite no evidence that the spending cuts will impact veterans at all, the Biden administration has latched onto the idea that the cuts will harm them specifically. Days before the bill was passed, the VA released an analysis claiming that a 22% cut would hurt veterans by cutting jobs and funding for the VA. The cuts would in turn lead to losses of care, longer wait times, deprive veterans of access to services, and “fail to honor the memory of all veterans,” the release stated.
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The White House Office of Management and Budget released a separate analysis claiming that cuts would mean 30 million fewer outpatient healthcare visits for veterans, and 81,000 jobs lost. President Joe Biden also posted a tweet on Tuesday digging at Republicans over the cuts.