After Raw Story reporting revealed that Derrick Van Orden “called for the Trump administration to implement cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs,” Van Orden is “receiving a lot of backlash” for his dangerous agenda that threatens Wisconsin veterans’ access to health care.
Van Orden said directly to VA Secretary Doug Collins: “So when we are going to cut the VA? And I hope you do, sir” – making it clear he can’t be trusted to protect Wisconsin veterans’ health care.
DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith:
“Derrick Van Orden yelled the quiet part out loud – he wants to cut the VA and jeopardize Wisconsin veterans’ access to quality health care.”
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2Paragraphs: GOP Congressman Slammed For Encouraging VA Secretary to Make Cuts
- During a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee meeting, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) urged President Trump’s VA Secretary Doug Collins to make cuts to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
- While making his argument for the cuts, Van Orden revealed a notepad with a line drawing illustrating the increase of “bureaucrats and veterans” and a flat line of doctors. Van Orden pointed to the line of bureaucrats and said: “When we are going to cut the VA, and I hope you do sir, this is where you need to make the cut.”
- Van Orden is receiving a lot of backlash on X for making his pronouncement with “glee.”
- Another chimed in: “It’s really going to blow his mind when he finds out ‘bureaucrats’ is just MAGA-speak for ‘assistants, administrators, IT, purchasing, HR, payroll, etc.’ You know, the ‘non-doctors’ who do the other s— so doctors can do MEDICINE. You cut them & nothing works.”
- A retired Registered Nurse who says she was fired by DOGE replied: “Cutting ‘bureaucrats’ at the VA isn’t going to magically produce Doctors & other healthcare professionals who want to work there. Given the actions since January, their jobs are much more secure in a private hospital system where being <2 years in a role isn’t grounds for firing.”
Raw Story: Outrage as MAGA Republican threatens agency long thought untouchable
- Democrats hit out at Derrick Van Orden after the Wisconsin Republican representative called for the Trump administration to implement cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
- “So when are we going to cut the VA?” Van Orden asked at a U.S. House hearing on Thursday.
- “Derrick Van Orden isn’t even trying to hide it – he wants to cut the VA,” Katie Smith, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told Raw Story on Friday.
- “Van Orden’s dangerous agenda is a direct threat to Wisconsin veterans and their access to quality healthcare.”
- Representatives for Van Orden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- “So when we are going to cut the VA?” Van Orden said. “And I hope you do, sir.”
- Since President Donald Trump’s return to power in January, the administration has imposed severe cuts on federal departments.
- Particularly as implemented by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, such cuts have proved increasingly unpopular.
- DOGE is seeking around 15 percent staff cuts at the VA.
- This month, a survey by Mission Roll Call, a nonprofit, showed 44 percent of veterans describing themselves as “very concerned” and 20 percent “concerned” over such planned cuts.
- NPR reported that department data showed almost 11,300 VA employees had applied for a deferred resignation deal.
- “The top positions across all networks that are requesting deferred resignation are nurses (about 1,300), medical support assistants (about 800) and social workers (about 300),” NPR said.
