April 30, 2025 11:51 AM UTC

Blind Obedience to Trump Will Hurt Colorado Veterans

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Department of Veterans Affairs struggled for years to fix problems with long wait times and thick brambles of referrals that made it difficult for veterans to receive the medical care they so desperately needed. Following extensive reforms and overhauls, the VA finally managed to get to a place where it was operating more efficiently and veterans were able to receive the care they deserved in a timely manner.

Now, veterans are growing concerned that all of those positive changes are about to be undone by President Trump, Elon Musk, and the death-grip of DOGE.

As Mary Shinn and Stephanie Earls report in an excellent story for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman:

One hundred days into President Donald Trump’s second term, and a downsizing campaign that’s poised to overhaul, streamline and — in some cases — eradicate bedrock federal agencies, the nation’s largest integrated health care system is again on the brink of a fundamental remake.

In March, VA Secretary Doug Collins announced plans to slash the agency’s workforce by 15%, bringing the number of employees down from 470,000 to 398,000, according to an opinion piece he penned in The Hill. Other published accounts put the number of firings under the Trump administration plan at around 80,000 nationwide…

…Collins, a former Air Force Reserve chaplain and congressman nominated by Trump and sworn in on Feb. 5, said in The Hill that the cuts envisioned would bring the VA back to 2019 staffing levels, a time before major recent expansions to benefits that added 740,000 people to the VA system over two years. [Pols emphasis]

Many lawmakers, advocates, employees and patients question how such large cuts can happen without an impact on services, and without sending significantly more patients into the private sector.

VA Secretary Doug Collins is couching these proposed cuts in the same nonsense DOGE language of trying to root out “inefficiencies and waste.” But as we’ve seen from massive federal government staffing reductions in other departments, these cuts are often decided by the DOGE dorks’ equivalent of throwing darts.

These cuts are also likely to impact a recent expansion of benefits under the PACT Act. The Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act was a bipartisan piece of legislation passed in 2022 — with 34 House Republicans in support — and signed into law by President Joe Biden (curiously, no Colorado Republican voted in support of the PACT Act — not even Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs). The PACT Act expanded health coverage for an estimated 3.5 million former soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where burn pits were used to dispose of trash, sewage, and medical waste; exposure has been linked to respiratory issues and cancer.

This issue came up in 2023 and 2024 for Congressperson Lauren Boebert, who was lambasted for voting against the PACT Act. As Business Insider reported in 2024, when Boebert was running in her new district in CO-04:

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert said that she voted against a bill to increase healthcare benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits because she did not want to spend “a billion dollars forever” on unclear legislation…

…Boebert defended her vote by saying she refused to vote “for something that we had 22 hours to read, that’s over 2,000 pages long.”

The Denver Post reported that Boebert added she wasn’t willing to spend “a billion dollars forever because we couldn’t get a couple of pieces of language right in the legislation.”

Fortunately, smarter heads prevailed and the legislation passed without Boebert’s support…though she took a big political hit for that vote:

As Shinn and Earls write for the Gazette newspapers, there are new fears that the program could be on its way out just as it is getting started:

Steve Kjonaas, legislative director for the Colorado VFW, fears that the proposed cuts could hurt the quality of care available to those recently approved for benefits under the expansion.

“We need the people who were hired since the PACT Act to treat the new patients,” said Kjonaas, a former Air Force fire chief…

…One of the most concerning areas for potential cuts is mental health care, said Kjonaas, calling it a “significant hazard” that could lead to veterans considering suicide.

Those potential cuts, he said, posted the “greatest risk to life.”

Ads like the one above could soon be airing against freshman Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colorado Springs), who talked last fall about representing the most military-heavy congressional district in Colorado. Apparently, that was just something to say at the time and not really a core belief for Crank. Here’s what Crank said to the Gazette about the issue of VA cuts:

Crank represents the El Paso County-based 5th Congressional District, home of 40,000 active-duty military and 80,000 retired vets, earlier told The Gazette he has “faith” that Trump’s executive mandates are clearing the way for a “more efficient and effective government.”

“President Trump is following through on his commitment to root out waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government. While the President’s process is in its early stages, I am closely monitoring the impacts to Coloradans,” he said in an emailed statement to The Gazette.

In short: Crank isn’t going to do a damn thing to help veterans. Crank isn’t even pretending, in fact.

In February, a group of veterans and constituents protested the proposed cuts outside of Crank’s Colorado Springs office. Last month protestors gathered in Colorado Springs to draw attention to the fact that Crank has ignored them. From KOAA TV:

A large veteran presence was also in the crowd Monday night, some of whom told me they have yet to hear from their representative about their VA concerns.

“I’m 100% disabled veteran, and my husband had to have surgery last October,” said Army veteran Naomi Rockafellow. “We paid the copay for the surgery, and then January this year, we got a bill for the surgery. Nobody’s answered my question.”

The Congressman who represents the most military-heavy district in Colorado isn’t even responding to his constituents, choosing instead to demonstrate blind obsequiousness to the Trump administration. The people who will bear the brunt of these cuts know what is coming regardless:

“That is Congress’ way of taking a sledgehammer to the VA,” said Russell Lemle, a senior policy analyst for the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute.

Project 2025, a conservative policy plan released before Trump took office, also proposes letting the aging VA medical campuses die. [Pols emphasis]

It’s likely that the changes could lead the VA to transition to providing primarily outpatient care, Lemle said, with inpatient and emergency care happening in the private sector.

Colorado Republicans in Congress are making it very clear that the only opinion that matters to them is the one coming from the Oval Office. Elected officials such as Crank, Boebert, and Rep. Gabe Evans are performing for a constituency of one.