Trump Is Coming for Veterans' Disability Benefits

[Celerity]

The administration falsely alleges that many former soldiers are cheating the system.

https://prospect.org/2025/12/08/trump-coming-for-veterans-disability-benefits/



On October 29, a disabled Navy veteran and blogger named Theresa Aldrich, who keeps other former service members informed about developments at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), tuned in to what seemed to be a routine session of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC). The hearing had an innocuous title, “Putting Veterans First,” and SVAC members invited a panel of witnesses to discuss the question “Is the Current VA Disability System Keeping Its Promise?” Instead, Aldrich discovered, it was a Republican response to a four-part series in The Washington Post, which accused veterans of bilking the taxpayer out of billions of dollars. Little of the ensuing discussion focused on any needed improvements in the VA disability system, as opposed to just echoing the sensational claims of the Post—that there is an epidemic of veterans defrauding the disability system. All of this, she warned her readers, would “set the stage to cut benefits for 6.9 million veterans.”

The Republican committee members’ star witness was Daniel Gade, a retired Army lieutenant colonel whose leg was amputated after combat injuries suffered in Iraq. The former Department of Veterans Services commissioner from Virginia (and failed Republican Senate candidate in the state) co-authored a 2021 book called Wounding Warriors: How Bad Policy Is Making Veterans Sicker and Poorer with former Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Huang. In it, they argued that the “flood” of new disability claims we have seen over the past two decades is not due to two decades of forever wars. Instead, they assert, the system encourages “veterans to be sick and then we wonder why we have so many sick veterans.” VA disability ratings, Gade and Huang insist, have been “misapplied to mental health disorders like PTSD, which have been repeatedly demonstrated to improve with effective therapies.”

As Gade testified, “For too long, you’ve been told that the best way to care for veterans is to shovel billions of taxpayer dollars into their pockets; this approach has resulted in a veteran class that is sicker, more marginally employed, and more suicidal than ever.” He insisted that “by paying veterans to be sick, we create more sick veterans, separated from meaningful lives of purpose—and we deepen our suicide crisis.” Worse still, he said, “the compensation system traps veterans in a disability identity, teaching them to chase a 100% rating as proof of honor or source of validation. 9 of the top 10 conditions for newly rated veterans are easily exaggerated or totally unverifiable.” The VA also compensates for—and the health care system treats—conditions that have no relationship to their military service but are a normal result of the aging process. Why should veterans who have hypertension or obesity get taxpayer-funded care and money because they’ve gotten “old and fat”? “CALL YOUR SENATORS,” Aldrich urged veterans. “They’re questioning whether compensation should exist for anything short of total incapacity. And they’re using a decorated, disabled veteran to sell it.”

Opening Salvo

Aldrich is correct: This is a second front in the conservative war on the Department of Veterans Affairs, the second-largest federal agency. As the Prospect has reported in detail, over the past decade, Republicans in Congress have been fighting—and too often winning—on their first front, namely the campaign to privatize the VA-run Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Until now, however, the veterans disability system—operated by the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA)—has been a sacred cow for politicians of all stripes on Capitol Hill. If anything has united Republicans and Democrats, it has been that combat veterans and other former service members who sustained injuries or illnesses while serving in uniform deserve compensation. Alas, no longer. Nearly seven million American veterans currently receive VA payments for service-related physical or mental health conditions that left them partially or totally impaired; among them are 1.3 million men and women who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. In FY2025, their total compensation and pensions was $195 billion.

snip

[HAB911]

1. I would like to spray the committee with some of the Agent Orange

I was exposed to. The PACT Act brought more than 710,000 Veterans into the VA health care system by acknowledging government responsibility for our disabilities.

Washington Post? 'nuff said.

[democrank]

6. Vietnam veterans had to fight the government for so long

to have their disabilities recognized. As far as I’m concerned, veterans deserve to have whatever help they need.

My sweetheart suffered and died because of Agent Orange. I will be forever grateful to the VA in White River Junction, Vermont for their care and compassion.

Thank you, HAB911.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

7. My BIL Larry died of Parkinson's Disease grought on by Agent Orange.

In March of 2024 in a Veteran's Home in Yountville, California.

It took 2 years of being on a waiting list to get him in there, and less than 9 months later, he was dead, He had been receiving treatment from the VA in San Jose as well for his other related ailments as he served 2 tours in Vietnam. 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines.

[HAB911]

8. I feel the VA has treated me fairly throughout the process

I was classified 100% for a little more than two years and after radiation treatment and apparent improvement I'll be reclassified at 20% unless the malignancy returns. Without the PACT ACT I doubt I would have ever know of my exposure for the year I was on the DMZ.

[democrank]

34. Don't ever give up.

Hugs~

[UTUSN]

2. K&R

[HAB911]

3. And then there are these sharks in the water

https://www.democraticunderground.com/117912292

[lonely bird]

11. Sigh

Grifters gonna grift.

[Zambero]

4. So compensating veterans

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2025, 01:33 PM - Edit history (1)

for service-related disabilities incurred while on active duty actually makes them sicker and more suicidal? This sounds like the conservative playbook on steroids. The latest entry essentially admonishes disabled veterans to "pull themselves up by their combat bootstraps". During the course of decades-long "conflicts" (undeclared wars) in the Middle East, the decision-makers who put American troops in harms way largely based on flimsy intelligence apparently didn't bother to consider the long-term cost of these protracted wars. At this point, it doesn't matter. Cutting or eliminating these benefits would send a chilling message to active duty military, as well as those who would consider a military career. Packaging a ploy to throw disabled veterans to the curb under the banner of "Putting Veterans First" is particularly disgusting. Hats off to Theresa Aldrich and others for their due diligence in keeping folks informed regarding these developments.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. The assault on vets and the disabled in general is in full swing

It's a cluster to deal with, navigating a maze of rules and forms and approvals. The entire thing is designed to be confusing and tedious so that many people will make mistakes that make them ineligible and others will give up trying.

I help an old friend who is a disabled vet living on social security disability, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps. It's non stop hoop jumping for him where one box missed being checked can mean suspension of benefits for several months. He's become somewhat of an expert on navigating this stuff as he's been fully disabled for going on 20 years now. But it's still tough for him to manage staying eligible. I've seen some of the forms he has to stay up on, they're intentionally designed to be verbose and confusing. If you don't read every paragraph of every piece of mail you get you could end up screwed. He spends hours weekly sorting through everything. He schedules phone calls to make sure everything is correct regularly. And he's in rural Northern Michigan, so one of the hardest things to manage is getting to and from a doctor when the nearest hospital is now 40 miles away after corporate mergers took over and closed small rural hospitals all over.

It's a constant source of stress for him, but at least he has his wits about him and is sharp enough to navigate it all. Every time he tells me about it, I think about the millions of elderly people living in poverty trying to navigate some of the same types of things to get the services they need to stay alive. I'm convinced the homeless shelters are filled in part with people who just couldn't manage the forms and appointments that you need to sort through to stay eligible for aid.

And that's the whole point I believe, the Right wants to make it so more and more of the people who most need help can't get help so they slip through the cracks and in many cases just become homeless or die early.

[maliaSmith]

18. Vets

I wonder how many vets voted for the GOP and Trump. I researched it and found that 61% of our nation's vets voted for Trump. This is disgusting. 61% of our vets voted for a pedo, rapist, traitor, liar, racist fascist. This totally disgusts me.

[Traildogbob]

28. Past a vet as I entered the VA for Imaging Friday,

he was proudly wearing a fucking trump 2028 hat.
Lots of veterans are shoulder deep up his ass.
Can’t express the disgust I had for him as I past.
And the always packed parking lot has plenty of trump stickers

[jfz9580m]

26. Such a heartless damn worldview

But hey this piece of shit has a nice boat:
https://futurism.com/future-society/gabe-newell-buys-obscene-yacht

The stuff targeting seniors is the most heartless stuff. How shameless can you get?

[Orrex]

9. This will make it hard for a majority of veterans to continue worshiping him

But we can be certain that they'll still manage it.

[Gimpyknee]

13. I'm in agreement with you there.

[Wednesdays]

37. They'll continue to be glued to Faux Noise

And be convinced Democrats are evil and the cause of all their woes!

[Orrex]

39. That's the truth, and here's something I've said before:

My job has me working in people's homes for lengthy service calls each day. If CNN or MSNBC is on, it's on in the background, and people are going about their lives. If Fox is on (and it's on in a great many western PA homes), then at least one person will be sitting motionless in a chair and sucking down the propaganda for hours on end.

The lies and faux outrage come in a torrent nonstop, with each nugget of propaganda carrying the clear message that this is something the viewers need to be angry about right this second! And the drooling viewers are happy to oblige.

[Midnight Writer]

10. I had a buddy who lost his legs in Vietnam.

Every couple of years he would get a letter from the VA that he would need to be re-examined to see if his disability had "improved".

It never did.

[Norrrm]

31. veteran's disability claim 1888

veteran's disability claim 1888

VA NEWS FLASH from Larry Scott at VA Watchdog dot Org -- 01-02-2007 #2


THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME -- Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland looks at a veteran's claim from 1888.


Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland provides regular columns for VA Watchdog dot Org.

---------------


The letter below was forwarded to me from a reader last week. It drives home the fact that not much has changed for the wartime Veteran.

On this first day of 2007, I'm amazed at the similarity to a Vet's woes in 1888.

I may just copy this and send it to my VARO over my signature the next time I hear from them. I'm convinced it's authentic.

The link to an original Internet posting of this soldier's letter is here http://www.suvcw.org/pr/art040.htm

...............................................................


Brig. General John Charles Black

Commissioner of Pensions in 1888

..............................................................


Redwood, April 23, 1888

Mr. Black, Commissioner:


Dear Sir,

I've just got another one of your postal cards telling me to go before the doctors and be examined. I've been getting these cards about every new moon since I applied for an increase of my pension two years ago. I've been examined, poked in the ribs, sounded in the lungs and made to bend over the back of a chair and perform all sorts a monkey shines in my shirt tail, till I feel I otter have a salary with an agent to go ahead and stick up bills.


To begin with, you sent a couple of doctors up to Skin Creek, and it took em half an hour to find out that the reason why they couldn't find any circulation in my left leg was because it was made of wood. The next time you sent me a little cuss with glasses down to Swampville, and after fumbling me over long enough, he put my truss on hind side afore and said the pad was intended to brace up my spinal column. Three or four times after that you sent me odds and ends of doctors who couldn't tell the difference between an epileptic symptom and a boiled clam, and the last time you sent me before a full board of surgeons down to the county seat. They came to this conclusion, nigh’ as I could catch on, that something was wrong with my bladder. Now I have my opinions of a doctor who don't know the difference between a man's bladder and his bollix. Perhaps this is all right. It may be fun for the doctors. It was fun for me for a while, but now that you order

me back again to the first two doctors up to Skin Creek, and probably expect me to start on the same old circus over again, I'm going to kick like a brindled steer.


Last summer, because of the friskiness of a pair of colts, my wooden leg got tangled and all chewed up to cinders in a mowing machine. I 'plied to the Surgeon General for a new leg, but he said that I'd only had the old one three years, and I'd have to wait two years more before the government could afford to make a hole in the surplus by getting me a new one. So I'm waiting and in all this interesting panorama of examinations, I've been hobbling around on one leg, and doing my best to prove that one of Uncle Sam's veterans, with one leg in the grave and the other damn near in, is better than a corpse by several percent. But honking' around in this way ain’t first class fun for a man with a steady job. I've stood it for a good while without grumbling and I suppose, furnished a lot of fun for the doctors, while paying my own expenses. Meanwhile my natural leg, the one I brought away safe from the wilderness, has took to the rheumatism till I'm almost

sorry I did not drop it where I did the other one. And about the only hope my good leg can give me now, is to serve as a sort of rudder when I'm sliding downstairs on my rump.


Now, Mr Commissioner, about the matter of increasing my pension, you may do just as you damn please. If you think that loosing one leg in the wilderness in 1864, shot through the belly by a bullet at Antietam in 1862, and if you think that the pension I have been getting is full pay for a set of busted insides that haven’t been in running order in more'n twenty years and never will be on this side of New Jerusalem, all right. If the government says so, I'm a silent partner. But I'm a going to tell you just between us, that when the Minnie ball went through me at Antietam, it played mischief with some of the important parts, and it played for keeps. It cut something all to thunder. I don't know whether it was my liver, or my lungs, my gizzard or my guts and your pet doctors don’t seem to know as much about it as I do.


The plain fact is, and that’s what I am driving at, I'm physically broke up and busted from my single heel to my chin whiskers and I got busted up at Antietam before my leg was lost, and the record says so. They wanted to discharge me for the first ball through my body at Anteitam, and I wouldn't let them. I was bound to stick till we busted the Rebellion or till the Rebels busted me, with more bullet holes through my carcass, and I did. And now you’ve made me do as much marching from pillar to post in this hide-and-seek game with the doctors as would have took me from the wilderness to the end of the war. If I wasn't good enough to march then, I'm damned if I'll do any more of it now, so you don't need to pay any more doctors charges for me. You've been actually paying the doctors on the average about ninety six dollars a year for staving off my claim, and that’s more than you'd have to pay me if you’d granted my increase at first sight. You

stalled me on my getting a cent of that ninety six dollars and now I am going to stall the cussed doctors on getting any more of it. If I go before any more doctors for an examination you've got to do something more than send me a postal card. You'll have to haul me before 'em with a derrick.


Now I don't want to be sassy. I ain't built that way. But Mr. Black, if you expect to blossom out as a Vice-President of the United States by bucking against the honest claim of an old veteran with one foot actually in the grave and the other damn near it, your getting down more hay than you'll have time to cock up. You'll make about as much at that game as the Surgeon General will by veto’n wooden legs.


Respectfully with a damn good memory,


Unsigned

................................................


footnote:


BLACK, John Charles, (1839 - 1915)


Representative from Illinois; born in Lexington, Holmes County, Miss., January 27, 1839; moved to Danville, Vermilion County, Ill., in 1847; attended the common schools and Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind., but was not graduated until after the close of the Civil War; served in the Union Army from April 14, 1861, to August 15, 1865; entered as a private, and was successively sergeant major, major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel; brevetted brigadier general for service in the storming of Fort Blakeley on April 9, 1865; received the Congressional Medal; studied law in Chicago, Ill.; was admitted to the bar in 1867 and commenced practice in Danville, Ill.; appointed United States Commissioner of Pensions by President Cleveland and served from March 17, 1885, to March 27, 1889; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third Congress and served from March 4, 1893, to January 12, 1895, when he resigned; United States attorney for the northern district of

Illinois 1895-1899; department commander of the Loyal Legion of Illinois 1895-1897; department commander of the Illinois department, Grand Army of the Republic, in 1898; commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1903 and 1904; member of the United States Civil Service Commission 1904-1913 and served as its president; resigned and returned to Chicago, Ill., where he died August 17, 1915; interment in Spring Hill Cemetery, Danville, Ill.

_____________________


There are eight Redwoods in the US so it is hard, if not impossible to imagine where this letter originated. It was found some years ago in the National Archives in Washington D.C. The kind soul that sent this to me indicated that they didn't remember where it was located. The Mr. Black indicated in the letter, was the commissioner, John C Black who won the Medal Of Honor at Prairie Grove, Arkansas while a member of the 37th Illinois, He was, at the time, being considered as potential material to run for Vice President on the Republican ticket. Please note the original spelling from the letter is unchanged.

Submitted by: Richard Brooks Camp #149 Pennsylvania Department Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War August 2001



---------------


Larry Scott

[KS Toronado]

12. This administration is saying soldiers are cheating the system?

Sounds like more projection from the head grifter. Mortgage fraud anyone?

[haele]

27. Unfortunately, there are people, even disabled people,

Who honestly believe that if the disability isn't visible or isn't a constant issue, it's not a real disability; the person just needs to suck it up and get over it.

There may be as much as 1% actual active disability fraud among service members. And there's probably another 20% of veterans not being seen by the VA who have a serious service related disability and aren't being served.

Soooo, just another case of making up excuses to drain public services.

[KS Toronado]

32. Reminds me of Reagan's Cadillac Queen on welfare

Used one person as an excuse to reduce benefits for others. Don't remember all the details.

[Maru Kitteh]

14. Jesus. Let them follow me for ONE SHIFT at the Veterans' Home.

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2025, 11:00 AM - Edit history (1)

The PTSD doesn’t always get better and in the later stages of life, it can come ROARING back. My own father woke up 2-3 times per month screaming at the top of his lungs in terror my entire childhood.

Fucking hell.

[PCIntern]

15. Did you know:

That they’re renaming it to “The Department of Fake-Injured Suckers And Losers”

[Martin68]

16. Keep it up, Dump! Before you are finished you will be hated by all but the sickest members of our population.

[maliaSmith]

17. Veterans cancers and death from Agent Orange

My friend's husband in Hawaii died from cancer caused by Agent Orange. He didn't get sprayed by Agent Orange in Vietnam, but instead in the DMZ between North and South Korea. The Army lied and fought from paying vets healthcare at VA to treat the vets who were sprayed with the poison in Korea for so many years. It was disgraceful. That being said, my family has always served and do use the VA for their health care. I note that vets health care is good in California. Thank you to all the health care workers at VA who are being mistreated, disrespected by the GOP and Trump admin.

[markodochartaigh]

19. The Republicans swift-boated Senator Kerry,

they went after triple-amputee Senator Clelland of South Carolina. If Republicans will attack prominent veterans like these then rank and file veterans are just dust under Republican boots.

[democrank]

35. Swiftboating of Max Cleland was one of the sickest things Republicans have ever done.

The swiftboating of John Kerry was awful. Disgusting.

[Katcat]

20. I don't expect the Trump administration to be smart or even act smart

But you’d think at least ONE person would have said that it’s not a great idea to piss off those with nothing left to lose. Veterans didn’t ask to be sprayed by their government. They didn’t even ask to be given a gun and sent to kill people they don’t know. They’ve endured more trauma than most of us will ever see and they earned EVERY DAMN PENNY THEYRE GETTING FROM TGE GOVERNMENT!

[leftstreet]

21. DURec

[karin_sj]

22. I hope the Democrats get on top of this

They need to talk about this far and wide. The people who served our country and whose health suffered as a result deserve every benefit they get, and then some. Every time you think they can't go lower, they exceed your expectations.

[70sEraVet]

23. Personally, I do not look forward to the day when I will be classified with....

100% disability. I know that my lung walls have multiple scarrings from severe asbestos exposure (I was on decommissioning crew of a naval ship, working in a boiler room). But so far, lung capacity is good.
I tell my friends that when I have to start dragging around an oxygen tank when I go fishing, the VA is going to have to buy me a nice boat. Does that sound greedy?

[jfz9580m]

24. What a piece of shit he is

My dad is a vet (not American), but it is such a big part of who he is..He is pretty sturdy psychologically and doesn’t have any PTSD. Though he has seen some horrifying carnage.

But so many vets suffer from so much trauma and on top of that this reality show star pulling this crap..

[Stargazer99]

25. How do vets vote for someone who calls them suckers and fools?? by a rich person with "bone spurs"

one of them explain it to me...I wonder if Trump vets are mentally competent

[haele]

29. Authoritarian tendencies or low Education/lack of curiosity.

Which is hilarious as the US Military is the largest Socialist organization in the World, even if it is technically a Hierarchal Meritocracy.

[Norrrm]

30. Soldiers spraying Agent Orange. Notice all the protective equipment

Soldiers spraying Agent Orange. Notice all the protective equipment

[Farmer-Rick]

33. I have a 30% disability and I pay for my own disability

Got my ankle crushed while in the Navy. It has always been a bit painful to walk but I managed. Now my doctor is saying I have to get a leg brace in order to walk. Seems damage to your ankle will eventually affect your knees and hips. So if I were to get reassessed now my disability would be well over 50%.

Anyway, how can these disabilities ever get better as the veteran gets older? These minor injuries as a 20 year old become serious issues as your body gets older. I still have only 30% disability even though I have problems walking now.

I am an over 20 year retired Naval officer and I get a full pension. My disability amount is subtracted from my retirement pay. So I'm paying for my own disability pension. If they take away my disability pay, they will be reducing my retirement pension. This is what I think they are really after - our retirement pensions.

[Wednesdays]

36. Bonus Army, anyone?

We're gonna party like it's 1932!

[czarjak]

38. Wait for the trickle-down, rubes!

They start with the Low-Hanging B-4 they move-up The Fruit Tree.

[AZProgressive]

40. I have a 100% service connected disability for PTSD

It is for PTSD but it is also for things like major depressive disorder and smaller things like sleep disturbances and tinnitus.

I was always going to vote for Biden or Harris in 2024 even though I had disagreements with mainly their foreign policy because of Project 2025. The architects of Project 2025 have always wanted to cut veteran disability benefits.

It isn't even worth debating the benefits. The time period after I got out of the Army and before I was on disability and receiving regular treatment was a very rough time period. I improved significantly in each year and I have been on it for about close to 10 years. Without it I don't even want to imagine what my life would have looked like especially when it comes to the events (the Covid economy perhaps being the most significant) that happened in the last 10 years.

[yellow dahlia]

41. bookmarking