White House says GOP debt ceiling plan would cause largest VA benefits cuts in US history

Mubashir Veeri

WASHINGTON — Republican-backed legislation to raise the debt ceiling would result in the largest cuts to veterans benefits in U.S. history, the White House said Tuesday, including the elimination of 81,000 jobs from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The bill, which the Republican-controlled House approved last week, would also result in 30 million fewer Veterans Affairs’ outpatient visits and increase the disability backlog of veterans by 134,000, according to a White House memo released exclusively to USA TODAY.

“These draconian cuts to America’s veterans have no precedent in America’s history,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in the memo. “And prioritizing tax welfare for wealthy special interests over honoring our commitments to those who have put their lives on the line for our country is as backwards as politics gets.”The Department of Veterans Affairs is an agency of the federal government thatprovides benefits and health care services to approximately nine million veterans.

Twenty-four veterans’ groups signed a letter to Congress expressing “grave concerns” about the veterans’ cuts before the House voted 217-215 last Wednesday to approve the debt ceiling bill pushed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

The legislation includes $4.5 trillion in cuts to government programs – a 22% reduction overall, according to the White house – and would raise the debt ceiling May 2024.

“I hear House Republicans out on TV saying they would never vote to cut veterans’ benefits,” Biden said in a tweet Tuesday with an attached chart. “In case there’s any confusion, I made a little chart that could help them out.”

Biden has vowed to veto the bill, which is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, warning that cuts would hurt “hard-working Americans” who depend on the targeted programs and benefits

Republicans disputed the White House’s analysis. “Your credibility is non-existent, and your logic is asinine. There are no cuts to veterans benefits in the House-passed Limit Save Grow Act, period,” the House Freedom Caucus tweeted.

The legislation does not target veterans’ services by name but would keep government spending in 2024 at the same level as 2022. The Veterans Affairs Department produced the estimates by assuming that reductions in the bill were applied “across-the-board” to federal agencies.

Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, in an analysis of the bill, said that because Republicans are unwilling to cut defense spending that “everything else in annual appropriations” would be cut much more.

The 24 veterans’ organizations asked lawmakers to explicitly exempt Veterans Affairs from future cuts, but the change wasn’t made.

“Without specific language to explicitly protect VA from the impact of the proposed budget reductions, it would leave many veteran resources open to cuts, potentially undoing years of progress VA has made for those that have earned it,” the groups wrote.

Biden wants the debt ceiling to be raised by Congress without conditions, like it has under past presidencies, but he’s been unable to sway McCarthy and Republicans who are demanding spending cuts.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Monday that the U.S. could reach its borrowing limit by June 1 unless the debt ceiling is raised, putting the nation at risk of going into default. McCarthy agreed to meet with Biden and other congressional leaders May 9 at the White House.

Unless moderates are willing to stand up to the extreme MAGA groups that have taken over the conference,” Bates said, “the House GOP is going to define themselves as so indentured to multinational corporations and billionaires that they’re willing to make the biggest cuts to veterans benefits in American history.”