It costs a lot of money to keep a bunch of VA offices open for the sole purposes of denying benefits. May as well cut out the middlepeople and just close the offices!
This is kind of weird to me, I get VA services and they've been really damn good. They have however gotten worse as they've privatizing things more and more. Then I talk with or see statements from other vets in different parts of the country and they get absolutely nothing. I'm kinda waiting for a rug pull, my trans related healthcare is probably going to get yanked soon.
Same token, I have a friend from back in high school who would by all rights qualify for benefits and compensation, but he refuses to try and file for it because he just doesn't want to deal with the VA. Idk, shit's fucked and I don't know exactly where things are going wrong in the larger system, but it seems to be state by state.
We live in California and my brother kept trying to see a therapist for his depression and they kept canceling his appointments to the point that he eventually had a breakdown and had to commit himself to care for a few days. After that he found a private therapist and paid out of pocket.
If it's that bad here I can't imagine how bad it must be in states with shittier services.
When you rely on socialized medicine and only vote for the party whose sworn enemy is socialized medicine (well not like the Ds are pro socialized medicine but...)
I don't see it happening. The 2026 midterms would go terribly for the republicans as a result and cutting those benefits would create countless Luigis with actual weapons training. Plus the impact to red state economies would be way worse than whatever they save making the cuts.
And to that end, as a vet myself I can tell you that the average burgerlander essentially sees us like we're gods (it's unnerving tbh). So if we start going off when strangers want to "thank you for your service" (happens more often than you'd think), we can cause a bit of a stir and vets benefits are a bit of a third rail politically. Even having the training and experience I do, I'm legit afraid of other vets that are mentally unwell. Luigi's adventure would look like child's play.