One of the Trump administration’s major stated goals is to rein in waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. In principle, this is a sensible and universally shared goal. In practice, however, new parastatal organizations like Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) have behaved more as vehicles of political score-settling, operating outside plain Constitutional boundaries, than as sensible stewards of taxpayer funds.
As a result, the consequences, whether intended or not, are already impacting North Carolinians in every zip code. Specifically, recent cuts to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) are causing needless pain - and worse, betray sacred promises made to those who have served our country.
The VA in North Carolina
The VA provides a litany of services to U.S. military veterans, including healthcare, disability claims, education and job training, pensions, housing assistance, life insurance, burials and memorials, and access to ID cards.
For example, NC veterans can generally rely on the VA for mental health counseling to treat conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses. According to 2023 VA data, there are 681,000 veterans in North Carolina, or about 6% of the entire state population.
There are four VA inpatient care sites in North Carolina, 36 outpatient care sites, and six veterans’ centers. 61% of VA expenditures in our state go to compensation and pensions, 34% to medical care and 5% to all other services, totaling roughly $12.1 billion annually in North Carolina alone. To state the obvious, the VA is funded by the federal government, and thus directly by taxpayers.
Separately, North Carolina’s state government also spends significant sums serving the military veteran community, though because these are state funds and not federal, they are not directly affected by Congress.
Cuts targeting NC’s veteran community
North Carolina’s VA budget has come into the crosshairs for fiscal scrutiny under the Trump administration. Elon Musk’s DOGE, established via executive order that renamed the pre-existing U.S. Digital Service, is tasked with reducing waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. Though the administrators of DOGE claim to have saved taxpayers $115 billion, that figure remains hotly disputed by longtime federal budget experts.
Harry Kraemer, a professor of Leadership at Northwestern University in the Kellogg School of Management, conducted an analysis to discover how much DOGE has truly saved. Experts agree DOGE has only reduced spending by roughly $23 billion taxpayer dollars. A Fortune investigation found that while DOGE says they have saved $20 billion in contract terminations, the real number is closer to $18 billion, $2 billion short of their stated number.
President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE have chosen to make significant cuts to the VA, such as mass layoffs beginning in June. These will have a significant impact on military veterans in North Carolina. The mass layoffs will target civil servants at the VA, most of whom are doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff. Estimates on how many layoffs they are planning range from 70,000-80,000.
Mass VA layoffs will hurt NC vets
The regional VA system in Asheville, for instance, assists nearly 50,000 veterans across 23 Western North Carolina counties. When Hurricane Helene hit, the regional VA was able to immediately produce a list of 2,600 veterans who were at high risk for medical complications. The Asheville VA then sent dedicated teams to locate them. These rescue missions often required lengthy, three-person trips.
On Wednesday, February 26, Musk’s DOGE fired dozens of civilian employees at the Durham VA Healthcare system and Fayetteville VA Coastal Healthcare System. In February alone, 2,400 jobs were cut by the VA. Many more VA staff were subsequently laid off in March at the same Asheville VA that helped recover veterans during Helene.
The federal hiring freeze has also forced some mental health experts in the VA to begin looking for new jobs, as they become rightfully concerned about their job security.
Savings or Smokescreens?
The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are making preparations to pass another significant tax cut which will increase the federal deficit by $4.2 trillion between 2026 and 2035. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis estimates that the top 0.1% of income earners will save an average of $314,000. To help finance those tax cuts, DOGE has been charged to find areas to save money in the federal government - leading them to the VA.
Slashing critical services to the nation’s military veterans in order to help finance tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy has clear support among the Republican majority in Congress, who are expected to vote on such a measure shortly. Interestingly, the tax burden for billionaires has actually already decreased in recent years, particularly since the first Trump administration’s round of tax cuts. Naturally, taxes are unpopular for most Americans, and the extremely wealthy are no exception.
Choosing to balance tax breaks by breaking promises to military veterans is an unusual, and deeply troubling, decision by the Trump administration. The message to America’s veterans is now clear: you’re on your own.
