What’s at stake?
Protesters stood in front of the Fresno VA Medical Center on Saturday to rally against planned cuts to 17% of the VA’s workforce.
Demonstrations continue in Fresno against the Trump administration, with veterans and citizens lining the front of the Veterans Affairs hospital on Saturday.
In March, an internal memo revealed that the Department of Veterans Affairs would work alongside the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to reduce the VA’s workforce by 17%, or around 83,000 jobs.
Saturday’s protest was organized by Central Valley Indivisible, itself part of a larger organization known as Indivisible, an advocacy group that helps organize demonstrations across the country.
The protesters, which consisted of veterans and their family members as well as concerned Fresnans, voiced their frustration and alarm over continued job cuts across all government departments, especially the proposed workforce reductions to the VA.
“I’m demonstrating [because] of what they’re trying to do to our benefits,” said Manuel Vega, a 76-year-old United States Marine Corps veteran who served in the Vietnam War in 1968 through 1969.
“We laid our life on the line and a lot of my buddies did the same, but you know what? They didn’t come back, so I’m gonna do this for them, myself and my brothers,” Vega said.
Vega explained he was frustrated by the planned reduction to the VA and said that elected officials should stand up for veterans. He also urged citizens to continue demonstrating and to not “go with the flow.”
Tom Coble, a 78-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who served during Vietnam from May of 1967 until August of 1971, says there is no justification to the cuts that would affect veterans both employed by and receiving services from the VA.
“I’m out here because [of] threats to our veterans, the VA, the folks that are receiving care and also to voice my opposition to the cuts that were made by DOGE that affected our military veterans who lost their employment, which affected their families and their livelihood,” said Coble.
According to a Pew Research study from April that analyzed the number of veterans working in federal departments and agencies, a quarter of the VA’s 483,000 employees are veterans themselves.
Coble criticized the cuts further, calling the Trump administration’s endeavor “a facade” that only benefits the wealthy.
“[In] my view, saving that money and then turning around and giving tax cuts to the rich, there is no justification.”
The Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan initiative from the University of Pennsylvania that analyzes the fiscal impact of public policy, reports that the GOP’s new tax bill disproportionately affects lower-income people, with those that make between $17,000-$51,000 on average losing $700 in after-tax income.
On the other hand, people in the top 0.1% income group that earn over $4.3 million would gain on average around $389,000 in after-tax income from the new bill.
Charlene McCormick, a retired nurse, shared the same sentiment as Coble, saying that the wealthy should pay more in taxes and that there are no non-essential roles in healthcare.
“If they paid their share of taxes, this would not be a question,” McCormick said, adding “they might say ‘Oh, we don’t need the cleaners, the EKG tech, the housekeeper, groundskeepers,’ but all these people are essential there and it just doesn’t work that way.”
Michaela Daniels, a 25-year-old who attended the protest along with her poodle, Benny, called out DOGE and Elon Musk, saying that an unofficial government department unsupported by Congress is wrong for trying to dismantle a department that veterans rely on for employment and resources.
Daniels also criticized the administration for its inaction to aid Ukraine and Trump’s plans to turn Gaza into a resort.
“It’s been a disaster in terms of national security and in abandoning the people in Ukraine who are fighting for their existence,” Daniels said.
“I think that it’s disgusting that Trump and his administration are planning to create some sort of resort in Gaza and perform ethnic cleansing by doing that; Trump is in it for himself and for his fellow wealthy elites.”
Scot Phipps, a 67-year-old protester, admonished inaction from Congress in stopping DOGE.
“DOGE is a fraud itself, all they’re really doing is stealing money for Musk and for Trump and it was not approved by Congress and for some reason, Congress has let it happen,” Phipps said.
Phipps said that the current administration’s actions only serve to worse wealth inequality in the U.S.
“Money has been going up to the very wealthy and the middle class has just been squeezed, and the population that’s poverty stricken has been expanding, so what we are seeing now is a class war.”
Pete Kasperowicz, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, reached out to Fresnoland on Tuesday, sharing that the VA’s current goal is to reduce the workforce to 2019 levels to around 398,000 full-time employees.
“As we reform VA, we are guided by the fact that even though the Biden Administration astronomically grew the department’s budget and number of employees, VA wait times and backlogs increased,” Kasperowicz said in an email.
“We’re going to maintain VA’s mission-essential jobs like doctors, nurses and claims processors, while phasing out non-mission essential roles like DEI officers. The savings we achieve will be redirected to Veteran health care and benefits.”
CORRECTION: This story was updated on Tuesday, May 20 to include comments from VA Press Secretary Kasperowicz and clarify the workforce reduction that was previously described as budget cuts.
