To the Editor:
Re “Chaos as Ripple Effects From V.A. Cuts Spread” (news article, March 11):
Nothing could have been more predictable: Elon Musk and his associates rampage through the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Government Efficiency amateurs fail to distinguish essential services from waste, fraud and abuse. And the result is chaos, harming real people.
This is a case study in poor policy judgment. The V.A. is far from perfect, but many of its programs serve Americans with serious needs, demonstrating that government sometimes works. The states cannot provide veterans with all the services they need, so that must be done by a large, expensive federal agency, one certainly beyond the comprehension of the founders.
The population of the United States in 1789 was nearly four million. The V.A. now provides medical care for more than nine million veterans.
Government might be best when it governs least, but compassion and common sense must prevail.
President Trump does not understand that disruption is a means, never an end. If ruthless cost-cutting imposed with a chain saw on the executive departments will produce a better government, Mr. Trump might deserve to be honored as a great president, an accolade for which he ceaselessly thirsts. But history will be unkind to him if he simply produces a society that is more fragmented and unequal.
Steven S. Berizzi
Norwalk, Conn.
The writer is an emeritus professor of history and political science at Connecticut State Community College, Norwalk.
To the Editor:
Re “Veterans Affairs Department Plans to Eliminate More Than 80,000 Workers” (news article, nytimes.com, March 5):
Our family is full of military service members, dating back to the Revolutionary War. (We have the paperwork!) Both my mother and sister have been nurses in Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics. Nothing appalls me quite as much as macho, jingoistic men in government doing everything they can, in the absence of military service or in spite of it, to reduce or cancel services to veterans.
There have been reports about contract terminations at the V.A. that end compounding pharmacies for chemotherapy, inspections of radiological instruments that diagnose and track disease, and follow-up cancer treatment.
These directly affect people like my brother-in-law, who has Agent Orange-related cancer from his tours in Vietnam. It is impossible to have confidence that veterans’ services will thrive, much less survive, in the face of the drastic cuts to personnel.
How can “thank you for your service” be anything but a glib, automatic response when this is the reality for our veterans?
Kim Maphis
Early Nashville
To the Editor:
I am an 82-year-old blind Vietnam War veteran who knows that budget cuts are slowing down or doing away with the benefits I need to survive.
Are there no leaders willing to stop the White House and Elon Musk’s team from dismantling our democracy?
Bruce W. Rider
Floresville, Texas
Cuts at U.S. Embassies and Consulates
To the Editor:
Re “State Dept. Looking to Close Missions and Thin Its Ranks” (news article, March 7):
Huge cuts to U.S. embassies and consulates will have disastrous consequences for our country.
As a career diplomat, now retired, I saw how our overseas missions responded to American citizens in distress. When one of them lost a passport, was robbed or became ill, a consular officer was immediately available to help.
And such emergencies don’t occur just in capital cities, but also in places popular with American tourists like Florence and Strasbourg, where consulates may soon be shuttered. If this happens, assistance will be hours away.
Diplomats provide advocacy for American businesses in cities like Hamburg, where there’s another threatened consulate. In small U.S. embassies in Africa, where I served as an ambassador, Foreign Service officers work with local law enforcement to counter terrorism and international crime, and to safeguard vital maritime shipping lanes.
Closing diplomatic missions and reducing the staff will undermine our national security and endanger American citizens. It’s time to speak out against these unwise plans before they become harmful realities.
Mark L. Asquino
Santa Fe, N.M.
The writer had a 37-year career in the Foreign Service. His final assignment was as the U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea from 2012 to 2015.
