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Thousands of veterans rallied on the National Mall in Washington D.C., on June 6, the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings that began the end to World War II. The ongoing actions of the so-called DOGE committee and proposed spending cuts being considered by Congress have already hit many current military veterans hard, and the rally was a call to action to stop further cuts to hard fought benefits.
The IAM Veterans Services Department and the IAM Human Rights Rapid Response teams showed up to support the rally.
Current proposals call for 83,000 job cuts at the Veterans Administration.
“The math just doesn’t math,” said IAM Veterans Services Coordinator Rich Evans. “Taking away healthcare workers, taking away our claim examiners – it doesn’t make any sense. The VA since the beginning of this year has opened up 10 new clinics, so how are we going to cut 80,000 people?”
Congressional estimates say that more than 6,000 veterans have already lost their jobs due to the job cuts by the DOGE committee. The job cuts plainly ignored laws under the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA) and the Servicesmen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly referred to as the GI Bill.
The currently proposed “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the House, will require spending impoundments if signed into law. 1.6 million veterans receive healthcare through Medicaid. Estimates are that 14 million Medicaid recipients will lose coverage if the OBBB becomes law, including at least 300,000 veterans under age 65, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 1.2 million veterans receive some form of food assistance through SNAP, commonly referred to as “Food Stamps”, but includes programs like “meals on wheels” for home bound disabled people.
Unite 4 Veterans rally organizers called attention back to “The Bonus Army” of 1932. At the height of the Great Depression, World War I veterans demanded immediate payment of the “tombstone bonus” that many veterans were desperately waiting on, which would amount to $11,400 in today’s U.S. dollars.
In the summer of 1932, 40,000 veterans and their families occupied the National Mall and surrounding areas in tents demanding that President Hoover give the bonus but he refused. In July of 1932, General Douglas McArthur and the U.S. Army used tear gas and tanks to evict the bonus army from the mall and Washington, D.C. That ignited the modern efforts for veterans benefits legislation.
Bonuses to U.S. service members date back to 1776 when the original Continental Congress offered half-pay for life for any servicemember disabled in the Revolutionary War. In 1781, Congress reneged on that offer, but started war pensions in 1788.
Veteran U.S. Army assault helicopter pilot Tammy Duckworth, who lost both of her legs to an RPG strike in Iraq, and who is now a U.S. Senator from Illinois, was the featured speaker at the rally.
“Our mission today is not too different from what it was when we were in uniform,” said Duckworth. “To defend the Constitution, to protect this democracy, to defend freedoms, and to keep our Nation as strong as she should be. I need you to think of today as not just a singular moment, but the start of our new collective mission.”
A mission as old as the ink on the U.S. Constitution itself.
