FEDERAL CUTS: Many veterans will be affected
Last Tuesday, civilian federal employees received a letter asking them to resign through the deferred resignation scheme. If they do not take this offer, they can continue working with no guarantee they will not be fired at a later date. My nephew received one of these letters, as did all of his colleagues. He is a licensed psychologist, with a Ph.D., who works exclusively with veterans. For over a decade, he has counseled veterans with PTSD, drug and alcohol addiction as well as suicide prevention. He is extremely dedicated to these veterans and is worried about what will happen to them if he and his colleagues are forced to resign or are fired. I know many people believe the government workforce is bloated and inefficient. Trump and Musk promised to cut the size of the government. But why wouldn’t they approach this like a business and do a cost/benefit analysis on each program so the valuable ones are not swept up in the chaos, cruelty and confusion this has created? Don’t we want to make sure our veterans are taken care of? Do we want their treatment to stop, possibly causing them to end up on the streets?
Also, do you know that approximately 30% of the civilian workforce is veterans? That is almost 700,000 people. They all got letters. The cuts do not have to be done this way. We should demand the Trump Administration take the time to look at all government programs individually and carefully to determine where cuts can be made that will cause the least amount of harm to the dedicated federal workers and the citizens they serve.
NANCY HARPER
Coeur d’Alene