Thomas Bandzul, of Veterans and Military Families for Progress, is a sharp pebble in the shoe of anyone who would take away rights from American active-duty troops or veterans.
In all the years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has never been such a huge desire by so many conservatives to begin massive, across-the-board cuts for our men and women who have served.
An experienced and savvy legislative counsel with a demonstrated history of working in the government relations industry specifically for first responders, Veterans and their families, Bandzul is a strong community and social services professional with a business degree from Eastern New Mexico University and a law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Law.
A humble but tough champion for all who served, he has a soft spot for veterans who are not getting the treatment they have earned.
Bandzul is a consistently outspoken and effective veteran advocate who shines a light on the darkness that has sometimes pervaded in Washington, DC. And now he believes this will be his biggest challenge: to cut through the red tape and stop the new administration from doing what they are promising to do.
“What President Trump and his new regime are doing will be a disaster for both veterans and active troops. It will bring back the days when veterans waited, and waited to see a doctor,” says Bandzul.
It is the stated objective among these folks on the hard right to “not have anything to do with the so-called suckers and losers.” This includes active duty and Veterans, men and women.
Brooks D. Tucker, a former Trump appointee who served at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), is the author of Project 2025’s chapter on Veterans Affairs that broadly advocates for reduced spending for programs which support veterans. This was the document that is now the favorite book of the right.
Tucker’s chapter on the VA proposes less money for Veterans via the VA. A lot less.
Tucker writes that the VA must “rescind all departmental clinical policy directives that are contrary to principles of conservative governance starting with abortion services and gender reassignment surgery.”
A common theme running through Tucker’s take on the VA is the alleged need to spend less money on Veterans via the VA. The bipartisan PACT Act passed during the Biden administration expanded VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic cancer-causing substances during their military service.
Tucker says this led to historic spending by the VA. Project 2025 also calls for “cutting 1 million federal jobs, an estimated 30% of which are held by veterans.”
In terms of cutting costs at the expense of Veterans, Tucker’s chapter in Project 2025 also “proposes eliminating concurrent eligibility for both service-related disability benefits and military retirement benefits,” which Tucker says would reduce mandatory outlays by at least $160 billion through 2032, and revising the disability rating awards that determine eligibility for benefits and determine monthly disability compensation to reap “significant cost savings.”
It also says the VA should “end enrollment in VA medical care for veterans in two low-priority groups to save an estimated $69 billion through 2032 and narrow eligibility for veterans disability by excluding disabilities that cannot be related to military service.”
All of this could move progress back years to a time when men and women had to wait and wait to be seen by a doctor, for many conditions including cancer and other serious illnesses.
This could be a very difficult time at VA hospitals, Bandzul says.
“This rescind policy will extend to all forms of medical care over the next few months and years,” Tucker has written.
“Cutting 1 million federal jobs, an estimated 30% of which are held by veterans. This has been a statement of this man for years as part of his ‘revenge’ to eliminate federal spending for disability benefits (VA) and Social Security,” said Bandzul.
An article in the Nov. 28 issue of The Economist described veterans’ disability benefits as “absurdly generous.”
“It’s my considered belief that this is totally illegal, but he will try to reduce payments to existing fully disabled Veterans and eliminate their access to government payments to any and all healthcare,” said Bandzul.
