'I can't afford it': Michigan veterans turn on Republicans

Duane Kleinhardt, a retired Army command sergeant major voices opposition to U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) during a protest on Sept. 25, 2026.

As gas prices surge to record levels amidst the ongoing war in Iran, military veterans led protestors outside a Lansing gas station Friday in opposition to the war alongside the rollout of an electronic records system they say is harming veteran healthcare.

With the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks fresh in their minds, veterans from multiple branches of the military shared concerns that the U.S. had embroiled itself in another war without a clear mission, asking what that will mean for those serving in the latest conflict abroad.

Steve Monti said he was 19 years old and fresh out of army training during 9/11, and that before he knew it, he was in Iraq.

“I was fighting for freedom, peace, democracy, oil – I couldn’t tell. I was too close in. I was too close to see the big picture,” Monti said. “Twenty-three years later, and I’m still not sure of what we accomplished, whose lives we made better. Certainly not the hundreds of thousands of people who lost theirs.”

Monti said the war in Iran is the same story playing out all over again, leaving a new generation to pay the toll.

“And for what? Are we better off?” Monti asked “Is our gas cheaper? Do you feel more safe, more secure? What about your sons and daughters and their futures? All I see are the people like us, the workers of this country, being squeezed, being run dry. The working class is asked once again to tighten our belts so that we can pay for a war that none of us wanted and none of us asked for.”

With the election on the horizon, rising inflation on everyday goods and increased gas prices have generated frustration among voters. Multiple speakers at Friday’s event, which was organized by the Ingham County Democratic Party and other groups opposed to President Donald Trump’s agenda like Common Defense, Indivisible Michigan’s 7th Congressional District chapter, laid their frustrations at the feet of U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte), the incumbent representing the highly competitive 7th Congressional District.

While Barrett has voted in favor of four resolutions asserting Congress’s war powers to limit and wind down military operations overseas, those measures have failed to gain support in the U.S. Senate, with the upper chamber voting down the most recent House Resolution on Thursday in a 49-50 vote.

However, Barrett’s opponent, Lansing-area political organizer William Lawrence, and other critics have noted Barrett’s votes in opposition to war powers resolutions before the House in March and April.

“Tom Barrett initially voted against limiting Trump’s war powers,” said Duane Kleinhardt, a retired Army command sergeant major who served with Barrett in Guantanamo Bay. “He says now that he wants us to get out of Iran. Tommy, that is too little and too late.”

In an interview with Michigan Advance, Barrett said his initial votes against the war powers resolutions aligned with the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which requires the President to remove all troops after 60 days if Congress has not granted an extension.

“I take the issue of war very seriously. That’s reflective of my life experience. And one thing that I am not very flexible on is the issue of whether and how we send Americans into war,” said Barrett, who served in the U.S. Army for 22 years, including service during the Iraq War.

Lawrence’s campaign has also criticized Barrett for voting in support of a $95 billion budget framework which includes $60 billion for defense and $13 billion for intelligence.

“Just a few months ago, the House needed just one vote to stop a bill that authorized tens of billions of dollars in funding for this war in Iran. It passed with Tom Barrett’s support,” Lawrence said during a campaign speech Tuesday. “In other words, he could have been the one vote that would have stopped it, and he allowed it to continue.”

Barrett said the resolution doesn’t mention Iran, and that the funding was for military and troop readiness.

“If William Lawrence thought that that bill was going to halt the war in Iran, then the obvious question is: since that bill has not passed the U.S. Senate, how is the war in Iran continuing today?” Barrett said.

Alongside frustrations over rising costs, veterans at Friday’s event also raised concerns about veterans healthcare.

Steven Friday, a member of the Stop the Rollout campaign, called for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officials to halt the implementation of an electronic health record system and for members of Congress to restrict funding to Oracle Health’s contract for the system citing issues with the system’s performance.

“The Government Accountability Office reported this month that the VA has fully implemented only four of its 18 recommendations concerning the electronic health record program,” Friday said. “Fourteen are still not fully implemented.”

Barrett, who serves on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, noted that they had recently passed a resolution to subpoena the CEO of Oracle Health and Oracle Founder Larry Ellison over costly delays in implementing the new health record system.

Congress is doing the oversight work Barrett said, but stressed that veterans need to have portable record access, noting his father-in-law had issues receiving care at the VA in Battle Creek when he normally receives care in Tulsa, Okla.

Barrett said it is his “sincere intention and effort to make sure that we get to a point where every veteran has a health record system that is adequate in meeting their needs and allows them the portability of their healthcare.”

“We understand that where there are issues that need correction, we have to correct that. Where there are gaps that need to be filled, we need to fill that,” Barrett said.

He pointed to the sheer number of records managed by the VA, noting that while this does not discount any issues or gaps in the system, the shift to an electronic records system is a significant overhaul that will require continuous oversight until it is fully implemented and operational.

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