'It’s a disgrace': Political scientist rips Trump officials for VA cuts
Norm J. Ornstein, Image via Screengrab / MSNBC.
President Donald Trump's second presidency is seeing mass layoffs in a variety of federal government agencies, from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
During a Wednesday, May 7 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," political scientist Norm J. Ornstein (formerly of the American Enterprise Institute) was vehemently critical of cuts to the VA as well as cuts to mental health programs for veterans and others.
Ornstein told "Morning Joe" host Mika Brzezinski, "So, Mika, we know that the mental health care system across the board has been broken for a long time, but we were making very significant progress — progress with veterans, where we know we've had an epidemic of suicides and terrible problems with PTSD…. We had beefed up SAMHSA, the mental health substance abuse center at the Department of Health and Human Services."
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Ornstein continued, "We were doing more to expand community health centers, and all of that is being blown up right now, along with Medicaid — which is a key part of services for people who have mental health problems. $1 billion taken away from school. psychologists and other counselors, where we're trying to deal with problems of mental health and suicide among kids. All of those things (are) being dismantled in ways that are creating a bigger crisis, and a crisis that's going to grow greater as we face these economic stresses…. from tariffs and other things."
During the interview, Ornstein was vehemently critical of not only Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — which has been helping the Trump Administration carry out mass layoffs — but also, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Journalist Mike Barnicle, who was also on Brzezinski's panel, noted that "veterans of wars" are "massively affected by mental health" — and not getting the help they need.
Barnicle told Ornstein and Brzezinski, "The VA clinics in this country are overrun — an epidemic of people going in, not being able to find help because they're understaffed or it's closed. The office is closed. They've got to drive another 80 miles to find another VA facility. What do we do about that?.… What do we do for them?"
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Ornstein replied, "You've hit on a really important point, Mike, which is this is not just about DOGE and Musk. It's not just about RFK Jr. basically turning his back on his whole family's legacy. It's about Congress not stepping up to the plate — or in this case, the Republicans in Congress looking at the budget, the big, beautiful bill that Mike Johnson is talking about that slashes all these services…. And the idea that we're turning our backs on veterans who have fought and bled for this country, many of them coming back with all kinds of issues, physical and mental, is a disgrace."
Ornstein added, "But it's broader than that, too, because, of course, the reality is that there isn't a family in this country who hasn't been touched in some ways by the problems of mental illness. And the idea that we're going to cut support for them, it's beyond shameful."
Watch the full video below or at this link.
