President Joe Biden again misrepresented Republican plans to extend the debt limit and reduce expenditure, saying that it would result in a “$22 billion cut to veterans’ healthcare.”
Biden erroneously claimed that the Limit, Save, Grow Act targets veterans’ benefits while speaking at SUNY Westchester Community College, which is located in Valhalla, New York.
“Now, they desire to return to the levels where we reduced those people who now provide that sort of assistance. The health care for veterans would be reduced by $22 billion as a result, he claimed. Biden may have intended to say “22 percent,” which is the amount he has misrepresented in numerous recent statements on the measure.
But as Breitbart News highlighted when he made the assertion earlier last month, the Limit, Save, and Grow Act does not address veterans or their health benefits and instead sets a ceiling on discretionary spending at $1.47 trillion with 1% yearly increments.
“The bill would also recoup all COVID relief funds that have not yet been used, revoke nearly $71 billion in IRS funding for new hires and technology upgrades, prevent Biden from removing $10,000 to $20,000 in debt from student loans, and reduce the monthly payments for undergraduate loans, repeal the majority of tax breaks that Democrats passed to advance their renewable energy agenda and enforce work requirements for the recipients of federal financial assistance and food stamps.”
Prior to the vote a few weeks ago, Republicans promised that veteran health benefits were not going to be affected; House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reaffirmed this promise when talking with CNN in Israel this past week. As Just the News reported.
“Could you please tell me exactly where in the bill the VA is cut? It isn’t. See, this is the harm that results from individuals lying about the bill. I find it extremely disappointing that the Democrats would consider reducing benefits for veterans when we would not.”
Shalanda Young, his director of the Office of Management and Budget, gave an estimate that serves as the basis for the “22 percent” reduction that Biden has pounced onto. According to Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post, the Biden administration distorted the facts by capitalizing on the Limit, Save, Grow, and Act plan’s lack of specifics about discretionary expenditure. According to the House Budget Committee, 050-funded programs “include the military operations of the Dept. of Defense (DoD), the nuclear weapons-related tasks of the Dept. of Energy (DOE), and the national security operations of a number of other agencies.” Young’s estimate relies on this assumption, so significant savings from other programs would be required to keep the figure at $1.47 trillion. According to Kessler, the administration developed the story with the aid of veterans’ organizations that lean Democratic.
Biden falsely claims Republicans want to "cut" veterans' health care.
That's a lie — even the Washington Post says Biden is taking "the spin to a Four-Pinocchio extreme." pic.twitter.com/zJYZnxNUyf
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 10, 2023
“The government meticulously prepared the attack. In a press release announcing the effects of the legislation on April 21, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs provided precise figures, including ’30 million fewer Veteran visits to outpatient clinics, and 81,000 jobs eliminated across the Veterans Health Admin.’ Then, over twenty veteran organizations that support Democrats, including VoteVets, wrote to senators to ask that VA money be preserved in the legislation. McCarthy received a letter from the head of Veterans of Foreign Wars asking for ‘explicit assurance’ that the funding for veteran healthcare will not be interrupted.”
“Utilizing White House data as a source, the VoteVets advertisement takes the deception to a Four-Pinocchio extreme, implying veterans might die when the reality is that no vote regarding the fiscal 2024 Veterans Affairs budget has actually been cast,” he said.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader from Kentucky, said, “What we have here is that time is running out. The president needs to get serious, sit down with the speaker, and come up with a solution.”
