Veterans’ Affairs Chairman sees friction, opportunity with Democratic lawmakers

Last question for you here

How much messaging do you think you need to do? How much do you think you need to get out here to explain to veterans

hey, we will see cuts, we will see changes, but these aren't going to take away from your benefits

These are going to improve things. I know Secretary Collins has been putting that out there

I know some of the lawmakers up here have. But I don't know if it's been landing so far

Do you feel like there's a better way to express that? Do you feel like this is just going to be a constant battle

especially as Democrats are out there saying, hey, we think these cuts could be catastrophic

Right. So our committee, we hear it from them on every committee meeting

We explain what the truth is. We have given to all of our members of Congress that ask

We give them the exact layout for that. And I'm starting as well to do videos in response to a lot of these so that we can get that message out

But the sad thing is that they're pretty well bold-faced lies from the Democrats on

oh, you're cutting this, oh, you're cutting that, oh, you're privatizing. It's their only talking point

And I know for a fact what the facts are, and we're going to get those facts out

and we continue to get those facts out I can help what the Democrats say I can only answer but I can tell you this The fact that they want to put fear in our veterans and use that as a tool when it not true

is probably the thing that hurts me most as a veteran. Is there any room for compromise, for coordination with them

or do you feel like this is just a broken relationship now? We have tried to compromise with them on certain issues

We've moved some of their bills. But if it's on a case where they want to stop community care

I'm not compromising on that because it's about the veteran. It's not about the VA, VA bureaucracy

If they want to say we're going to continue to spend money

and take over home loans and go into what is not our job

rather than just securing the loan at a low interest rate, all of a sudden taking bagged loans

and endangering those loans in the future or other veterans that are coming in the future

Now, that's not a compromise. We're not going to compromise there. We're not going to compromise on the quality and service

that we're providing for our veterans just so that they can have a talking point

So we'll work with them where we can. That's how this place works. and we'll try to not go down the partisan road

unless they drive us down there. Chairman, thank you so much for the time

Thank you. I appreciate it