September 3, 2024
In response to the conservative Heritage Foundation’s reform proposals pertaining to “Project 2025,” a blueprint for a second Trump Administration to implement, the Steering Committee of Democrats Abroad Global Veterans and Military Families (VMF) Caucus unanimously opposed this misaligned vision for America’s veteran community.
Former VMF Chair and current Vice Chair, Kee Evans, a retired New Mexico voter in Guatemala, presented her thoughts on Project 2025’s impact on women:
“Project 2025 would be devastating to women. That includes active military, veterans, and family members. It could eliminate access to reproductive care and abortion services for many people who can’t afford to travel, live in rural communities, or don’t have access to OBGYNs. The Food and Drug Administration would revoke approval of mifepristone, the abortion pill that is used in more than half of abortions nationwide. In banning abortion nationwide, that could also ban the use of any medical instruments that could be used in performing abortions. That could include speculums used in performing Pap tests.”
Additionally, statements from three of VMF's veteran members, representative of all three global regions, can be viewed below.
According to Massachusetts voter, Canada resident, and VMF Steering Committee Member Jordan Barrett-Choy,
“I grew up in a country where civil liberties were eroded and stolen from the people by autocrats and corrupt government officials, and my old city is now an illegitimate dictatorship. When I moved to the U.S., I was proud to serve in the military to support the values of freedom and democracy, Project 2025 is a betrayal of those values and further proof that the GOP has become a death cult that believes rape victims should die in childbirth.”
VMF Chair Michael Ramos, an Illinois voter living and studying in Australia, also provided an opinion:
“What most Americans proudly call ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ educational measures in Department of Defense schools for servicemembers’ children, Project 2025 calls ‘radical’ and ‘extremist.’ Only an extremist political ideology like that of Donald Trump and his Project 2025 co-authors would undermine the importance and proud history of our nation’s diversity and inclusion educational initiatives. And despite a backlog on VA claims, to no one’s surprise, Trump’s inner circle of advisors has formally recommended slashing VA jobs and benefits for our nation’s veterans. Every veteran and military-connected voter should think carefully about the negative consequences of Project 2025 if Republicans win the White House in November. Put simply, this dangerous policy vision is a non-starter for any veteran or military family.”
A third statement by Andrew Anderson, a Virginia voter residing in Spain, offered his thoughts on the proposal:
“Put plainly, Project 2025 would be a disaster for the VMF community. It would severely impact the ability for veterans and military families to receive the appropriate VA benefits if implemented. For instance, in Chapter 20, this misaligned agenda calls for systematically dismantling the existing Veterans’ Health and Benefits Administrations and privatizing all programs related to Veterans. In addition, under Schedule F, if implemented, would ‘sack’ 80 percent of existing VA staff in order to privatize both health care and benefits administrators.
The implications of this framework are enormous in that in order to advance such a new process, civil servants would needlessly be fired, private, for-profit companies would presume records-handling of veterans and create an unsustainable pricing structure. If Project 2025 is implemented, only those that loyally adhere to the Trump agenda would be permitted to work at the VA. The list of absurdities goes on and on. And because Donald Trump never saw a scam he didn’t like, there’s now a litmus test which is being applied for future employees in order to work in the Trump administration.”
Project 2025 is not veteran-friendly, military family-friendly, VA-friendly, nor is it what anyone asked for. For this reason, VMF strongly opposes Project 2025 and encourages all Caucus members to immediately request their home-state election ballot from VoteFromAbroad.org if they have not already done so, fill it out by voting for all Democratic candidates, and returning it promptly stateside to their local election office.
The VMF Caucus, proudly consisting of veterans, military family members, and strong allies of veterans and military family causes, has a membership of roughly 1,200 members located in dozens of countries.
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