I feel a little like a broken record sometimes, but lately, it’s a song everyone’s beginning to recognize. It’s the theme song for all the people who voted for Donald Trump, despite him promising all kinds of things they didn’t want, who are now finding out that he was being serious.

Normally it’s hard to celebrate someone else’s misfortune. But the other day, I was privy to a conversation between two people in a shopping center that went like this:

Person 1: Well, Trump won! I guess all the liberal crybabies are going to have to suck it up.

Person 2: Yes, he did. I hope that every decision he makes affects you personally.

Person 1: What?

It’s a simple concept, and I am not tired of explaining it yet. In its most vulgar expression, it’s called “f*ck around and find out,” and that’s exactly what these folks are doing

Now it’s veterans, some of whom were the absolute loudest voices in support of Trump during his campaign. This particular demographic has always confused me. Trump has had nothing but disdain for the military since day one. From denigrating the service of John McCain to telling the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that “nobody wants to see” the war wounded, Trump has shown zero respect to members of the armed forces.

But nobody seemed to be happier about Trump’s election than veterans, as strange as that may seem.

In fact, veterans are generally among the first to complain about government waste, and were thrilled when Trump announced the creation of DOGE, the “Department of Government Efficiency,” to be headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. It’s not a real Department — creation of one of those requires an act of Congress — but they have the president’s ear. And one of the first things they talked about led to a chart like this:

That does NOT look like a veteran-friendly chart of proposals.

And the problem is, it’s not just that under Trump, the government would be reneging on the promise made to servicemembers of taking care of them if they pledged their lives to protecting America.

It’s that going forward, if future potential soldiers, or even soldiers who have already served and might consider reenlisting, know that the government will back out of its vows so easily in order to give bigger tax breaks to billionaires, recruitment goes out the window. Many people only join the military in the first place because of the promised benefits.

So where’s the $119 billion coming from? Here’s a very accurate description of the Veteran’s Health Care Eligibility Act (the VA) from Newsweek a few weeks ago:

The act provides health care benefits to those who have served in active military, naval, or air service and did not receive a dishonorable discharge. It covers outpatient services like health appointments, immunizations, nutrition education, and inpatient services such as surgeries, acute care, and some conditions or injuries that may require urgent care. The act expired in 1998 but has been continually funded.

Despite this being something that’s been expired for more than 25 years, Congress keeps funding it because (a) it’s necessary, and (b) it’s been so effective that they haven’t even needed to waste money rewriting and passing a new act, when they can simply keep funding the existing one.

Vivek Ramaswamy felt differently almost immediately after the announcement of DOGE:

We shouldn’t let the government spend money on programs that have expired. Yet that’s exactly what happens today: half a *trillion* dollars of taxpayer funds ($516 B+) goes each year to programs which Congress has allowed to expire. There are 1,200+ programs that are no longer…

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 13, 2024

Restructuring the entire Veterans’ Administration has been the goal of a large section of Project 2025. Trump long insisted that he had nothing to do with the highly-publicized brainchild of the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation.

But since his election, he’s given up trying to hide his connection. He’s already appointed multiple people to roles in his administration that directly correspond to the portions of Project 2025 they were in charge of authoring.

Even in the Heartland, in Omaha, Nebraska, veterans are squirming in their seats. Watch this report from WTMV, in which a long-retired serviceman tells the reporter, “It frightens a lot of veterans.”

Veterans are right to be nervous. We’re no longer wondering IF Trump will cuts benefits. We’re left only to wonder when and by how much. But for those of you reading this who were dying to see the schadenfreude section of the article, social media has you covered (caution, NSFW language):

Uh oh. It looks like #MAGA veterans are entering the ‘find out’ stage.#FAFO pic.twitter.com/Ef4hJlDcUP

— Piyush Mittal 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇬🇪🟧🌊🌈 (@piyushmittal) December 9, 2024