Former Republican strategist Tim Miller, who now hosts The Bulwark podcast, called President Donald Trump's view of veterans "cruel and dismissive."
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace spoke with Miller and longtime veterans rights advocate Paul Rieckhoff, who founded the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Government Executive reported Tuesday night that the Trump administration plans to cut 83,000 jobs from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Nearly 30% of VA workers are also veterans.
The announcement came after Trump's former lawyer and now adviser, Alina Habba, said that veterans may not be "fit to have a job at this moment."
She was asked about the federal workers who also served in the U.S. military being fired.
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"That’s something the president has always cared about — anybody in blue, anybody that serves this country. But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work," she said, implying they weren't doing the jobs they were hired for.
"That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means," she added. "We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work. And we can’t, you know, I wouldn’t take money from you and pay somebody and say, 'Sorry, you know, they’re not going to come to work.' It’s just not acceptable."
Miller said the statement is likely going to come back and haunt her.
"And even if not, it is just cruel and dismissive," he said. "And nonsensical."
As a practical matter, he said, Habba made some points that don't quite add up.
"At the beginning of the clip, she talks about tax dollars and like, being a good steward of tax dollars. And so I think that, you know, speaking to former Republicans, I can speak to this, I still really care about that. ... But, like this is a farce, right?" Miller continued.
He said that if they cared about balancing the budget and cutting waste they wouldn't be doing what they're doing, "indiscriminately firing people while planning to pass a massive budget-busting tax cut."
He accused MAGA economists of "cooking the books" to make it seem like it won't increase the deficit by as much as $5 trillion.
"So, they're not trying to be fiscal stewards. They're not trying to balance the budget. This is, as Paul said, an effort to tear the government down to its studs. To punish people, to go after foes, and to reward political allies," said Miller.
Rieckhoff explained that for decades Republicans have tried to privatize the VA and this is part of that effort.
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