With Memorial Day just around the corner, attention has turned once again to Trump’s planned Veterans Day parade. For those of you who don’t know, Trump has his sights set on a lavish parade set on Nov. 11, 2018. The idea came to Trump after witnessing the French Bastille Day parade. As Trump puts it, "It was one of the greatest parades I've ever seen. We're going to have to try and top it."
A memo was released at the White House describing the parade, saying “This parade will focus on the contributions of our veterans throughout the history of the U.S. Military, starting from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 to today, with an emphasis on the price of freedom." But this price is exactly where I have an issue.
It is estimated the parade will cost between $10 million and $30 million, but since it wasn’t planned in the yearly White House budget, the money will have to come from other places, such as you, the tax payer. As Stan Collender, a former budget committee member explains, “the funding for the parade could be found without a formal budget request by using existing money already in the Department of Defense budget or possibly from the Department of Homeland Security or the National Park Service”.
Many members of my family are in the military, so I have a tremendous amount of respect for these men and women, and I believe we all should. I am not complaining about spending the money on our veterans by any means, but what I am addressing is how the money is being spent. Why are we spending upwards of $30 million dollars on a lavish parade that will showcase all of our military resources when there are still 40,000 homeless veterans in this country? That $30 million would be enough to feed every homeless veteran in this country for two weeks at three meals a day.
Not only does this seem like an unsafe military strategy, — aren’t we always taught to “never show all your guns?" — but also it seems to me it’s a disrespectful use of money in the face of our already hurting veterans. It is no secret that many veterans in our country have long been pushed to the side and neglected.
Just take a walk through any of our government-run Veterans Affairs hospitals. Some patients lie in soiled bedding and go hours without food. Many hospitals are extremely understaffed and an unsettling number of the staff that are there are simply not qualified. Even here at our own William Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center in South Carolina, one doctor didn’t know how to give a proper spinal injection. In fact, “last year, VA employees filed nearly 2,000 complaints with the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency that investigates employee concerns — more than the next four most-complained-about departments combined.”
I find it admirable that we have a president who holds so much respect for our military, but showing off who has the biggest toys is not the way to do it. These are men and women who have given their whole lives to provide the freedom we are privileged to have. That, Mr. Trump, is the price of freedom. So why are we not spending our resources to help these brave men and women instead of disrespectfully showboating it in their faces? Will you really march your multi-million dollar tax payer funded parade on the same streets where homeless veterans beg for spare change?