At his town hall Wednesday night in Conroe, Texas, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) was pressed by a veteran about cuts to the VA and the GOP budget ending the cap on overdraft fees.
00:00Thank you for giving me an opportunity. I'm a vet, U.S. Army vet. I worked in Army Intelligence, and I lit up our enemies every day. I was happy to do it.
00:14I have two quick questions. One, okay, so I hear about DOGE, but I don't ever hear about the pharmaceutical industry. I don't ever hear about health care. I don't ever hear about defense contractors, because there's plenty of waste, water, and abuse there. But yet, we cut the VA.
00:35Okay, now, okay, why aren't we going after them? The second question is, I heard that this new budget that passed lifted the cap on overdraft fees at banks.
00:51So, our poor elderly, who may have a bounced check, are now going to be charged with exorbitant fees. I want that cap put back on to where banks are forced to do this in a reasonable manner.
01:08Okay, we did not make any cuts to VA. Matter of fact, we did not make cuts to the VA.
01:24Okay, I thought you were talking about VA bills. Okay. Hang on. The healthcare space is being addressed through the Secretary. That's on TV every single day.
01:48The Department of Defense, as far as permitting reform and how it engages with public private institutes, is that kind of the granular part of your question?
01:59We're moving legislation to clean that system up as best we possibly can. As far as the VA goes, matter of fact, in February, the VA processed over 1 million disability claims.
02:111 million. And the VA trajectory, again, I haven't had the Secretary sit in front of me yet, but it is, and if it folds, I can assure you I'll be the one wild brushing.
02:25And I have never been a stranger in doing that. I do, religiously, do it.
02:34As far as government, you're talking about the body, the bodies, is that what you're referring to?
02:43The people who are being fired and at first services are better.
02:47I understand. And thus far, the trajectory is still continuing to move upwards.
02:54With less people.
02:55Yes, with less people. So we're not spending much federal dollars instead of getting the same thing back.
03:00Thank you for a long and long course of the year. I know, right?
03:03Well, I get you. Are you a CBOC guy over here? If you go to Conor, you go to, you go to, you go to, um, DeBakey.
03:09I know, I know.
03:10Okay. Conor is the best CBOC almost in the country.
03:14Okay. Well, I'm more soon to be there, but I want that for everyone.
03:17Yes, I'm sure. I'm sure. I got you.
03:20But, hey, let's not, and it's because the challenging part is every single VA is different.
03:24Everyone. From our CBOC to DeBakey, there's 172 VA facilities. Every single one of them is different.
03:31We can absolutely do my best to address the problem sets that exist in each one.
03:37That's 478,000 employees across the entire country.
03:42And I've only been doing this for two years without trying.
03:45Okay. What about the overdraft fees?
03:47Oh, okay. That's been lifted off the case, and now they can go back and start charging people with soaring fees because it has an overdraft.
03:56I understood. I got you.
03:58What can you do about that?
04:00Well, we're going to have to get in there and move legislation to take that back, but the banks are the ones that came to us asking for that.
04:07Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.
04:10Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.
04:12You're going to have to say that the real pressers are good people or it is who know something is wrong, and they think nothing about it.
Be the first to comment