Veterans Archives - The National Memo

Trump Appointee Scraps Veterans’ Strongest Safeguard Against Predatory Lenders

August 14, 2018 4:07 am

Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.

Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) plans to abandon its most effective means of protecting military service members from being ripped off by payday lenders — part of Trump budget chief Mick Mulvaney’s mission to gut the agency from the inside.

According to The New York Times, a CFPB draft proposal shows that Mulvaney, the agency’s interim director, wants to scrap proactive oversight and enforcement of the Military Lending Act.

Mulvaney’s plan calls for the CFPB to stop performing “supervisory examinations,” which proactively look for patterns of abuse by lenders against members of the military.…

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Democrats Vow Probe Of Mar-A-Lago Troika Ruling VA

August 10, 2018 2:54 am

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.

Democratic lawmakers said they will investigate how three outsiders have been shaping policy and personnel at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A ProPublica investigation Tuesday revealed the vast influence of the trio, who often meet at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

Tim Walz, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sent a letter to the agency’s new secretary demanding that the VA hand over all records of contacts between agency officials and the three men, who are sometimes referred to as the “Mar-a-Lago Crowd.”

“This situation reeks of corruption and cronyism,” Walz (D-Minn.) said in a statement. “If these revelations prove true, and VA is being secretly run from the shadows of Mar-a-Lago by individuals with no accountability to taxpayers and who have never served in the United States military or government, then that would amount to an unprecedented, disturbing, and profoundly unacceptable betrayal of our nation’s veterans.”

The troika is led by Ike Perlmutter, the chairman of Marvel Entertainment who has long known Trump.

Trio Of Mar-A-Lago Cronies Secretly Overseeing Veterans’ Care

August 9, 2018 4:18 am

Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.

Last February, shortly after Peter O’Rourke became chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs, he received an email from Bruce Moskowitz with his input on a new mental health initiative for the VA. “Received,” O’Rourke replied. “I will begin a project plan and develop a timeline for action.”

O’Rourke treated the email as an order, but Moskowitz is not his boss. In fact, he is not even a government official. Moskowitz is a Palm Beach doctor who helps wealthy people obtain high-service “concierge” medical care.

More to the point, he is one-third of an informal council that is exerting sweeping influence on the VA from Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Trio Of Mar-A-Lago Cronies Secretly Overseeing Veterans' Care

How Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter and two other Mar-a-Lago cronies are secretly shaping the Trump administration’s veterans policies.

Kelly Admits White House Fired Shulkin From VA

In a private meeting last week with major veterans groups, Kelly repeatedly said that the decision to remove Shulkin was President Donald Trump’s, according to several people who were present or briefed on the meeting. The White House has insisted that Shulkin resigned, disputing his assertion, in media appearances, that he was fired. (Whether voluntarily or not, his tenure as VA secretary ended on March 29.)