Protect Our Checks Day of Action

More than one third of Virginia’s veterans rely on Social Security. That’s over 230,000 people in the Commonwealth. All of those people and more are at risk thanks to the Trump administrations budget cuts.

The Protect Our Checks Day of Action in Virginia Beach, VA on Saturday August 16th saw members of the Hampton Roads community gather to listen to experts on social security and stakeholders discuss what effects DOGE and Republican budget cuts would have on veterans, seniors and others on August 16th, 2025. The event was organized by Affordable Virginia locally but nationwide with over 30 different groups including AFT, CWA, MoveOn and People for the American Way, among many others.

In Virginia 37% of veterans receive Social Security, with another 2% on Supplemental Security income Virginia Beach, a city with tens of thousands of veterans, around 14% of the population the threat of the loss of entitlements are real.

Trump and Elon’s DOGE aren’t just long term looking to do cuts on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security they’re effectively doing it now - just through even more backhanded means.

Sharita Gruberg, Vice President for Economic Justice at the National Partnership for Women & Families explains, It's already nearly impossible to get benefits. If you're applying for Supplemental Security Income because you're disabled there’s a 236 day average processing time, who has 236 days to wait for the money you need like pay your rent, buy food? Over a million people are waiting for their appeals. People will die waiting for their appeals.

That going along with the closing of hundreds of offices makes the process of getting benefits all the more difficult for those living on the edge - especially differently abled.

Chris Howard of William & Mary University reminded people towards the end of the talk that this isn’t the first time we’ve had a Social Security “is running out” scare. “We have saved quote unquote, Social Security in the early 80s. We've made adjustments and other times before that, but the whole tenor, Reagan, Bush, Trump has been eroding our tax base in a number of ways. And there are enough small tax cuts for moderate income people that they can say that they're broadly available. But if you look at the dollar amounts, if you look at the percentage savings, etc., they're heavily weighted towards the haves in society. And the whole bit this year about reverse Robin Hood was absolutely correct in terms of who was actually getting the tax cuts and who was actually paying the price for Medicaid cuts, Snap cuts, other cuts, etc..

When or if we come out of this era of brutal cuts effecting those who need help the most Howard says [he] “thinks there needs to be an emphasis on that reverse Robin Hood, and that we need to sort of undo a lot of the damage that has been done to our revenue base over the last 30 or 40 years.”

You can read the full report at https://www.affordablevirginia.org/social-security-storybook