I pick up the phone to dial the Veteran’s Administration (VA). It’s regarding my service-connected compensation that I receive every month and have since honorably discharging. Recently, it was reduced because my son graduated high school and is thus no longer considered my dependent. I’d had a little tack-on on to my monthly check thanks to him. It wasn’t much, say, a little over hundred bucks.
Before Trump won last November, I was promised by the VA that I would continue to receive this tack-on as long as my son attended college. As long as he did that, he was still my dependent, though I don’t believe the VA calls him that anymore. I would just have to provide proof of his attendance and my monthly amount wouldn’t change by a single cent.
There was the usual few months break between high school graduation and college class-up. The tack-on disappeared in that period. Easy. All I had to do was just send in proof to the VA of my son’s college attendance, sometime after he classed up in August, and voila–the tack-on would be reinstated.
One thing changed since “voila.” Trump. And with DOGE in high gear, who knew if the tack-on went nighty night. So I pick up the phone to call the VA.
I’m anticipating at least a long wait, some elevator music and of course a robot interjecting, trying to sweet talk me into going on the website to get my questions answered rather than wait for a warm body.
There’s more to the story.
In a not so dissimilar way is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Any homie out there who was involved in his kid’s college application last year, and who can’t fork over the whole tuition bill, knows about FAFSA.
I completed my end of the FAFSA in the middle of all the buzzing and the grumbling about Trump’s then education secretary pick, Beth McMahon. She was going to eviscerate (ruin! dismantle! demolish!) –basically screw over the Department of Education according to many of the pundits. Of course that sowed fear in the hearts and minds of many parents. My pants were no less pissed in, even though I voted for Trump and was thus responsible for putting this iconoclast in power. It served me right that I was stressing, I guess, stressing more specifically over whether or not this federal gutting included FAFSA. If it did, I would be forced into a very uncomfortable conversation with my son. It was the big what-if in many households, I’m sure.
There’s more to that story, too.
Almost a year ago to the day, I lost my job. I was 55 at the time, super ensconced in my cushy, good paying former job that I could practically do in my sleep I’d been there that long. But then I had to start all over.
You can imagine the fun that I had filling out applications, since just about every prospective employer asks, Have you ever been fired? The answer was not as simple as yes or no in my opinion, but the short answer, which is all the application cared about, was yes. To make matters even more interesting, I was fired around the time the maritime season begins to slow in its usual and cyclical way. Don’t forget, too, I had a son looking at me with trusting eyes, trusting I was going to fulfill my promise of paying for his college no matter what. Besides, they don’t care about “what.” Our kids aren’t supposed to.
There I was: officially unemployed less than a year before my son was to class up for college. Suddenly, small and modest tack-ons to my VA check didn’t feel so small and modest. FAFSA? Who the hell knew what was going to happen to FAFSA with a goddamn WWF circus wife at the helm.
The very last thing, then, and I mean the very last thing, that I needed was a hot-headed cowboy president flipping over every piece of furniture at the same time, negatively impacting the economy and taking down job sectors with it, mine included.
My financial security was in serious straits. And here’s Trump, talking about tariffs tariffs tariffs, and though I was (am) no expert, I knew enough to know that quite possibly these tariffs couldn’t be good for the job sector I was qualified for. I had no choice. I had to start looking at getting a roommate, cashing my retirement out early, selling the house.
There’s more to the story.
Stay tuned. In just a few short weeks, we’ll be coming out with our five-year piece. Tell ya how these stories end in a broader context.
-tmc
Things Men Carry 