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You Can’ t Buy Honor
by Mary Barry, MD
Sure, you can use taxpayer funds to gold-plate the Oval, but not to pay enough doctors and nurses to staff the VA medical centers. For the past 18 months, the VA has had a hiring freeze, and as of this month finally is lifting it. But the toll on staffing remains: over 1,500 vacant physician positions will still not be filled, and close to 5,000 nursing positions. The VA initially claimed that the vacancies were long-standing, but many of them still had people staffing them as of early 2026. The VA had already lost an estimated 40,000 employees between January and September 2025 as part of the huge federal cuts across the country.
Veterans have served, and far too many have lost limbs and mobility. They have earned our everlasting gratitude. We honor them. The President has never served.
Sure, you can use taxpayer funds to plan and stage a 4th of July spectacular for this upcoming holiday, but not to help educate nursing students, the nurses of the future.
Sure, you can rename the Kennedy Center in your honor, only to find that artists canceled in droves, refusing to perform for you and your new board, all hand-picked acolytes. The Trump Kennedy Center is now closing for two years, after its Fourth of July celebration. The administration cited the need for“ major repairs to a tired” facility. I would like to take bets on the quantity of gold plating, nails and screws on order.
Sure, you can use taxpayer funds to tear down the East Wing for your Bone Spurs Ballroom, but not without hearing a lot of noise from the hoi polloi. Per the Washington Post in early March 2026,
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over 35,000 people have sent in comments to the National Capital Planning Commission. Over 97 % of them forcefully oppose the plan, and over a hundred have signed up to testify at the virtual hearing the Commission will hold, which has been rescheduled for later in March, or possibly April.
In contrast, the members of the Commission of Fine Arts, which is charged with oversight of big design projects in D. C., enthusiastically approved the ballroom. Somehow, I was not surprised to learn that these members also were recently chosen by the President and his staff. They are scheduled to meet on April 2. Meanwhile, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has filed a suit to stop this ballroom, and Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, formerly on the Center’ s board, filed suit in federal court regarding her suspicion that he plans to demolish the Center first, just like the East Wing. The wheels of justice are not speedy, and one wonders if the President will in fact obey a court order. Right now, the Center is scheduled to close on July 4th.
Nursing students, like most college kids, need student loans to finance their professional education. The President signed his One Big Beautiful Bill last summer, which restricts the amount a student can borrow for a“ graduate” as opposed to a“ professional” degree. Students pursuing a professional degree can borrow $ 50,000 a year for four years; graduate students only $ 25,500 a year, with a $ 100,000 limit. This is scheduled to start in July. Students still classified as“ professional” include pharmacy, dentistry, medicine, veterinary medicine, optometry, chiropractic( hmm), law, osteopathic medicine, podiatry and theology. Students pursuing a PhD in nursing no longer qualify: these students would very likely be
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