Falsely Claims Trans Soldiers Will Cost Military $1.35 Billion
Just days before the 4th of July, U.S. Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) compared American armed forces service members who are transgender to ISIS, North Korea, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The four-term GOP representative on Thursday also called them a “domestic threat,” and grossly overstated the possible medical costs trans soldiers require.
“At a time when we should be focusing on the threats from North Korea, and Putin, and ISIS,” Hartzler told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, “we’re having to deal with a threat here at home — a domestic threat — of allowing transgenders [sic] in our service, which is a real problem because it impacts their readiness, and it’s a huge cost for our military,†Hartzler continued, as ThinkProgress’ Zack Ford reported.
Perkins told Hartzler on his radio show “Washington Watch” that allowing lesbian, gay, and bisexual soldiers to serve openly is “social experimentation” that had “created a deficit” in the military’s budget, which is false.
Rep. Hartzler, who once gave a speech comparing same-sex marriage to polygamy, incest, marrying children, and even to a three-year old driving a car, also decried the training service members might receive in working with transgender service members. When “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was rescinded all military members underwent similar training. Reports show only two soldiers quit as a result.
Service members undergoing the training will be sitting around learning how “their rights are going to be threatened,” she cried.Â
Hartzler, who has drafted a bill to ban all trans service members from serving in the military, also falsely claims the medical costs for transgender service members would be $1.35 billion over 10 years. “That figure is 16 times more than the highest estimates provided by the RAND Corporation,” Ford notes.
Estimates vary, but there are up to about 10,000 transgender people honorably serving in the U.S. military. A policy accommodating new trans service members was scheduled to go into effect July 1, but at the last minute, Secretary of Defense James Mattis postponed the change for another six months.
“We will use this additional time to evaluate more carefully the impact of such accessions on readiness and lethality,” Mattis wrote announcing the delay, and adding, “this action in no way presupposes the outcome of the review.”
A 2016 L.A. Times report exposes Hartlzer’s cost claims as false.
“Out of an estimated 1.3 million active service members, there are as many as 6,630 transgender men and women who will be affected by the decision, according to a study by RAND Corp., the Santa Monica-based think tank,” the Times reported.
“Only a small portion of service members would likely seek gender transition-related medical treatments that would affect their deployability or healthcare costs,†said Agnes Gereben Schaefer, lead author of the study and a senior political scientist at RAND.
The study, commissioned by the Pentagon, estimates that between 30 and 140 new hormone treatments a year could be initiated by transgender service members. In addition, there may be 25 to 130 gender transition-related surgeries utilized a year among active service members.
As a result, U.S. military healthcare costs are expected to increase between $2.4 million and $8.4 million — or a 0.13% increase.
$2.4 million to $8.4 million.
Hartler likes to toss around numbers, but the facts prove they’re false.
Here’s Hartzler talking with hate group head Tony Perkins:
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