Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins wanted to make it clear Monday that, contrary to some reports, veterans' health benefits are not being cut by the Trump administration.
"We're doing everything we can to put mission one back at the VA being the veteran," Collins said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "It's very important for us to take all those kind of rumors, innuendo, the hypotheticals, the possibilities that you and I both know that the media loves to run with because it's something that they can run with that creates a little bit of controversy, and then they can walk away with basically their hands clean.
"The problem is, we at the VA have to clean up the mess and clean up the mess means that we have to explain to people what we're doing. And there is a lot of change going on. I'm not saying that there's not, but all of it is designed to get us to that primary focus of being veterans-centric, to the veteran for the benefits and the healthcare that they've earned."
With all the talk of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency making cost-cutting recommendations at government agencies, Collins said he wanted to clarify that there are VA employees who report to him "who are DOGE liaisons."
"This idea that there's, from our perspective, DOGE, running around and doing things, again, is a little misleading from the press," Collins said. "I remember a time, very not long ago, when Democrats actually talked about looking at the fraud, waste and abuse in our government. I remember Republicans always talking about that, in many ways, but now it's actually a president who says, 'You know what? Maybe time for talking is over. Let's actually look at this.'
"We've already done away with the DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] issue, which took over $14 million, between employees and contracts, out of our budget, and replace that back into the budget where we're putting it with veterans, and then things like $170,000 for Politico Pro," he continued. "As I've said many times before, if our folks want to get the little newsletters from D.C., they can do the free ones. It'll be OK."
Collins also commented on the recent decision to ban the LGBTQ pride flag from being displayed at VA facilities, saying it was necessary "to bring us back to our purpose."
"I'm still in the military, in the Air Force, as you all well know, the U.S. flag is the flag that we bind us under," he said. "It just streamlines us to where we're back under that one unity of let's focus on America. We welcome all of our veterans who've served, no matter what their background or belief may be, but when they come back and they see our facilities, the facilities are going to represent the United States."
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