Doug Collins Knows Veterans Deserve Real Solutions, Not More of the Same
For decades, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been a case study in government dysfunction — bloated budgets, endless red tape, and a bureaucracy more focused on self-preservation than serving veterans.
Especially over the past four years, we've seen the VA kowtow to veteran service organizations (VSOs) like the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) who were seemingly more worried about their declining memberships than actually helping veterans.
The Biden administration did a disservice to the Americans who answered the call to serve our nation by ballooning the VA workforce, working to ban private claims experts from helping veterans, and approving billions of dollars in unnecessary contracts — all instead of focusing on the needs of our veterans.
Secretary Doug Collins is putting an end to that.
Instead of continuing the tired cycle of throwing more money at a failing system, Collins is demanding accountability, cutting waste, and ensuring that every dollar, every employee, and every program serves its intended purpose: helping the men and women who served this country.
Predictably, the Washington establishment is in full meltdown.
Critics are shrieking that Collins’ reforms will "gut" the VA.
But let’s be clear — what they’re really defending is the broken status quo.
And that status quo has been an unmitigated disaster for America’s veterans.
Look at the numbers. Since 2019, the VA workforce has ballooned from 398,000 to 470,000 employees — a nearly 15% increase.
- Has veteran care improved by 15%?
- Have disability claim decision wait times dropped?
- Have mental health services expanded?
No.
Sec'y Collins is right to roll back this bureaucratic bloat and focus on efficiency, not excess.
Less bureaucracy means more resources going directly to veterans, not getting lost in the swamp of federal paperwork.
Then there’s the backlog of VA disability claims that hit its highest level of the past 10 years in June of 2024.
Even now, there are nearly 250,000 veteran claims that have been pending over 125 days.
That’s 250,000 veterans waiting longer than four months to receive a decision on if they’re going to be able to keep their homes from foreclosing, to afford therapy, or even to put food on the tables for their families as they look for a job and transition to civilian life.
Instead of the backlog, Biden’s VA focused on eliminating what the VFW and the American Legion term "claim sharks," also known as the companies that employ experts on the VA disability process so veterans can file their claims correctly the first time.
This public relations tactic by the VSOs is engineered to scare veterans into using their services and legislators across the country into passing damaging bans that limit a veteran’s freedom to hire specialized assistance and get the benefits they have earned.
And finally, Collins is addressing the $67 billion in contracts the VA is handing out — many of them wasteful, redundant, or outright unnecessary.
After reviewing just 2% of those contracts, Collins’ team has already identified 600 contracts that do nothing to serve veterans.
That’s $900 million in taxpayer money that can now be redirected to real healthcare, real benefits, and real services for those who earned them.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg — 88,000 more contracts are still under review.
Anyone opposing this effort isn’t fighting for veterans; they’re fighting to protect a corrupt system that rewards inefficiency.
Collins is also rolling out the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Workforce Optimization Initiative, a necessary step to make the VA leaner, faster, and more effective.
His critics claim cutting bureaucracy means cutting services.
That’s a lie.
Cutting bureaucracy means cutting the delays, the backlogs, the endless hurdles veterans have to jump through, just to get the care they were promised.
For too long, veterans have suffered under a system that measures "success" by how much money it spends, rather than by actual results.
They’ve been forced to endure months-long wait times for appointments, an underfunded mental health system, and a benefits process designed to exhaust them into giving up. Collins is putting an end to that.
He’s prioritizing outcomes over optics, cutting waste, and making sure the VA works for veterans — not for Washington bureaucrats.
This is the kind of leadership the VA has needed for decades. It’s bold. It’s results driven and most importantly, it’s long overdue.
The professional excuse-makers in Washington can whine all they want.
Veterans know the truth.
Doug Collins is fighting for them.
The swamp is fighting for itself.
Mitchell Brown is an Army veteran with extensive experience as a linguist, intelligence collector, and reconnaissance asset. Mitchell eventually took a legislative role in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he began his work on policy for the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security. Mitchell was subsequently appointed to serve as deputy White House Liaison for the Department of Labor for the Trump administration. Mitchell was tasked with leading in lowering the unemployment rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read Mitch Brown's Reports — More Here.
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