VA Suddenly Backtracks From DOGE Move to Strip Veterans’ Health Care

Massive cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs that would have had devastating effects for veterans were paused late Wednesday.  

Lawmakers and veterans’ organizations protested over concerns that the cuts would have hurt critical veterans’ health services. On Tuesday, VA Secretary Doug Collins had bragged the department was merely slashing consulting deals to the tune of $2 billion. 

“No more paying consultants to do things like make Power Point slides and write meeting minutes!” Collins said in an X post Tuesday. 

In reality, the 875 contracts on the chopping block dealt with everything from assessing veterans’ exposure to toxic materials to cancer treatment. On Wednesday, a VA spokesperson sought to backtrack, saying in a statement that its review of department contracts “is ongoing and not final.”

“We will not be eliminating any benefits or services to Veterans or VA beneficiaries, and there will be no negative impact to VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries. We are always going to take care of Veterans at VA. Period,” VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said in the statement.

One of the targeted contracts had to do with reviewing veterans’ disability ratings, a critical step needed for a veteran to qualify for medical coverage and draw medical compensation if they were injured due to their military service. If a veteran doesn’t receive an accurate rating, they could end up getting worse financial support and treatment options.

According to an internal VA email, one contracting official in the agency said that the Department of Government Efficiency said it was targeting “consulting” contracts, but in reality, the cuts included chemotherapy and imaging services. Other contracts that would have been axed included radiation detection equipment, cancer care support, veterans’ cemetery management, and the ability to assess toxic exposure.  

“With funding suddenly stripped from contractors processing claims, conducting medical screenings and expanding outreach, there are growing concerns veterans will face delays, denials and disruptions in accessing critical services,” Rosie Torres, executive director of Burn Pits 360, told the AP. The organization advocates for veterans who suffer from respiratory illnesses and cancers due to toxic exposure from trash-burning fires near military bases overseas.

There’s no guarantee that the planned cuts aren’t suddenly resurrected. President Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to slash what they call fraud, waste, and abuse from the federal government has largely been haphazard, resulting in multiple cases where they had to undo the firing of critical staff or the cancellation of lifesaving programs, such as some at the VA. In some cases, cuts haven’t been reversed despite promises otherwise, and whether money is even being saved is debatable at best. The question is how many lives have been ruined by Musk and Trump just a month into this presidency.

Donald Trump screamed Republican Representative Victoria Spartz into submission on his disastrous budget bill, Puck reported Thursday.

The Indiana congresswoman, one of the three initial holdouts on the reconciliation bill, claimed Wednesday she was a “hard no” on the resolution, which would force the Committee on Energy and Commerce to reduce the deficit by at least $880 billion from 2025 to 2034. That committee oversees Medicaid, sparking widespread concerns that Republicans were simply seeking a way to slash the crucial program.

When asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether she would bend to pressure from her colleagues, Spartz replied, “You don’t know me well enough.… You should know better than that by now.

“We cannot be weak, and we have to do the right thing for the people,” she said.

But that was before Spartz took a furious phone call from the president, whose screaming could be heard by the congresswoman’s colleagues across the Republican cloakroom, according to Puck. Trump shouted that Spartz was a fake Republican set on undermining his agenda, and loudly reminded Spartz that he was the president, Puck reported.

As a freshly scolded Spartz walked out of the cloakroom, Mike Johnson patted her on the back. “You know what you have to do,” the House speaker said.

Spartz flipped, telling reporters later that she’d had a “great conversation” with Trump, who was “on board to get some great things done on health care.”

“I trust his word,” she told reporters. It seems like Spartz doesn’t know Trump well enough and should know better than that by now.

Trump claimed after his Cabinet meeting Wednesday that he was “not going to touch” Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security. But without severe slashing to federal programs, Republicans will fail to accumulate the savings required to offset the cost of the tax breaks imposed by the budget bill.

Representative Warren Davidson also flipped from “nay” to “yay” after a call from Trump. In the end, the only Republican holdout was Representative Thomas Massie.

The New York Times identified several dozen employees working for the Department of Government Efficiency, but conservatives were surprisingly unhappy about the transparency.

“The so-called New York Times outs 45 people working for DOGE,” posted the Washington Examiner’s Byron York on Thursday, alongside a screenshot of the Times article, apparently frustrated to see one of the nation’s largest newspapers doing its job in rooting out government corruption.

DOGE employees have been handed the monumental task of slashing federal spending. So far, the group has gained access to and gutted portions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Education, Commerce, Defense, and Energy Departments, the Inflation Reduction Act, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Agency for International Development, and, among other agencies, the Federal Aviation Administration, even as the nation experiences an unprecedented uptick in critical aviation crashes.

Elon Musk predicted Wednesday that the organization would meet its goal of hacking $1 trillion from the budget. Many of the staffers employed under the helm of Musk’s organization come equipped with minimal Washington experience, according to the Times, while a large number of them have former working relationships with Musk.

But knowing who’s behind the seismic cuts is apparently not a priority for conservatives, who would seemingly rather keep DOGE’s operators in a literal deep state.

Former Newsmax employee Breanna Morello posted on X that identifying the individuals working for the White House was somehow “putting the lives of DOGE employees at risk.”

“You’ll notice they have no problem detailing the individuals cutting fraud and wasteful federal spend, while hiding the names of the so-called reporters who worked on this hit piece,” Morello continued, outing herself for not finishing the article, where the bylines of some 15 Times reporters are listed.

But despite DOGE’s mandate, some experts believe that the organization’s haphazard work chopping the government into nonfunctional bits will actually add to the deficit. On Tuesday, The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait argued that DOGE’s “inflated” savings thus far had amounted to little more than a “rounding error” and that the group’s decision to take a metaphorical chain saw to the IRS had effectively decimated the government’s ability to collect revenue (taxes)—moves that could actually increase the nation’s debt.

“There’s a reason that none of the innumerable budget experts who have studied the deficit have proposed anything resembling what DOGE has come up with,” Chait wrote. “By almost any ideological standard, it is the worst possible approach.”

It seems that Trump’s massive tariffs are back on.

Earlier this month, Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada—which he inaccurately used drug trafficking to justify—were paused at the last minute. But on Thursday, President Trump announced the tariffs on the two countries, along with 10 percent tariffs on China, will begin on March 4. And he’s still hung up on the drugs.

“Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels. A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled. China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date. The April Second Reciprocal Tariff date will remain in full force and effect. Thank you for your attention to this matter. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

These tariffs will likely cause the price of various goods—from cars to gaming consoles, to over-the-counter pills—to increase dramatically.

“Trump says 25% Canada/Mexico tariffs and another 10% China tariffs are coming next week. Meanwhile, US steel prices spiked 9%-20% last week and US manufacturers just reported their highest input costs in two years,” wrote Scott Lincicome, the vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute. “I’m sure it’s fine.”

Earlier this week, it was reported that Trump’s spending freeze has halted a counter-narcotics program at the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, Trump is also threatening the entire European Union with a similar 25 percent tariff, further isolating the U.S. from its economic allies.

The Federal Aviation Administration is reportedly planning to ditch a $2.4 billion contract with Verizon in favor of a deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The move would be a blatant favor to the tech mogul, as it would result in overhauling a communications system underpinning America’s air traffic control system and further increase the wealth and power of the world’s richest man, The Washington Post reports.

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative has been granted unprecedented power and access in the federal government by President Trump, which has proven quite beneficial to Musk’s personal interests. The billionaire owes much of his fortune to government contracts, subsidies, and loans to his various companies.

The FAA’s contract with Verizon dates back to 2023, and was meant to upgrade a communications platform used by air traffic controllers and FAA offices. Switching to Starlink would give Musk a larger foothold at the FAA, which Musk has frequently clashed with over safety and regulatory violations. The agency is responsible for the safety and stability of America’s air travel.

Musk himself attacked Verizon on his X account Monday, claiming that “the Verizon system is not working and so is putting air travelers at serious risk.” Several employees from his SpaceX company have been working inside the FAA, ostensibly to upgrade old technology, and despite no decisions having been made, the agency said in a statement Monday that it was already testing Starlink systems in New Jersey and Alaska.

The move increases Musk’s many conflicts of interest regarding SpaceX and the FAA, and proves that Musk can get whatever he wants from the Trump administration, while claiming to overhaul government agencies in favor of greater efficiency.

“Who’s looking out for the public interest here when you get the person who’s cutting budgets and personnel from the FAA, suddenly trying to benefit from still another government contract?” John P. Pelissero, who directs an ethics center at Santa Clara University, said to the Post.