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#Trump #VeteransAffairs Secy Douglas A. Collins took to social media on Tues to tout sweeping #cuts to contracts that he said would save the #VA nearly $2B w/o touching core services.

But the 875 contracts on the chopping block help cover #medical services, fund #cancer programs, recruit #doctors & provide burial services to #veterans, acc/to internal VA documents.

“Make no mistake,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), the ranking #Democrat on the Senate #VeteransAffairs Cmte, said in a statement Tues responding to Collins’s announcement. “This is just another reckless cost-cutting decision that will harm #veterans & tax payers for years to come.”

The cancellations mark the admin’s latest effort, led by #Musk’s #DOGE, to streamline a federal bureaucracy #Trump has cast as bloated, corrupt & lazy — a campaign that has left no part of the 2.3M civilian workforce untouched, not even the department tasked w/supporting the nation’s #veterans & their families. On Monday, following a first round of layoffs affecting 1k workers, the #VA announced another 1,400 dismissals of “non-mission critical positions.”

…Collins said savings would be funneled back into #veterans’ care: “Don’t let nameless sources, even senators & House members who want to scare you, & media, who want to perpetuate the line. We are taking care of the veterans,” he said.

["Just remember: What you're seeing & what you're reading is not what's happening" – #Trump 2018]

["The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes & ears. It was their final, most essential command." – George Orwell, '1984']