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America’s veterans deserve better than being pawns in a petty political standoff, and that was the blunt message from Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins on Newsmax’s Wake Up America. Collins pulled no punches, calling attention to the “most disturbing” consequences of the shutdown — not as abstract budget numbers, but as real damage to the lives of former servicemen and women trying to rebuild.
The secretary made it clear that while advance appropriations keep about 97 percent of VA operations running, the remaining 3 percent at risk are not trivial bureaucratic details — they are the programs that touch veterans at their most vulnerable moments. Transition assistance, career counseling, and outreach to state, county, and tribal partners are being delayed, meaning a veteran’s path to a job or to critical services can be shoved off track by a week or more.
Collins even pointed to cemetery maintenance and burial pre-need processing being interrupted, a heartbreaking outcome that should shame every lawmaker playing games while grieving families wait. This isn’t budget drama for policy wonks; it’s about headstones, honors, and dignity for those who served our nation.
From a conservative standpoint, Collins’ anger is the right reaction — Congress must not weaponize funding and hold our veterans hostage for political theater. The secretary rightly accused Democrats of playing for political gain, a move that is cruel and indefensible when it jeopardizes the safety nets and services veterans rely on after giving their all for this country.
Secretary Collins also offered practical reassurance: the VA’s lifelines like call centers and suicide-prevention programs remain operational and veterans should seek help if they need it. That calm, competent leadership inside the VA is what conservatives applaud — the institution putting service above politics even as career politicians choose partisan stunts.
Now is the time for Congress to act responsibly and fund the VA fully, not grandstand. Secretary Collins showed the kind of principled, veterans-first leadership Washington desperately needs; Republican lawmakers and patriotic Americans must rally behind him and demand an end to this needless pain inflicted on those who already paid a steep price for our freedom.
