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Veterans Affairs was spending nearly 180k on ‘special’ Politico subscriptions instead of vets

February 11, 2025 | | Print Article

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that it canceled a shocking $178,000 in Politico Pro subscriptions.

Secretary Doug Collins, who is leading the VA, gave a statement to NewsBusters regarding the decision to end the link to the news organization, saying it marks “a new day” at the department.

“We’re putting Veterans at the center of everything the department does, focusing relentlessly on customer service and convenience,” he said. “We’re working every day to find new and better ways of helping VA beneficiaries. That means cutting wasteful spending and redirecting resources toward programs that benefit Veterans, families, survivors and caregivers.”

Crunching the numbers, NewsBusters reported that “With the maximum per diem per veteran coming in at $71.53 a day, one could use the Politico Pro subscriptions to support one homeless veteran for over six years.”

Before the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could even begin to get into the spending habits of the VA, the department issued a statement on its compliance with President Donald Trump’s order to end DEI in federal government offices.

“To date, VA has placed nearly 60 employees who had been solely focused on diversity, equity and inclusion activities on paid administrative leave. The combined annual salary (base pay, locality pay and additional earnings) of these employees totals more than $8 million, an average of more than $136,000/year per employee. One such employee is making more than $220,000 per year,” the statement read.

“Additionally, VA has identified several contracts for DEI-related trainings, materials and other consulting services, which the department is currently working to cancel. The combined value of these contracts totals more than $6.1 million.”

As BizPac Review previously reported, Politico has denied reporting that they have been a “beneficiary of government programs” after it was discovered that the organization has received $8 million in funds from the government over many years.

Politico CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and editor-in-chief John Harris issued a statement on the stunning news which had riled X users into a fury.

“As surely many of you saw today, there was a spirited discussion at the White House and among officials connected to the Department of Government Efficiency on the subject of government subscriptions for journalism products, at POLITICO and other news organizations,” they wrote. “This is a fine conversation to have, and we welcome it. The value of POLITICO subscriptions is validated daily in the marketplace. Some parts of today’s conversation, however, were confusing and left some people with false understandings. For this reason, we want you to hear from us on several points.”

“Sheikholeslami and Harris praised its subscription service for delivering ‘granular, fact-based reporting’ and ‘real-time intelligence’ but maintained that it never received even ‘one cent, ever’ of government subsidies. They also emphasized the majority of its ‘professional subscriptions’ are in the ‘private sector,'” BPR reported.

Sierra Marlee
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