They Broke It. They Own It.

How to hold GOP accountable

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee, called out the mindless slashing of vital government employees. “The FAA is already short 800 technicians and these firings inject unnecessary risk into the airspace—in the aftermath of four deadly crashes in the last month," she said. Acting-president Elon Musk’s DOGE outfit cut 300 FAA employees.

Flying, arguably, is less safe under the Musk-Trump regime; the risk of calamities is higher.

“The head of the food division at the US Food and Drug Administration has quit in protest over sweeping staff cuts that he warns will hamper the agency’s ability to protect public health,” the Guardian reports. Jim Jones, in a resignation letter protesting “indiscriminate” cuts, warned that “nutrition, infant formula and food-safety response, including 10 staff members responsible for reviewing potentially unsafe food ingredients, were targets of layoffs.”

If Jones is correct, food safety has degraded under the Musk-Trump junta; the danger of food contamination is higher.

Over at the National Institutes of Health, “the nation’s premier biomedical research agency, an estimated 1,200 employees — including promising young investigators slated for larger roles — have been dismissed,” the New York Times reports.

America’s edge in science and medicine is getting undercut; the development of life-saving drugs likely will be slowed.

Don’t take my word for it:

On Monday, eight officials who led health agencies under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.—including the heads of the C.D.C., the N.I.H. and the F.D.A.—issued a joint statement denouncing the cuts. It listed a string of initiatives, from combating the opioid epidemic to bringing primary care to rural communities, that are “vital to the economic security of our nation” and are carried out by public servants.

“These individuals are not numbers on a spreadsheet,” they wrote, adding, “We owe them a debt of gratitude, not a pink slip.”

The virtual elimination of USAID comes at a price as well.

“Beyond the impact of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, some 14,000 agency employees and foreign contractors as well as hundreds of thousands of people receiving aid abroad — many American businesses, farms and nonprofits— say the cutoff of U.S. money they are owed has left them struggling to pay workers and cover bills,” the Associated Press reports. “Some face financial collapse.”

Farmers are losing income and market share, labs working on crop innovation are shutting down, and supply-chain businesses are facing layoffs. In short, American agriculture (not to mention our image and influence in the world) is worse off in the Musk-Trump era.

The Muskovite cuts are not part of a reworking strategy. These are not steps of a brilliant plan to modernize and improve performance. Mindlessly slashing government agencies impinges on the health and safety of all Americans, while the layoffs weaken our economy. (Government workers, of course, live and work throughout America, not just in D.C.) Moreover, Musk-Trump personnel cuts add to the unemployment rolls. Unless fired employees can instantaneously find comparable work, some will seek public assistance, while others will pay less in taxes, reduce purchases, and/or go further into debt.

Bit by bit, the consequences will pile up. There may be no single catastrophe that drives home the extent of the Musk-Trump inflicted damage. But the cumulative effect of disabling government, reducing personnel devoted to health and safety, and throwing hundreds of thousands of thousands out of work will take its toll.

I doubt many voted for Trump (none for Musk, certainly) because they wanted to increase aircraft accidents and food poisonings while holding back medical science—let alone because they wanted to increase unemployment and shrink the economy. But that is what they are getting—it’s what we’re all getting.

The GOP White House and the spineless Republican senators who confirmed unfit nominees, as well as House Republicans who have ceded the power of the purse to an unelected South African billionaire, own the results of their demolition of government.

Democrats would be wise to account for the damage. Each day, they must track the data and gather the individual stories that result from this assault on functional government. Then, they can compare the state of the country before and after Musk’s destruction.

“You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people," Colin Powell said he told President George W. Bush regarding the invasion of Iraq. "You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You'll own it all." The so-called Pottery Barn rule (“You break it, you’ve bought it”) was born.

In the case of Musk, Trump, and the AWOL Republicans in Congress, they are responsible for the hopes, aspirations, problems, well-being, and lives of roughly 347M Americans. They may relish breaking government; they may revel in the nihilism. But all of this comes with a steep price. The Contrarian is unafraid to point out that wildly slashing government means Republicans own the airplane disasters, the E. Coli outbreaks, the cancelled medical trials, the excess unemployment, and the consequent damage done when competent people performing critical tasks are fired.

The quicker Americans realize the extent of this impairment, the sooner Republicans in Congress may feel pressure to pump the brakes. Failure to do so will result in legions of irate voters at the polls.