It has been just a matter of weeks, fifty-one days, since Donald Trump became President. For millions of Americans, including many who voted for him, some of his decisions have been both unexpected and baffling.
But no single decision has been as controversial as the one to hand over vast responsibilities to tech titan Elon Musk. Even the reddest of Trump Republicans are puzzled by it.
Trump has handed Musk the keys to the government and given him and his team of unvetted and shockingly young charges—one only 19 years old—the green light to downsize wherever he and they see fit. What has unfolded has had a dramatic impact on health, employment, public safety, national security and the people in these agencies who carry out their missions.
Musk and his efficiency team—the hastily assembled Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE—with Trump’s approval, have taken a chainsaw—Musk’s word—to nearly every government department.
He has cut jobs at Defense, Justice, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Internal Revenue, National Parks, National Weather Service, Agriculture, the VA, TSA, Consumer Finance Protection and completely eliminated USAID, a foreign aid program assisting undeveloped countries. Shockingly, even the CIA and FBI have become targets for DOGE.
In some cases, Musk has fired workers via email, often with no explanation beyond telling them to clean out their desks and leave. At USAID office, fired workers were given just fifteen minutes to gather their belongings before shuttering their workplace. Some of his actions have been halted by the courts, but that may be only temporary.
For iconic Colorado Republican Norma Anderson, the only woman to lead her party in both the House and Senate, watching Trump, Musk and her party’s leaders has been a huge disappointment.
“First,” said an incredulous Anderson, “who gave Elon Musk the power besides Trump and why did he do it? And why has the Senate not done something about it…why it is sitting on its hands? Are they that afraid of not being reelected?”
The venerated former legislative giant suspects Trump may have a long-term plan for his drastic downsizing of government.
Anderson said cutting budgets for public health when the nation is dealing with two serious public health concerns makes no sense.
One example is a measles outbreak that began in Texas and has spread to New Mexico and ten other states. Two deaths have so far been recorded.
The other is the bird flu virus that has resulted in the deaths of more than 20 million egg laying chickens and a subsequent skyrocketing of egg prices. In some Denver supermarkets eggs have risen as high as $12 a dozen.
Now in a dozen states, bird flu has been diagnosed in more than 70 human individuals, mostly agricultural workers who work in close contact to poultry and livestock.
Asked to comment on the measles outbreak, Trump’s new Secretary of Health and Human Services and vaccine skeptic, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said, “It’s not unusual, we have measles every year.” But rather than underscore the effectiveness of vaccines, Kennedy instead touted Vitamin A and cod liver oil as preventatives.
The spike in measles is unusual, says the CDC. There have been no measles deaths in the U.S. since 2015. Also, the 160 cases so far, is on pace to exceed last year’s total of 285 and it’s only two months into the new year.
Measles was declared eradicated in the U.S. by the CDC in 2000. It reappeared a few years later following an erroneous report in the medical journal, The Lancet, suggesting vaccines being the cause of autism.
Trump and the Republican plan cuts $880 billion over ten years from public health, including Medicare which could affect a million-plus Coloradans. “To be very clear,” said Colorado Congressman Jason Crow. “They (the cuts) would cost us a lot more on the back end. And that’s just economic consequences.”
Trump has so far allowed Musk to continue his cost-cutting march through government despite pleas from red state Republican officials to exempt their states from cuts. But, so far, Trump is not budging.
“This country has gotten bloated and fat and disgusting and incompetently run,” he said endorsing the Musk march. If people need to be fired, “That’s okay.”
Meanwhile, Crow, a four-term Democrat, also voiced his concern with DOGE over National Institutes of Health cuts on a recent visit to health care clinics in the district.
In a letter sent to the White House, Crow said grants for “ground-breaking research in cancer and Alzheimer’s,” will hurt Coloradans by eliminating thousands of jobs. The letter was also signed by Colorado Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper.
Crow recently reassured a town hall gathering attended by more than 1,400 people that Buckley Space Force Base would not be used as a temporary detention center to house undocumented workers and families.
One just announced cut is to the Internal Revenue Service where an estimated 6,000 workers, including some in Denver, are now or soon to be unemployed. The cut, right in the middle of tax season, may impact taxpayers trying to get answers about their filings, their tax refunds or for the government to collect the money it is owed. Tax Day, April 15th, is 34 days away.
While there has already been backlash over the Trump-Musk slash and burn’ march through the federal workforce, one that has hit a higher note is the plan to fire as many as 80,000 VA workers. As many as a third of these workers are veterans, many of whom are disabled from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
