Local opinion: Mass firings create dangers to health and safety

Since the end of WW2 and the creation of NATO, most of the Western world has existed in a rules-based order where borders were inviolable and invasions to change those borders would be met with the military of all nations that belonged to NATO.

While there have been regional conflicts, the world has largely been at peace since the creation of NATO. Today, a new foreign policy of America First under the leadership of President Trump is ascendant. That foreign policy is hostile to the rules-based order of secure borders and appears willing to accept Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a change to Ukraine’s borders, with Secretary of Defense Hegseth saying that restoring Ukraine’s borders was “unrealistic.” That acceptance demonstrates to the Western world that the U.S. is no longer the major power supporting a rules-based order. Russia appears to be the winner, and we can be certain that North Korea and China are watching.

President Trump and an unelected and a seemingly unsupervised Elon Musk and a team of 20-year-olds have been given access to federal databases to search for “waste, fraud and corruption” — a noble goal but one that requires evidence and a clearly thought-out process rather than simply firing employees who lack civil service protection.

On Feb. 17, incoming new hires of the Epidemic Intelligence Service were informed they would be terminated. Later, recognizing the danger, that order was rescinded. 300 Employees of the Nuclear National Security Administration were summarily fired and then, recognizing that danger, rehired. Newly hired wildfire fighters were fired. A supervisor expressed concern that training in firefighting needs to begin now so that those newly hired firefighters would be ready to deploy during the inevitable wildfires in the summer. Now, those new hires are gone. Health and Human Services face a 10% cut in employees. Veterans Affairs lost 1,000 new hires. Federal Aviation Administration lost 400 workers. Federal Emergency Management fired 200 recent hires. The list goes on in a chaotic, unsupervised, and dangerous process.

Bird flu has led to the destruction of millions of chickens and skyrocketing cost for eggs. Of greater concern is the possibility that the virus will mutate to infect humans. When COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan, China, sometime in 2019, it soon migrated to the United States, where it caused over a million deaths, shut down schools and businesses and led to widespread panic, conspiracy postings, and massive government spending to address economic and social disruption.

Normally, creating a vaccine against a disease requires 10-15 years, but, thanks to research going back many years, the COVID-19 vaccine was created in a very short time, and millions of lives were protected. However, growing food insecurity driven by climate change is leading to greater contact between wild animals and humans; as that happens, there will be animal viruses mutating and ultimately allowing animal to human transmission. When that happens, we will need stronger public health and the ability to call on years of research to, once again, rapidly create a vaccine. That research would be authorized by the CDC and HHS. Deciding to cut that staff by 10% with no thought of consequences or evidence of mismanagement is foolish and dangerous.

Republican Presidents Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush all asked Congress for reform to immigration. All four lauded the contributions immigrants have made to the United States. Only one Republican President has seen immigrants as criminals. All four previous Republican Presidents strongly supported the police. Only one has pardoned rioters who attacked the police. Only one Republican president has placed an unelected billionaire in charge of combing through government databases indiscriminately terminating personnel critical to the nation’s safety. Only one Republican president has repeatedly shown little interest in providing evidence to support his policies. Only one Republican president has offered fulsome praise to murderous dictators.

Congress, not President Trump, has the power of the purse. Congressman Ciscomani, Senators Kelly and Gallego need to assert their power and fulfill the role the founding fathers assigned to them. Failure to do so is dangerous to our history and our form of government.