The first stage of cuts to Health and Human Services (HHS) have begun with 10,000 employees slated to be fired in the coming weeks.  Pink slips have been replaced with emails and deactivated key cards as workers line up at HHS offices across the country to find out if they still have a job.  The establishment media is out in force to paint a tragic narrative of "public servants" who only want to do good for less fortunate souls no unable to fulfill their calling.  It's all quite dramatic.

It's hard to say when government bureaucrats suddenly became an army of charitable saints sacrificing themselves for the good of humanity.  The HHS currently employs around 82,000 people within 10 regional offices and the average income for a worker is around $100,000 with benefits.  The majority of them are pencil pushers and social workers, not doctors or scientists making grand discoveries in medical technology.  When they do get involved in medical study, disasters seem to follow. 

Keep in mind that the HHS was partly involved in the funding of gain of function research by EcoHealth Alliance, which, in conjunction with projects run by Dr. Peter Daszak and Dr. Anthony Fauci at the NIH, reportedly led to the creation of human transmissible coronaviruses at the Wuhan Level 4 Virology Lab in China (ground zero for Covid).  

The annual budget of the HHS is $1.8 trillion - It accounts for around 20% of all federal dollars spent every year and tracking where this immense pool of cash goes is far more complex than the shady operations of USAID.  The agency is, by any measure, a monstrosity.  Cuts are intended to hit the FDA, CDC, and the NIH, all under the umbrella of the HHS. 

A large portion of programs instituted by HHS tap into pandemic funds set aside during covid (yes, the covid cash is still floating around after 5 years).  This money goes to support numerous programs that the majority of Americans voted against, including DEI programs, illegal immigrant programs and gender affirming care programs (gender based care for minors was indeed pursued by the HHS).  

The point is, it's not worth feeling sorry for these people.  When they had unmitigated power they abused it in grand fashion and everything that happens from here onward is pure Karma. 

Democrats in at least 23 states are taking action to sue the Trump Administration over the budget cuts and layoffs.  In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday, the states are seeking a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief to immediately halt the administration’s funding cuts that they say will lead to key public health services being discontinued and thousands of health-care workers losing their jobs.

The civil suits are unlikely to make much difference in the end, just as they failed to stop the cuts to USAID.  The HHS, now under the management of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is expected to undergo unprecedented changes in the coming months and a level of accountability the institution has probably never dealt with before.  

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago. HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” the agency said in a statement last week.