Laws of unintended consequences and collateral damage

MUMPS (Musk Trump Syndicate) may have planned out the assault but they haven't thought much about how to handle the result.

He’s been MAGA since Trump came down the Golden Escalator almost 10 years ago. He did his time in the military and retired with some benefits after an injury. He’s solidly 2A, with a small personal armory. He’s sick of watching American money go to foreign countries. He’s tired of his tax dollars going to people who don’t want to work. He’s no free loader. He’s got a good job working with the government…until he doesn’t.

Last week, he got a “fork in the road” letter. He can’t understand it. He doesn’t want to take the buyout and he’s afraid of getting fired. He’s got a family to feed. He’s always been a good employee. He was planning to retire with full federal benefits. He hasn’t figured out yet that he’s the Deep State they were talking about.

A lot of people cheering on the MUMPS are about to have rude awakenings. Slashing and burning government is going to have as many unintended consequences as intended ones. Sure, government might get smaller, but the private sector is about to take a huge hit. Some of the pain will be short-term, some of it will be long-term, and much of it will be permanent.

USAID is a perfect example. For MUMPS (Musk Trump Syndicate), it’s an easy target. MAGA hates money going to foreign countries and most of the employees are liberals anyway. They’re the people who want to save starving children, stop communicable diseases, and help countries build infrastructure to reduce poverty. You know, a hotbed of libs. So it was easy to cut the agency from 10,000 jobs to 300.

But USAID is not just jobs. It’s also goods and services provided mostly by American businesses. American farmers produce much of the food that the program distributes. American truckers get it from the field to the docks. American shipping companies deliver to the countries overseas. A lot of Americans who are not employees of USAID are about to take a significant financial hit.

While USAID may be focused on humanitarian aid, it’s also part of foreign policy. Helping struggling countries develop is not just a moral obligation, it’s a strategic mission. Building good will across the globe is in our best interest. When US aid workers and organizations pull out of those areas, somebody is going to fill the void. Maybe it will be another western power, but it’s just as likely to be China or Russia—or some extremist group. MUMPS is sowing the seeds of the next Al-Qaeda or Islamic State.

And though not many people want to admit it, USAID organizations provide cover for covert operations. They offer opportunities to gather intelligence. They have built the trust of local populations and understand the politics on the ground. Losing the networks built through USAID will cause irreparable harm to our intelligence services.

The only people more happy than MAGA about ending USAID programs are our enemies. They are laughing at us. The United States is once again becoming a joke in the eyes of the world. With Musk in charge, it’s hard to know whether weakening US global standing is a feature or a bug.

The real goal of MUMPS’ slash-and-burn attack on government is to cut enough of the budget to offset the pending tax cuts for the rich. The people who get hurt the most will be the ones with the least, like my friend the federal employee, or people who would never support them anyway, like many USAID workers. But the collateral damage is going to be wider than they expect. Musk’s frontal assault is both unprecedented and unchecked. Like the Iraq War in 2003, MUMPS have thought about how to execute the assault, but they haven’t thought about how to handle the result. It’s likely to be brutal.