Daily Reformer: Forest Service cuts and fire response

Good morning, Reformers.

With the confidence of my 8-year-old self confidently telling you I would be playing in the NBA, world’s richest man Elon Musk assured us he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, no problem. Instead, federal spending went up last year, even as DOGE’s relatively small cuts were deeply harmful.  

That’s because Musk and his minions had no understanding of the federal budget, where the real money is in Social Security, Medicare, national defense and interest on the debt — nearly two-thirds. 

Leaving those untouched, they took out small grants with a big impact, as The New York Times reported (gift link) in their big analysis of DOGE published late last year: 

“For Plan International USA, the cancellation ended work on 13 grants, including one that provided food aid in Ethiopia and an education program in Nepal to keep girls in middle school to avoid early, forced marriages. Its abrupt termination was listed on the wall as saving $11.7 million.” 

Helping Nepali girls avoid early, forced marriages? Woke! 

The DOGE boys didn’t understand what the U.S. government does and why, e.g., that relatively small sums buy us huge goodwill around the world. Which can come in handy when you’ve made a foreign policy blunder, like, say, a foolish war of choice, which we seem to do every quarter century or so lately. 

Closer to home, our ace freelancer Brian Martucci reports this morning that the U.S. Forest Service lost more than 100 Minnesota employees and delayed $10 million in grant funding for wildfire mitigation in the Superior National Forest during the chaotic first year of President Trump’s second term.

“The delayed Forest Service grants would have supported prescribed burns and other fuel-reduction efforts on thousands of acres near the Echo Trail, which has borne the brunt of this year’s fires.”

H/t Washington Post, which had this story first, but read Brian’s story, free, no ads, no Bezos, and share it. 

Plenty more in today’s Reformer:  

If you’re a believer in harm reduction when it comes to drug policy, you should read this Atlantic article (gift link) with an open mind. Vancouver, long the model of harm reduction, is beginning to reverse course after 25 years, with policymakers and the public no longer convinced it’s the best path. 

“Over the course of two decades, many thousands of drug users poured into the Downtown Eastside and other Canadian neighborhoods in search of narcotics and places to shoot up. Overdoses spiked. In 2014, British Columbia recorded 369 overdose deaths; in 2023, the figure peaked at more than 2,500. Fatal overdoses last year decreased to 1,826, as Canada moved to reverse decriminalization and tighten regulation of narcotics, but that still represents a nearly ninefold increase over 15 years. Advocates of harm reduction have long held that more addicts would die if officials closed injection centers. But a recent study found that after an injection site in Alberta closed, there was no increase in the number of overdose deaths, and more addicts sought treatment.”

Singer-songwriter Glen Hansard has died. Here’s his obituary in the Irish Times. “When an uncle of Glen’s went to prison, he left behind a guitar, and Glen picked it up and began learning songs by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. Struggling at school, he decided to quit and pursue a musical career. A teacher suggested he try busking on the streets of Dublin….” 

What an origin story. 

Here’s a bunch of Dubliners singing in his honor on the street. And here’s Hansard and Marketa Irglova singing it. 

Have a great weekend everyone! JPC