An avalanche of abdication is coming.

“We want [government] down to the size to where it would fit in a bathtub, and then it could worry about what we were up to.” – Republican strategist Grover Norquist

It’s time to worry.

The news is full of the drastic, foolish and inhumane spending cuts Republicans are making in federal agencies. Tens of thousands of people are losing their jobs without warning or any effort to find out whether it makes sense in the real world. Already some local programs, such as assistance for legal refugees provided by Church World Service, are laying off employees.

What’s missing from the news so far is the tragic downstream impact those cuts in Washington are going to have for everyone.

The Republican Wet Dream

Republicans have several goals when cutting government spending. The two most immediate goals are to justify the fantasy that another round of tax cuts for people who don’t need them won’t increase the debt and that the nation’s debt ceiling does not need to be raised.

But this also fits nicely into Norquist’s long-term bathtub strategy from the national capital, to state capitals to our own city halls and courthouses.

Federal spending cuts blast holes in state budgets. This week Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, with rhetorical support from Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday, sued the federal government for stopping $2.1 billion in payments owed to Pennsylvania for many programs --from safe water to reclaiming abandoned mine land. Here is the news release from the Governor’s Office.

The consequence of national Republicans’ actions is not limited to a few programs, however. If the cuts remain and more follow as threatened, it will drastically affect all state budgets now being negotiated. Either the state will have to raise taxes substantially to sustain programs from Medicaid to schools to bridge replacement, or those programs will be cut, affecting literally everyone, but especially the least fortunate, least healthy and least educated among us.

PA Republicans, who control the state Senate, will place their no-tax pledge to Grover Norquist above their oath to God to do their duty under our Constitution. The impasse will be ugly, prolonged, and almost certainly very harmful to those who rely on government to have a decent life.

In short, cutting the federal budget will lead to cutting the state budget.

But that’s not all.

When the state cuts spending, it creates a fiscal crisis for county and city governments that rely on state and federal money for services ranging from police to mental health to food banks to child protective services to… you name it.

This puts county and city governments in the position of having to raise taxes substantially or eliminate services -- another wound Republicans will inflict on our people.

The Private Sector Effect

Republicans who abdicate their Constitutional responsibility “to promote the general Welfare” are not just destroying government. They are flirting with a deep economic recession.

My good friend Barry Shutt reminds me from time to time that all government spending happens in the private sector. Federal, state and local employees spend their paychecks in the private sector. So do the employees of businesses and non-profit organizations that have government contracts. So do the businesses themselves when they use government funds to purchase goods and services from other businesses.

The result is predictable. When these businesses lose revenue, employees lose their jobs. When employees lose their jobs, the businesses where they spend their paychecks lose customers. Lose enough customers,… It’s pretty obvious to any thinking person.

Do Republicans care about risking cascading economic calamity? I think we know.

TDS

The MAGA types have a term for those of us who are troubled by the Republican/Trump agenda. It’s TDS, Trump Derangement Syndrome.

But that’s not what TDS really stands for. It really stands for the MAGA agenda itself: Too Damned Stupid.