It's time to ask about the cuts affecting Montana
Montana State Auditor Troy Downing, the Republican nominee for Montana's 2nd Congressional District, speaks at a rally in Bozeman on Aug. 9, 2024. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)
Troy Downing, our U.S. representative for Eastern Montana, is encouraging participation in a call-in town-hall meeting Monday beginning at 5:30 p.m. our time from his Capitol office.
I plan to join it at: https://downing.house.gov/live.
I have a list of questions for him but the one I plan to ask is about recent layoffs at the national Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, an internationally known research center working to eliminate deadly infectious diseases. It is another in a series of mystifying directives concocted by who-knows-who from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its 'Workforce Optimization Initiative,' sanctified by President Donald Trump's executive order creating it.
Unfortunately, there's a virtual information blackout on the Trump Administration's downsizing process. Government officers and employees are fearful of retribution if they talk, and the congressional majority doesn't want to risk retribution or being 'primaried'– or either they simply don't want to know the details or are operating on blind faith.
We can recall 'Hogan's Heroes' and the denials of Sgt. Schultz: 'I know nothing! I see nothing! I hear nothing!'
The loss of two dozen jobs at the Ravalli County laboratory is part of 1,200 personnel reductions in the National Institutes of Health, and part of a reduction of 20,000 at the Department of Health and Human Services led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The justification for the cuts is the same verbal pablum being given across the Administration federal service.
The reduction announcement said 28 HSS divisions will reduce to 15, 10 regional offices to 5, and widely unrelated skilled offices for human resources, information technology, procurement, public affairs and policy will be merged into a central office.
In its propaganda effort – yes, propaganda! – for popular support, the administration uses its all-purpose 'glittering generalities' language with little meaning but big on obfuscation:
The reductions are intended to 'reduce bureaucratic sprawl' – determined by whom?
'We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.' May we ask what these priorities are beyond the glittering generality of 'Make America Healthy Again'?
Wouldn't starting with fast-food restaurants and the myriad of snacks at gasoline stations be better places to start to make America healthier? Get Trump off MacDonald's and Diet Coke? Who defines 'healthy?'
Downing, who has perhaps the best public relations staff and 'X.com' presence of our four-person delegation, joins the other three in clicking his heels, saluting and praising without exception the amorphous Trump agenda.
What does Downing really think? Kudos to him for traveling the Eastern District and posting skads of photos chronicling his visits but what has he gained from the conversations he says he has learned from?
There is an election coming up and it is not unlikely the campaign will begin in early 2026 – although Downing already is fully engaged in it.
It is time we voters know more about what Downing is doing for Montana. Let's ask him.
Peter Fox is a retired journalist and journalism teacher who lives in Big Timber.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
19 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump rails against green tax credits in big, beautiful bill
President Trump railed against the green energy tax credits included in his big, beautiful bill in a Truth Social post on Saturday. 'I HATE 'GREEN TAX CREDITS' IN THE GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL. They are largely a giant SCAM,' Trump posted. His comments come amid a GOP internal debate over the big, beautiful bill on how to roll back former President Biden's green energy tax credits. The Senate is taking a more lenient approach on this topic, while the House voted to 'sledgehammer' the tax credits. This is another point of disagreement that could slow the leadership's ability to meet the July 4 deadline to pass the bill in the Senate. Trump continued by saying he would rather the money be used anywhere else and that 'Windmills, and the rest of this 'JUNK,' are the most expensive and inefficient energy in the world, is destroying the beauty of the environment, and is 10 times more costly than any other energy.' 'None of it works without massive government subsidy (energy should NOT NEED SUBSIDY!). Also, it is almost exclusively made in China!!! It is time to break away, finally, from this craziness!!!' he continued. In August 2022, the Democrat-controlled House passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which included $369 billion for energy security and climate investments. This move underlined the need for domestic, clean energy manufacturing and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. The Senate is debating how to decrease these investments. The text now allows the construction of clean energy infrastructure, such as solar panels and wind farms, to begin this year to receive the full credit amount. Before, when the bill was in the House, it demanded that those projects start only 60 days after the bill passed, essentially leaving no time for new clean energy investments. The Senate is also allowing projects that begin construction in 2026 to receive 60 percent of the credit, in 2027 to receive 20 percent and in 2028 to receive no credits at all. The House version would give no credits at all to projects that did not start producing electricity by 2028. The Senate is still slashing Biden's IRA significantly. Before the bill's passage in the House, some moderate Republicans issued a joint statement claiming that sledgehammering the IRA would 'provoke an energy crisis or cause higher energy bills for working families.' Nevertheless, the bill still moved up to the Senate.
San Francisco Chronicle
24 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
New Texas law will require Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas will require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments under a new law that will make the state the nation's largest to attempt to impose such a mandate. The bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, is expected to draw a legal challenge from critics who consider it an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. A similar law in Louisiana was blocked when a federal appeals court ruled Friday that it was unconstitutional. Arkansas also has a similar law that has been challenged in federal court. The Texas measure easily passed in the Republican-controlled state House and Senate in the legislative session that ended June 2. 'The focus of this bill is to look at what is historically important to our nation educationally and judicially,' Republican state representative Candy Noble, a co-sponsor of the bill, said when it passed the House. The Ten Commandments laws are among efforts, mainly in conservative-led states, to insert religion into public schools. Texas lawmakers also passed a bill that lets school districts provide students and staff a daily voluntary period of prayer or time to read a religious text during school hours. Texas' law requires public schools to post in classrooms a 16-by-20-inch (41-by-51-centimeter) poster or framed copy of a specific English version of the commandments, even though translations and interpretations vary across denominations, faiths and languages and may differ in homes and houses of worship. Supporters say the Ten Commandments are part of the foundation of the United States' judicial and educational systems and should be displayed. Opponents, including some Christian and other faith leaders, say the Ten Commandments and prayer measures infringe on others' religious freedom. A letter signed this year by dozens of Christian and Jewish faith leaders opposing the bill noted that Texas has thousands of students of other faiths who might have no connection to the Ten Commandments. Texas has nearly 6 million students in about 9,100 public schools. In 2005, Abbott, who was state attorney general at the time, successfully argued before the Supreme Court that Texas could keep a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of its Capitol. Louisiana's law has twice been ruled unconstitutional by federal courts, first by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles and then again by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also considers cases from Texas.
USA Today
24 minutes ago
- USA Today
Trump says we have 'too many non-working holidays.' He's right: Rest is for LOSERS!
Like most Americans, I cannot stand work holidays. I want to be in the office, making America great again by working tirelessly for a corporation that squeezes maximum profit out of me. If there's one thing hardworking Americans who support President Donald Trump can agree on, it's that we're not working hard enough and desperately need to eradicate radical Marxist concepts like 'days off' and 'holidays.' That's why I was so proud to read the MAGA president's social media post – which was totally coincidentally sent on Juneteenth, a federal holiday that celebrates the end of slavery – calling for a sharp reduction in rest: 'Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don't want it either! Soon we'll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' Exactly. Like most Americans, I cannot stand work holidays. I want to be in the office, making America great again by working tirelessly for a corporation that squeezes maximum profit out of me as I slowly drift apart from my family. IT'S IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS, PEOPLE! Trump treated Juneteenth like a 'DEI program' he wants to cut Now some libs out there will suggest Trump intentionally posted about getting rid of holidays on Juneteenth because he's doing everything in his power to strip the federal government of anything that suggests non-White people exist and thinks acknowledging the end of slavery is leftist DEI thinking. And some will note that Trump recently issued presidential proclamations honoring Flag Day, National Flag Week and Father's Day while completing ignoring Juneteenth and making it a regular work day at the White House. How dare liberals connect numerous dots that form a straight line and logically conclude that President Trump's actions reflect how he feels. It sounds like they have too much time on their hands, which is why we desperately need to eliminate work holidays and give people less time to think. Opinion: From massive protests to a puny parade, America really let Donald Trump down Trump knows Americans just want to work. And work and work and work. America proudly has the second-lowest number of paid vacation days and the fewest paid leave days of any nation on the planet, and I can't think of a single patriot who would welcome more time off. Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store. As Trump said in his post, 'The workers don't want it either!' Damn straight. If there's one person qualified to know what workers want, it's a billionaire who spends huge amounts of time selflessly golfing so that golf club employees and the people who protect him can work more. Opinion: Trump's parade didn't make him feel tough. Maybe a war with Iran will? Trump must immediately do away with ALL federal holidays Because I know President Trump doesn't have a prejudiced bone in his body, and to demonstrate that he wasn't singling out Juneteenth as an unworthy holiday, I'm sure he'll take quick action to eliminate all paid federal holidays, including the Fourth of July, Columbus Day, Christmas and Presidents Day. Because, as Trump wrote, 'It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed.' We MAGA Americans want to work, work, work, and not be burdened by the socialist concept of paid days off. So I'm sure we can all get behind this new slogan, soon to be available on red hats everywhere: 'MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN – WORK UNTIL DEATH!' Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @ and on Facebook at You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.
