It’s too early, in our opinion, to know just how much proposed layoffs affecting the Allegheny National Forest will hurt Warren County.

Part of that is because we don’t yet have full information about just how many layoffs there actually are in the ANF area. Because of that we don’t have a good understanding yet of how the cuts will affect programs and services in the Allegheny National Forest – though it appears that fire protection efforts that affect public safety have been spared thus far.

What we do know, however, is that we’re not a big fan of the glee with which President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are relishing the cuts. We understand the idea behind the Department of Governmental Efficiency and agree with Trump’s desire to cut federal spending. It’s long past time for the federal government to live within its means and balance its budget. Not all federal employees are part of the deep state that fought so hard against Trump during his first term in office. The sort of people receiving pink slips in our region simply go to work each day to earn a paycheck to support their families.

Laying people off and adding to the unemployment rolls is no cause for celebration even if the work is necessary. We remember, back in 2019, how heartless it seemed when then-candidate Joe Biden told coal miners that if they wanted a job they should learn to code or when candidate Hillary Clinton said during a CNN town hall that she was going to “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” and, because of that, there needed to be programs to help retrain workers. The words are just as heartless when they come from a Republican president speaking at CPAC saying, “Nobody’s ever seen anything like this, and nobody’s ever seen four weeks like we had,” as the president did recently.

It’s one thing to be callous when threatening people’s livelihoods on the campaign trail. It’s entirely another to celebrate actively sending people to the unemployment line. These are business decisions – our government should act like it.