Support justice-driven, accurate and transparent news — make a quick donation to Truthout today! 

As the government shutdown has dragged on for 20 days, President Donald Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought have fine-tuned a regimen of pain designed to break the parts of the federal government they see as aligned with Democratic priorities.

In particular, they have attempted to implement draconian public health cuts, some of which have been stayed by the courts, and others of which are being put into effect. The chaos around these cuts, and the lack of clarity as to which layoffs are being implemented and which are being reversed, has added further stress to an already devastated public health system.

In the second week of October, 1,300 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees were notified of their terminations through “reduction in force” memos. The new assault on an already beleaguered institution means that the CDC has lost roughly one-quarter of its workforce in the past eight months. Those recently targeted, at least initially, include teams dedicated to fighting the growing measles outbreak, pandemic-preparedness experts, Ebola specialists, and others.

Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.

At the same time, the White House has managed to find money to keep the military and Immigration and Customs Enforcement going despite the government shutdown — and the Pentagon has juggled funds to keep paychecks flowing to soldiers. As a result, this is a government shutdown like no other — one that is seeing the beefing up of the GOP-coddled government sectors involved in deportations and militarism while eviscerating agencies and departments involved in providing health services to the U.S.........

© Truthout