We have watched with increasing concern the work of Elon Musk and his DOGE compatriots in Washington, D.C.and elsewhere, to reduce the federal payroll.

And reduce it they have, going into one department after another, cutting thousands of jobs with little apparent thought about what those cuts might end up meaning to the people who pay the bills around here: U.S. citizens.

In fairness, some of the people who lost their jobs have been or likely will be, hired back. That’s because the work they did was critical and necessary. But what that tells us loud and clear is that nobody is thinking any of this through very well. It seems like these cuts are being made before the impact is considered.

Now, word from DOGE that a sweeping plan to restructure the Department of Health and Human Services by cutting an additional 10,000 workers and closing down half of its 10 regional offices is afoot.

According to Michigan Advance, the overhaul will affect many of the agencies that make up HHS, including the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

HHS overall will be downsized from a full-time workforce of 82,000 to 62,000, including those who took early retirement or a buyout offer.

The announcement says reorganizing HHS will cut its $1.7 trillion annual budget by about $1.8 billion, in part, by lowering overall staff levels.

“The consolidation and cuts are designed not only to save money, but to make the organization more efficient and more responsive to Americans’ needs, and to implement the Make America Healthy Again goal of ending the chronic disease epidemic,” according to a fact sheet.

We, and a lot of other people, believe that someone should start pumping the brakes over at DOGE. These cuts across various departments typically have one thread in common: most often, it seems, the people who are living near the margins and just getting by are impacted the most.

Older Americans, people living on fixed incomes, the homeless, those beset by mental illness or substance abuse disorders, they and others like them will be forced to carry most of the burden.

It seems contrary to who and what we are as a nation, doesn’t it?

Overall, is the federal payroll bloated and out of control, as some at DOGE claim? We believe that’s overstated but certainly, some reductions are possible and perhaps even well advised.

But there’s a big difference between the work of a skilled surgeon and an intoxicated front end loader operator.

We’d ask DOGE to keep that in mind.