Carman: The cruel consequences of moving fast and breaking things 

In this frenzied era of moving fast and breaking things, it’s hard to tell which is worse: the cynical intended consequences of reckless policies or the clueless unintended ones. 

One thing’s for sure, though, either way they leave colossal messes to clean up.

In one example that looked like a scene straight out of “Dr. Strangelove,” we have the story of some 350 civil servants at the National Nuclear Security Administration being fired last month. Locked out of their offices with their email accounts abruptly shut down, they were disrespected, humiliated and deemed sinister elements of the Deep State.

Then, somebody pointed out that they had canned the only highly trained workers available to handle the delicate business of maintaining the nation’s nuclear warheads. 

Officials hurriedly rescinded the terminations and rushed the workers back to the office or the missile silos or wherever their essential services were required. 

Oops.

It was obviously a reversal to avoid a potentially deadly unintended consequence, but it didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

Less dramatic but maybe more insidious is what happened at the Center for Assessment Design Research and Evaluation at the University of Colorado Boulder. Here the consequences from cuts to federal funds might very well be intended.

The center is funded in large part by the federal Institute of Education Sciences, the major research arm of the Department of Education, which took a $900 million haircut via Elon Musk’s chainsaw last month. 

The institute pays for studies and data collection to determine which education initiatives work and which don’t. Long-term research on such questions as the impact of early childhood education on student achievement or whether coaching improves student performance on SAT and ACT tests are just two examples among many research projects undertaken at the center.

A lot of public and private money is spent on early childhood programs and high-dollar test prep programs, so it’s useful to know if they’re worth it.

But even more troubling, without reliable data, education initiatives based purely on political or ideological grounds can be imposed on schools without regard for their educational value, cost-effectiveness or even fairness. 

After all, once you eliminate science, anything goes.

But even before Musk took control of the country, bonehead decisions were backfiring all around us. 

Jeez, after pretty much eliminating measles in the U.S., anti-vaxx disinformation campaigns over the past decade have resulted in a major outbreak in Texas and in New Mexico, with at least 20 hospitalizations and one death, so far.

And the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022 is a case of an ill-considered decision backfiring spectacularly.

Based on all available data, this decision has produced pretty much exactly the opposite of what supporters said they wanted to achieve.

Since it went into effect, abortions in the U.S. have gone up, the fertility rate has declined to a historic low and the infant mortality rate has increased. 

These are hardly the outcomes the sanctimonious anti-abortion rights activists were celebrating when the Dobbs decision took effect. The real objective — to assert more government control over women’s personal lives — is much closer to becoming reality, particularly for women living in poverty.

The fact remains, regardless of the Dobbs decision, abortion was never going to go away. Far from it. It just got more inconvenient and expensive and, because of the need to travel long distances to find providers, abortions often were performed later in the pregnancies. 

And life-saving health care for women declined in states where abortion bans were implemented, leading to a 7% increase in maternal mortality rates since Dobbs.

Meanwhile in Colorado, women have experienced delays in obtaining abortion services as the state has become a destination provider for women living in states with bans or stringent restrictions on abortion and pressure to serve nonresidents has increased.

A study by the University of Colorado Boulder found that an estimated 6,700 people who needed abortion services traveled to Colorado in 2023. That number represents 27% of abortions in the state. Before 2022, only about 10% of abortions in Colorado were performed on nonresidents.

The same thing is happening across the country.

And while Congress is debating how much to slash Medicaid funds, child nutrition programs, child care services and other programs to address families in poverty, the data show abortion bans in Texas, where the nearest abortion clinic is often a day’s drive away, have resulted in increased birth rates among the poorest and most vulnerable women.

So, let’s at least be honest as we try to navigate this political environment. The policies are not about efficiency, morality or improving the nation’s economy in a world struggling with inflation and extreme income inequality. 

These policies are not aimed at creating good government services, rescuing struggling families or even upholding the law.

They’re about cruelty, plain and simple.

Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant.

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