May 01, 2026 10:40 AM UTC

DOGE D'Oh! Bill Comes Due for Colorado Republicans

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• by: Colorado Pols

President Trump’s second term in office kicked off in January 2025 with much discussion about “cutting waste” in government, led by billionaire racist Elon Musk and his DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) disruption. While Republicans such as Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Ft. Lupton) dutifully celebrated the DOGE-ification of government, widespread and often indiscriminate cuts became an immediate problem both nationwide and here in Colorado.

It was clear by July 2025, after the passage of Trump’s big beautiful bullshit bill, that taking a blowtorch to the federal government really wasn’t the best idea. As The New York Times reported in late December, DOGE ended up actually costing taxpayers money:

One big reason, according to a New York Times analysis: Many of the largest savings that DOGE claimed turned out to be wrong. And while the group did make thousands of smaller cuts, jolting foreign aid recipients, American small businesses and local service providers, those amounted to little in the scale of the federal budget.

In DOGE’s published list of canceled contracts and grants, for instance, the 13 largest were all incorrect…

…The Times’s analysis helps answer a basic question about DOGE, which was hard to judge in the group’s chaotic heyday, when it had enormous power to cut federal spending and force out government employees who stood in the way. At the time, in the early months of 2025, DOGE listed real cuts alongside fake ones, and made it hard to tell the difference.

That raised the question of whether DOGE, at its heart, was an exercise in budget cutting or in deception. [Pols emphasis]

In short, DOGE was just a high-profile way for Trump and MAGA Republicans to pretend that it actually worked to “run government like a business.”

That’s not to say that the DOGE-ification of the federal government didn’t produce real cuts. It did…and they were bad. One year later, the fires started by the new Trump administration — including cuts to Medicaid and a Republican refusal to extend Obamacare subsidies — are still burning out of control.

As The Aurora Sentinel reports:

Aurora’s mental healthcare service provider announced Thursday it will lay off more than 100 staff members because of Medicaid funding reductions at the federal and state levels.

Aurora Mental Health and Recovery officials said the program is reducing its staff by 111 employees, mostly administrative and support positions, as of June 30.

Only four roles providing direct client care will be eliminated, officials said. Additionally, the facility plans to reduce some of its services.

CEO Kelly Phillips-Henry said in a statement changes to Medicaid at the state and federal levels represent a $13 million hit to the organization’s budget, which it can’t afford because it operates on a break-even payment model.

You don’t say? Last March, Rep. Evans was telling anyone who would listen that proposed Medicaid cuts were all about digging out that mythical beast Republicans call “waste, fraud and abuse.” As it turns out, gutting Medicaid funding ends up crippling vital health care services for thousands upon thousands of Americans. While Evans just lied about this cause and effect, others such as Rep. Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd (R-Grand Junction) knew that these cuts would be devastating to health care providers — particularly in rural areas — yet supported them anyway.

Remember the discussions last fall and winter about extending Obamacare subsidies? Congressional Republicans wouldn’t budge on the issue despite plenty of warnings that increased costs for families would force people to abandon health care coverage altogether. It was clear that a refusal to extend the subsidies wouldn’t save any money in the long run because the cuts would require all taxpayers to foot the bill for a rise in emergency care.

As The New York Times reports, that’s exactly what happened:

Millions of Americans appear to be dropping Obamacare coverage in the months since Congress failed to extend the generous subsidies that had become a defining feature of the Affordable Care Act.

Initial sign-ups had already fallen by about 1.2 million people. But insurance companies, state officials and industry analysts are reporting that many more have lost Obamacare coverage now that people are facing long-term higher costs. The federal government has yet to report current enrollment data.

Many insurers and analysts are estimating overall declines of about 20 percent, dropping to around 19 million from the 24 million who were covered under the A.C.A. last year. Other indications suggest there could be even larger potential losses by the end of the year, a deep retrenchment for Obamacare coverage and a reversal of significant gains in the last several years.

The rising cost of health care has shown up as a top concern among Americans in several public opinion polls. Premiums are rising for Americans who get insurance through work, too, as health care costs have been increasing nationwide. Out-of-pocket costs are growing too, as plans with high deductibles have become popular.

For many Colorado families, affording health care is just one more thing they can’t afford now that they don’t have jobs. As The Colorado Sun reports, Colorado lost more public lands jobs in 2025 than any other state:

Colorado lost 1,753 positions from agencies including the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management amounting to a 26% loss in the public lands workforce in 2025.

The Trump administration’s sweeping cuts of nearly 300,000 federal jobs by the Department of Government Efficiency included 6,000 public lands jobs at 10 federal agencies in six Western states…

…Scott Fitzwilliams supervised the White River National Forest for 15 years before resigning last year as visitation soared and he was forced to slash his workforce.

A year later he still can’t make any sense of the cuts.

“There was no rhyme or reason that I could see. They did not have any kind of strategic approach to the downsizing. If they tell you differently, they are lying,” he said in an interview with The Colorado Sun. “It just seemed random. When you think of the type of visitation we get and the needs of our forests, it’s just disheartening to think about how fewer people are out there doing this critical work.”

Thousands of Colorado families lost their primary source of income last year while national park visits turned into a tourism nightmare, but at least we opened up more oil and gas drilling on public lands!

Colorado Republicans did what they said they would do in supporting DOGE and making massive cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. The results were what every expert said they would be: disastrous.

In a few months, Evans, Hurd, and Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo. Springs) could end up getting DOGEd by voters out of their own jobs (and health care access).