What did Donald Trump do today?

He "saved money" by canceling a disease outbreak monitoring agency that does not cost taxpayers any money.

Layoffs of the full-time staff of the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program were announced today, the latest casualties in the Trump administration's purge of critical public health services. 

According to the official Trump administration position, all such programs are being ended or incapacitated in order to spend taxpayer money more "efficiently." As critics have noted, most of the "savings" announced by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and Trump cabinet heads are fictitious—either errors or outright lies. In fact, year-on-year federal spending is up under Trump, not down, and tax revenues are expected to fall by a catastrophic 10%, or $500 billion, as businesses and wealthy non-salary individuals take advantage of a decimated IRS. 

But unlike other disease prevention teams, the VSP cost taxpayers nothing in the first place. Its operating expenses were paid for by the cruise industry itself.

The firings come as American cruise ships are battling an outbreak of norovirus. This is a common and highly contagious shipboard illness.

Why does this matter?

• Whatever the purpose of this is, it is not about efficiency or savings.

• There is never a good reason to make Americans more susceptible to disease outbreaks.