The words "Coming soon" stand out at the top of the federal government's General Services Administration website like an exciting preview of important things to come from an executive that built his national reputation with a flair for entertainment. But for many people around here, they set the stage for an unwanted cliffhanger that could turn their lives upside down.
Some government workers around the region got a potential spoiler of things to come early last week when a handful of local federal buildings -- listed as "Federal Building Wilkes-Barre," "Maintenance Bldg" in Wilkes-Barre and the "SSA Trust Fund Bldg Hazleton" -- appeared on a list of "non-core" properties the government plans to put on the market.
By mid-week, the list had been expunged, with the "Coming soon" promise replacing it. Obviously though, few will or should take that as a potential reprieve that will keep these buildings off the selling block. We've seen how this administration operates. Its plan is obvious. Its name has been made thus far cutting costs indiscriminately, because cutting indiscriminately is about the only fast way to fund President Donald Trump's promised sweeping tax cut that will put more money into the pockets of some of the wealthiest people in the world, including Elon Musk, the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency that is leading the cost-cutting charge.
If it leads to the elimination of jobs and social programs on which regular Americans depend, their credo seems simple: So be it.
It's difficult to take the appearance of those buildings on that list in any other way. It caused more than a bit of a stir here, because the square footage for one of those listed buildings in Wilkes-Barre matches the Social Security Data Operations Center in Plains Twp., and the one in Hazleton has the exact square footage as the Social Security Administration Building there.
The Data Operations Center employs about 1,400 workers. While it's unclear what would become of any or all of their jobs if the building returns to the list, it's official that they can now count themselves among the unfortunate line of federal workers playing a cruel guessing game with their own futures since Trump reclaimed the presidency.
Nobody is safe from this administration's axe or the at-best disorganized, at-worst unfair way by which these decisions are abruptly announced. They are haphazardly leaked or just somehow bandied about with a nonchalance that never factors in the affect, worry and confusion -- never mind the result in practice -- they will inflict have on so many who've relied on those jobs to support their families. It's done with a consistency tantamount to policy.
Nobody questions there is government bloat to be slashed, or that Trump got elected in no small part because he promised to swing the axe into it. But there's no advantage to slashing it without careful study of the costs and benefits, and introducing fear and chaos into homes within our communities as part of it.
The GSA site insists that getting rid of "non-core" assets would help the government rid itself of maintenance costs and reinvest in other "high-quality work environments" more supportive of the agency's missions.
"Selling," the site reads, "ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces."
But in Luzerne County, a Trump stronghold that helped sweep him back into office last November, it would be difficult to label these sites as "non-core" or "vacant or underutilized federal spaces." They're vital, long-running employers in communities that need the jobs, in a country that needs the work done.
Treating people as expendable commodities is a downside of corporate America, but it's no way for the government to operate. It needs to be more considerate, even more delicate, in approaching and explaining what will be cut, and why.