Comment by klipt

You can't just turn people off and on again like computers and expect them to carry on as before.

You cut funding for cancer trials people are already enrolled in, people die.

You cut funding for HIV drugs, patients' viral loads go up. Even if you put the funding back before they die, their viruses have already evolved resistance to the drugs they used to be on.

You cut military aid to US allies, those countries learn the US isn't a reliable ally. Soft power centuries in the making evaporates, just like that.