The news that Los Alamos National Laboratory is seeking to trim 10 percent of its permanent staff is hardly unexpected. After all, the lab is facing a $300 million budget cut, from $2.5 billion to $2.2 billion, next year.

Still, the news is painful to hear.

Forced layoffs aren't in the cards -- yet. Instead, the lab is trying to persuade some of its permanent full-time staff of 7,500-plus to leave voluntarily. The goal is to shed 400 to 800 jobs, while leaving more than 3,000 contractors, students and other workers unaffected at this time.

This, folks, is what cutting the federal budget looks like. Everyone wants to trim spending. Everyone wants to cut waste, fraud and abuse. Everyone wants less government. No one wants to lose 800 jobs in the middle of a fragile recovery. The separations, lab officials hope, will reduce spending enough that involuntary layoffs won't have to occur.

Cutbacks have been expected since President Barack Obama's administration announced earlier this month that it would defer building a $6 billion plutonium research lab at Los Alamos. Construction was to have started this year on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility; now it is on hold for at least five years. In addition to jobs lost at the lab itself, postponing the nuclear facility will mean another 1,000 construction jobs that are going away.

This is grim news.

Already, politicians are turning the issue into campaign fodder. Former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, is promising to "fight for the labs" if elected. We doubt that current Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall don't fight for the labs, and our U.S. representatives, Ben Ray Luján, Martin Heinrich and Steve Pearce, also are loud supporters of defense and science spending in New Mexico. However, Wilson has a good point -- one that representatives should follow up on -- the National Nuclear Security Administration that oversees the labs is soaking up dollars that could be spent on programs rather than administrative overhead.

However, fighting for the labs and more spending at home has to take a back seat to fighting for a fiscally sound budget for the United States. When cutting a federal budget, some of those cuts are going to hit close to the bone -- and that includes in Northern New Mexico. A smart, concerted effort saved Cannon Air Force Base and its operations several years ago. We still have Kirtland Air Force Base, as well as Sandia and Los Alamos laboratories contributing to the state's economy. For budget hawks to demand cuts and more cuts, and then cry foul when those cuts hit home -- that's hypocrisy in its rawest form.

What's more, there is considerable evidence that the proposed Los Alamos plutonium facility was too big, too expensive and redundant. This postponement gives us a chance to rethink the project before we pour billions down the rabbit hole. We do urge our senators and representatives to try and beef up funding for the cleanup of legacy waste. Environmental concerns need to be dealt with -- last summer's fires underscored the urgency of dealing with waste.

We must begin to deal with the new normal -- government budgets are flat or being cut and we can't count on the lab to be the economic driver of the North any more. The lab will remain, thank goodness, fulfilling its mission of keeping our nation safe, breaking new ground in science and employing thousands of people. But this contraction is a clear signal that New Mexico must diversify its economy. Government and tourism have been good to us. It's time to broaden the base.