I & I Editorial BoardIn consuming the news, one could easily conclude that, as we said earlier in the week, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are carpet bombing the federal government. The wails and screeching breakdowns over the injustice of federal workers losing their jobs are ear-piercing. They are, we’re told, under attack.
After all, these are no everyday workers toiling for large corporations and small businesses – they’re federal employees who apparently are so indispensable to life as we know it that if they are no longer employed at taxpayers’ expense, America and maybe even western civilization will collapse.
Why else would there be so much fuss, so many tantrums, over a few of them losing their jobs?
We noted earlier that even if 100,000 federal workers lose their jobs, that’s a tiny 4% haircut off of nearly 2.3 million federal workforce. Yet we hear about an angry mob – our term – “getting fired up for the fight,” the birth of “fresh grassroots energy (that) came after a wave of layoffs hit government workers in recent weeks” and grousing about the administration’s “extreme, illegal, and unconstitutional actions.“
“It really is a witch hunt that is happening regarding our federal workers,” Maryland Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said.
Federal workers have sued to keep their jobs, there have been obligatory protests, and in a letter to department and agency heads, more than 100 Democrats showed their desperation to save the bureaucracy that works for them and not the American people. They bellyached about “Elon Musk’s public threat to dismiss any employees who” don’t respond to his email asking them to explain what they do at “work”; called his “threat” “reckless, cruel, unlawful, and unenforceable”; and demanded “immediate action.”
The media can’t resist the personal stories of those who’ve lost their jobs, framing their coverage in a way to lead readers and viewers to believe the federal workers who’ve lost their jobs are victims. Of course, the media ignore the drag the bureaucracy puts on this country.
The polls show, however, that the public supports lopping off the bureaucratic fat. In the latest Harvard-Harris poll, two-thirds said Democrats should take more of a wait-and-see attitude toward Trump’s actions and even “join the mission of cutting government waste.”
Instead, Democrats are enlisting left-wing activists to protest spending cuts in Republican districts, a ploy meant to create the impression that Republicans are rebelling against these cuts, with the mainstream press happily playing along.
Washington should not be running a jobs program, handing out employment for life. Nor should there be any references to federal employees’ “public service.” Not all but surely most are there to serve themselves and their party, which they have generously funded with their taxpayer-provided salaries. (Nearly 84% of all federal worker donations to presidential candidates in 2024 went to Kamala Harris.) It’s a mistake to assume that just because someone draws a federal paycheck that they are wise, hardworking, incorruptible, never driven by their own interests but only those of the people they work for. They are humans, not angels.
The Democrats and their media machine are clearly in a panic over the loss of their federal workforce, the one that keeps them in power even when the GOP has held the White House and both chambers of Congress, and expands it when Democrats are in the majority and occupying the executive branch. They want federal workers to be treated differently than private-sector employees, who, with minimal exception, must compete in a meritocracy.
The political left doesn’t want federal employees fired or even having to show up for work. In the minds of Democrats, the bureaucracy is there solely to expand and consolidate their political power, and in some cases to help them (as well as a few Republicans) become rich through a slush fund bankrolled by taxpayers.
When a private business is struggling, operating inefficiently, or running deeply in the red, the workforce has to be trimmed. The same must be applied for government, which in Washington is struggling, operating inefficiently and running trillion dollar annual deficits. To give federal workers a special status is to devalue every employee who doesn’t work for the public.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Government employees(right up to the very highest levels) have never had to operate by the same rules as private enterprise employees. Look at all the complaining(and then assistance) when the cost of obamacare hit federal employees. They got all kinds of govt subsidies to offset the cost of that marxist program, while I had just retired a year earlier my healthcare insurance costs(before I was old enough for medicare) increased by over $1,000/mo. I didn’t see any real/honest govt assistance sent my direction to help with this huge cost increase THAT WAS NOT PART OF MY ORIGINAL BUDGET CALCULATION FOR RETIRING ON A FIXED INCOME!!!!!
Govt can live by the same rules as the rest of us.
I have no issue with trimming the fat off Federal Agencies, but Musk and DOGE seem to be handling it like someone on a short bus. The threats on X about responding to an e-mail, then no mention of that condition in the actual e-mail. Then rescinding the email. Not to mention, a week’s accounting of “accomplishments” barely takes into account if the person was on leave for not, not to mention 4 days (Since Monday was a holiday) is hardly an effective look at what an individual might be producing. That’s why reviews are normally done every quarter or six months. It was a very simple-minded attempt to gauge data, if not just another attempt to grind down federal morale. In fact, I hope it was a blatant attempt to just alarm federal workers, because if it was truly an attempt to gather work data — extremely retarded.
I’m a Federal employee, and I was previously private sector for 7 or 8 years where I made sure to be the best. I’d argue I’m one of the top performers in my office, and I think we should retain the best for federal employment. However, seeing how DOGE is operating, I wouldn’t be surprised if top performers are just removed blindly, since it appears like they’ve already been using a hatchet where a scalpel would work better.
Employers ask employees on a regular basis on what they have accomplished everyday. Deal with it. It is obvious that you are a liberal and employed by a bloated government by your statement. I don’t care who they fire, just get the spending under control and if it means people lose their jobs, well it happens everyday in the private sector. Government employees aren’t special nor are they a protected class.
Very nice analysis
One seldom hears of ELR (Employer of Last Resort) Theory. I suspect it is a lot of the current leftist thinking on government jobs. Reading about it, sounds very nice & honest. The real effect is to hire people who cannot hold a job elsewhere. Not a great formula for governmental efficiency.
Firing people without regard for what they do is the hallmark of incompetence.
Priority 3) It’s natural for federal agencies to become bloated with unneeded projects and employees when there’s no oversite and money can just be printed. Oversite looks cruel and messy, but it’s taxpayer money and there are obligations.
Priority 2) Leadership of several agencies have worked and will work to undermine the new Administration, either directly by prosecuting political opponents, or through progressive NGO projects to facilitate social justice, censor free speech, and foment riot. It is critical to shut them down, and some neutral employees will unfortunately become collateral damage.
Priority 1) Leadership of some agencies have worked and will work to covertly run foreign policy without informed consent of the President. Poking large foreign powers and overthrowing small foreign governments is risky business that could potentially lead to use of nuclear weapons. As the people’s only elected representative in the Administration, the President must assert informed control, and again, some neutral employees will suffer.
DOGE’s goals for efficiency, effectiveness and fairness to taxpayers should encourage every state legislature and every city council to undertake these same goals.
Should state legislatures and city councils, and their large staffs, be part time jobs? What can they possibly be doing 12 months a year?
DOGE them all!
I think their pay scale should reflect the fact that they contribute nothing to the GDP.
I’ve lost a few jobs in my life. Nobody cried for me.
Moreover, I had to pay taxes so that those who were incompetents or scoundrels in government didn’t lose their jobs. Why?
Because paying taxes was mandatory, and no one was looking out for me-to ferret out those who were inept and who thought their jobs were now sinecures.
Steven Moore has pointed out we recently (under Biden) have hired more government workers than non-government workers.
So the question becomes, who do I trust more-those who lost their jobs due to their ineptness at their jobs. Or do I trust Elon to point them out.
Well, I’ve never known anyone who lost his/her job- because of over hiring and being unneeded or because of incompetence- to say he/she was incompetent at his/her job and his/her boss overhired .
So in the final analysis, I say: “GO ELON!”
Thank God we have someone now who will look for the deadwood. We rarely did before.
The left considers government employees their private goon squad.