The 60,000 people who got cut loose when the Keystone XL pipeline extension was canceled after Biden took office know the feeling. Except they weren't bureaucrats. They were skilled construction workers and engineers. https://t.co/5Xv18C84u9
— Joel Engel (@joelengel) February 17, 2025
February 18, 2025
Whose heart goes out to the fired federal workers?
Posts
74 comments:
You mean the 1500 workers who were employed at that point?
60,000 people were not 'cut loose'. Total overstatement.
They can all learn to code.
No sympathy from me.
Show of hands for those who have been laid off/fired before.
It happens to a lot of people in the private sector and far less so in the governmental sector. So, yeah, I have a hard time summoning up the sympathy for these guys.
They can do the jobs Americans are unwilling to do. Like pick blueberries.
"their kid's daycare..." They're home all day now. They don't need daycare.
And town businesses that catered to them.
Those papers won't shuffle themselves.
That " poor" woman was Samantha Powers, who ran USAID, speechwriter. Samantha Powers made millions and SHE wasn't even elected....They need to investigate how she got rich, without being "NUDGED"
And the "poor" little Government operatives can get a job cleaning the toilets of Hollywood since illegals are going back, and they need a job.
They're home all day now. They don't need daycare.
They can't be burdened caring for their own trophy children. These are professional people, they are above the role of nurturer. They need the nanny's who will do the job they won't do.
Oops. They are no longer available. I guess they COULD be day care workers if picking blueberries does not excite them.
I feel bad for anyone who loses a job. I feel worse for those with lower income or wealth. But I disdain those who weaponize sympathy.
Insourcing, outsourcing, and DEI... empathize.
The same people that told coal miners to “learn to code” and still think people who are skeptical about rushed through vaccines should lose their job and lose access to real health care (not insurance called healthcare), they want us to care about inefficient government employees losing their job.
I hear the Keystone pipeline project is up for re-starting. Maybe these coders could learn to weld. One good thing: With US A.I.D. drying up, there won't be as big a mess to clean up when the protesters leave, because there won't be any protesters.
Over the last few days I have been reading a lot of posts on the Federal Employee subreddit r/fednews. There understandably seems to be a lot of anxiety and anger. There also seems to be a broad impression by the posters that other folks generally are not sympathetic to the plight of the Federal employee. Many seem genuinely surprised by this and feel betrayed. However they also say things that make them appear unsympathetic. I personally roll my eyes and experience a bit of disgust whenever any of them refer to their time of employment as "Years of Service." Do they honestly think the public at large feels the same way towards a person who was in Frontline infantry in the Army as they do towards someone who issues grants to whatever NGO?
I'm 'between jobs' myself at the moment. Ordinarily, I don't relish seeing anyone lose their jobs, but these folks are living off of our largesse. I can't get too worried about them.
The day this all started, I was at the waiting room of my Dr's office, and two retired Federal employees were talking, one of them had just retired, at 60, with full benefits and a nice pension. She was complaining that her first pension check hadn't arrived yet. Don't worry lady, DOGE can't work in that granite mine where your pension stuff is kept and done by hand.
"I hear the Keystone pipeline project is up for re-starting."
Why would they trust us? Canada could have force the project through in court, but Trudeau backed down when Biden snarled at him.
Scott Johnson at Power Line, a friend, has a post today about how misleading this 60 Minutes story is. Scott and John Hinderaker have a history with CBS News.
I don't know this for sure, but even with lower pay in general, given the security and the retirement benefits, I'm going to guess that the probabilistic expected outcome of a government job was higher than most private sector equivalents. Anyone else have number or an informed view on that?
Pipeline XL jobs were just those directly related to the project. Because there is no pipeline, oil field workers in Canada and refinery workers in the US also lost jobs they could be working now. Some of them went into “New Energy” projects, but those were not viable wi trout subsidies and you could only get subsidies if they were brought online by 2030. Unfortunately the technology and supply chain were not mature enough for an arbitrary 2030 deadline. So those jobs are going away. DC didn’t care.
Yah for those of us in the private sector it’s hard to sympathize, except that these people were probably much more confident in lifetime employment and higher than private sector compensation. Shocker for them…
…other than that I refuse to take the bait to direct attention away from the egregious corruption and waste these people’s bosses were flinging around to their political allies. Burn in Hell to those people…
I personally roll my eyes and experience a bit of disgust whenever any of them refer to their time of employment as "Years of Service."
The ideology of the union man. Nothing matters but seniority. One more reason to outlaw public employee unions. President Roosevelt thought they were intolerable and so do I.
I don't mind private-sector unions, as there is a limit to what they can command before they kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. But government-worker unions are under no such constraint; they will simply send men with guns to round up 300 million golden geese and take as many eggs as they want.
wendybar said...
That " poor" woman was Samantha Powers, who ran USAID, speechwriter.
And it's since come out that she was a contractor and not employed by USAID. So no, my heart doesn't go out, but my middle finger sure does.
Just because something is painful for some people, doesn't mean it isn't a necessity nor that we shouldn't do it. It is painful for them. I admit it. But if we don't get government spending in control, what will come on all of us will be even more painful and for more people. And there won't be anywhere for any of us to go then.
This is so ass-backward. Jobs are not there to provide you with an income. Jobs are there because there is work to be done. If the work no longer needs to be done, of course that job goes away.
Did I see somewhere that the woman in the interview was Samantha Power's speech writer?
I am a retired public school teacher. There were times in my career when a friend's certification did not match the needs of the school. The district can't keep a teacher on if there are no courses to teach. I was sympathetic to my friend, but there aren't any bad guys in the situation. It worked out, my buddy added a certification, and stayed on.
Most of those government workers are good chaps, but this is not workfare for bureaucrats. Getting rid of new hires and probationary employees is entirely reasonable.
You want a public employee union with extreme power? One only need to look at CA's prison employee union. Not only do they donate massive amounts of money (almost equal the teacher's union), but they only need to remind government what would happen if they went on strike. Their demands are immediately met. My true regret is in 1962 I had an opportunity to go to work in the prison system & I didn't take it.
"Pipeline XL jobs were just those directly related to the project..."
Not to mention the property taxes going to towns all up and down the pipeline.
The poor Fed who was surprised to be tossed into the street?
- speechwriter
- under contract to make the hard left political boss look good
- her boss already resigned
- surprised? Must be a overcooked cauliflower if she hadn't figured out her 6 figure gig was toast on Nov 6th.
Again 60 minutes broadcasts the DNC talking points, not the Truth
"Jobs are not there to provide you with an income. Jobs are there because there is work to be done."
Well? You think Samantha Power is going to start thinking up her own lies?
Sorry. But it feels like all these smarmy, arrogant, liberal, federal employees are getting their comeuppance. Welcome to the real world where you have to actually show up to work and produce something.
My sympathy depends on the type of position:
- Some fed jobs are extremely competitive, whereby the recruiting and selection process is very tough. We do in fact need capable people running NIST, NRC, FAA, and the Census Bureau (but likely didn't have good people at the FAA and Census, see DEI below).
- Some fed jobs are weird big-government niche requirements, and akin to being a footrest attendant in the Ottoman Empire. They exist because the rules require that they exist, and could be eliminated if Congress focused on modern processes and automated IT. This also includes many legal counsel roles.
- Some fed jobs are pure handouts with no reason for being other than gifts to voters in politicians' home districts. Pork. DEI. Veterans. Contracting duplicative tasking. Etc.
I'm going to guess that the probabilistic expected outcome of a government job was higher than most private sector equivalents.
Of course it was, their pensions are legendarily lavish, and they are among the last workers in the country who still get defined benefits with COLAs instead of a defined-contribution plan.
I would like to see defined-benefit plans for government workers, including elected officials, totally abolished. It's not just envy for a lavish giveaway that almost none of us in the private sector enjoy, but more importantly, they have some very bad effects on society as a whole.
Democrat politicians see government workers as their only real constituency, and coddle them in exchange for political donations and election-day foot soldiers and ward-heelers. Unlike the private sector, there is no one on the taxpayer's side of the negotiation table. The deferred gratification of promising expanded pension benefits 25 years down the road in exchange for political contributions now is too much for Democrat politicians to resist. The accumulated bill for these unfunded obligations is soon to become the ruination of states like Illinois and California. A defined-contribution plan, by contrast, has to be funded out of current revenues, and will keep the taxpayers intently focused on what is happening at the bargaining table.
Defined-contribution plans that are invested in the private sector also incentivize a politician or government worker to focus on taking actions that will benefit the economic productivity and prosperity of the country as a whole. They should be forced to suffer alongside the rest of us if their rapacious left-wing taxation and coercive overregulation impacts the prosperity of the private sector.
We have a once-in-a-century opportunity to put our boot on the throat of this enemy occupation government. Let's not blow it.
"Well? You think Samantha Power is going to start thinking up her own lies?"
Ha!
Presidents need speechwriters. Well-paid agency heads should be writing their own speeches.
A couple of poor examples used to support their specious argument.
A feel good story!
Obama and Biden created a lot of temporary jobs to goose the numbers, forward-looking deficits, and private donations.
Continued employment should be based on performance not potential.
She's also seen in a video where she was complaining about the DOGE people coming in and saying "we took down the pride flags, and I was collecting books and papers that we didn't want them to find" or something similar. Disgusting actually. No sympathy at all.
The couple featured in the 60 Minutes feature were NOT employees of USAID. That woman was employed by a contractor to write speeches. So she wasn't fired. CBS really had a banner day on Sunday, starting the day with a headscratcher about the Holocaust happening from "too much free speech" (thank God Marco Rubio didn't accept her stupid premise) to them cheerleading the Stasi as the German Feds go door to door arresting people who posted a meme online, to the total gaslighting of the USAID story using highly-payed consultants, exactly the political class Americans want off the payroll.
Actual human beings who worked for USAID and were actually fired must be really hard to find if this is the best the Tiffany Network can do with that story.
As others noted above, the people being interviewed are more like actors portraying fired civil servants rather than actual civil servants. They may have also lost their job and were there when others lost their job. Still, they were handpicked because of their politics and skill at communicating those politics, which is fine. CBS is allowed to be bias (we just wish they would quit pretending that they are not). When you know the history of those particular specimens, the sympathy level drops beyond disinterest to levels of disgust.
@n.n: Obama and Biden created a lot of temporary jobs to goose the numbers,
Biden stuffed the federal workforce like a 350-pound person at an all-you-can-eat buffet loads their tray...or as one stuffing their face in a feed trough.
Biden intended these to be permant hires. They are the ~200,000 present for <1 year who were just cut.
It's like transporting 40k immigrants into a town of 60k.
“Any system which makes it impossible to detect fraud has been set up precisely to enable fraud.”
I get it. Government employees didn't have to show up for work, didn't have to to a good job, didn't have to contribute positively to our country, didn't have to give a shit and before now, couldn't lose their jobs all while making more money than similarly situated people in the private sector.
It's hard not to feel bad for them at this difficult time.
The defined-benefit retirement plan (known as CSRS) has all but gone away except for the longest-serving federal workers. Anyone hired in the past few decades is on a 401k-style plan called FERS.
Job security has always been the trade-off for lower pay. I make more than a lot of lawyers in private practice, but I make way less than the specific big-firm lawyers who are on the other side of my cases.
Housing around DC is crazy expensive, with lots of new construction at $1.25 million or above. That's out of reach of federal salaries. That's government contractor and consultant money driving those prices.
it looks like there are impacts in iowa too!
Federal employee firings: How one Iowa man lost his dream job
Iowa resident working for the USDA let go amid federal workforce layoffs
So.. At LEAST 2 probationary employees lost their jobs..
The Park Ranger, i personally know (and consider to be a friend), he has apparently dedicated his new life to complaining (if you do a search, you'll find a LOT of articles about HIM; because he interviews well)..
The thing of it IS: i don't remember EVER (EVER!) hearing any (ANY!) federal employee showing any sympathy for, say the THOUSANDS of iowa John Deere workers that have lost their jobs as the company shifts production to a newly planned facility in Ramos, Mexico.
I have been laid-off twice in my career. Zero fucks are given to these whinny assholes. Where was 60 minutes to interview me during my times of distress? Oh right, I would have told 60 minutes to go fuck themselves because I would get through the hard times like everyone else.
@Tom T: The federal DC locality pay adjustment is responsible for a chunk of the $1.25M house prices. While the areas is not cheap, the same house may be $999K instead of $1.25M.
we never had to worry about itals with the reply version
These italics are fraudulent. Someone should point Musk toward Blogger to wipe out this wasteful non-standard typography.
Trump fires people, so MSM must say how bad it is. And without justification. If Biden had fired them, MSM would've been silent, or accepted Biden's justification without question.
As stated above, these people are fake. They are Liberal democrats who were hired by USAID two years ago as consultant speechwriters. Not poor civil servants hurt by meanie Trump. 60 minutes lies all the time. We need to assume they are lying unless we get evidence to the contrary.
When I type the html do undo italics, spell changes the lower case "i" to an upper, which is not what is needed. So one has to be careful to change the I to an "i". An "i" for an I, so to speak.
BTW, if you want your talk about damn lazy Government workers with their "lavish benefits" to be taken seriously, learn that Federal, State, and Local Government workers are all different. They aren't the same.
The fact is that many people chose the private sector over Government service because they wanted the higher pay in return for more risk and longer hours. And then it didn't work out for them. So, they've spent their entire lives railing about "Those damn Government workers". sads.
Welcome to the real world. I spent 25 years in the workforce and was let go from jobs in essentially the same way. In the morning, I had a job; by the afternoon, I didn't.
They were skilled construction workers and engineers.
Key word in that sentence is "Skilled"
Most of these fired govt employees have few if any useful skills.
Someone said they should learn to weld. Bite your tongue! Most of these people would rather work at Starbucks for min wage than work with their hands for 4-5X min wage.
They have college degrees, graduated cum laude with deep knowledge of damn-all.
Besides, working as a barista requires skill. I have seriously had people tell me that a barista knowing how to run an espresso machine or do those cutesy designs with the milk is a real skill. Why, they spend hours, sometimes more than 1, learning their craft.
John Henry
Birx Confesses to it...
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/02/18/now-she-tells-us-n3799937
It was the Fed's job to lie about Covid-19.
Speaking of welders, here is a classic Jay Leno complaining about how welders are bleeding him dry but how it is a great career.
https://youtu.be/mpsRIO1mmhs?si=Yj-RnM5gMUo_yzym
Elon Musk builds his rockets out of welded stainless. lots of welded components.
He probably pays a lot of money to welders.
John Henry
@Darkisland:
Most of these fired govt employees have few if any useful skills.
Someone said they should learn to weld. Bite your tongue! Most of these people would rather work at Starbucks for min wage than work with their hands for 4-5X min wage.
I've worked next to a ton of feds, and...nope, not really. A good many are quite sharp with the law, data, science, or overly complicated government policies. Could they work with their hands? Yes. Have they worked with their hands? Yes. Do they work with their hands? Yes.
Outside of work, many feds are very typical people and have typical hands-on hobbies. With men this includes woodworking, cars, boats, and private planes. I've met a few National Park employees who were thrilled to be outside, cut down trees and move stones to make trails, and be paid help people who were out of gas, had a flat, or got lost.
Are federal employees OVERPAID? Often, YES! This is the main difference -- federal jobs serve as (historicaly secure) golden handcuffs for people with a political and/or clever enough to game the system. The left pays people for these positions and buys loyality, but it's shallow loyality.
I haven't had a job in so long that I have forgotten what I am unemployed at. Left my last job to become and independent salesman. 20 years ago I switched to being a consultant.
Both are often used as euphemisms for "I'm out of a job and looking for work". Not me, I am happy at what I do.
I only have to work half days (12 hours)
John Henry
Used to be you could make a pretty good living peddling SaladMaster pots and pans or repping Amway if you were willing to work at it. (You could also make nothing if you weren't)
I wonder if that is still the case?
John Henry
This is politically stupid. Almost everyone in America has far worse jobs, with few or zero benefits, can be fired at will, and have lost jobs in the past and just gone out and gotten another one. Perhaps the best thing about the job-massacre of government employees is establishing that they don't have a lifelong right to employment at the taxpayer's expense. Welcome to the world rest of us live in. Zero pity.
Re housing prices:
In 1962 my parents bought a house in the Salona Village section of McClean. Frather was civil servant, mother didn't work.
They paid $30m for it. Comfortable but not luxurious 3BR 2 bath on 1/4 acre. They sold it 10 years later when my father retired for $60m. Father was tickled pink to have doubled his money.
I looked it up on Zillow last night. Last sale was $1.3mm. Looks well kept up but the same as I remember. Seems pricey.
John Henry
Enigma, what you describe is not really "working" with one's hands. It is done as a hobby or for enjoyment or perhaps volunteering.
I do not disagree with you.
What many refuse to do is actually work, as in take a job for money to make their living, with their hands, no matter how much it pays.
And yes, there are lots of govt employees with useful skills. But there are also a Hell of a lot with no skills at all other than bureaucratic.
John Henry
@Lexington Green: Welcome to the world rest of us live in. Zero pity.
Some say that success in government is having the ability to climb a greased pole (plus kick others off the pole and keep their knives away from your back). Those with slick political talent are indeed slick and talented. People like Sleepy Joe, Nancy Pelosi, Corpse McConnell, and Adam Schiff figured out how to become powerful and stay out of prison. They truly know how to fool some of the people all the time.
@Darkisland: what you describe is not really "working" with one's hands. It is done as a hobby or for enjoyment or perhaps volunteering.
My point is that if they were not making $100K to $200K per year they'd turn a hobby into a welding, construction, vehicle, or other labor job. Men often love working with their hands, for pay or fun. But, most labor jobs do no pay $100K per year -- especially when the system is set up around low-cost foreign labor (legal or not).
I'd estimate that 30% to 50% of federal employees do not have the skills to come near to their salaries (especially veterans and DEI hires). These have been are politically hard to remove, for many many decades.
Elon Musk builds his rockets out of welded stainless. lots of welded components.
To me this is one of the most astonishing things about SpaceX. Such successful rockets made from such a mundane, cheap, high-density material. Scarcely any carbon fiber or titanium or aluminum-lithium alloy in sight.
It turns out that as rockets get larger and larger, and their surface-to-volume ratio falls, the weight penalty of stainless steel falls proportionately, and is soon overshadowed by its tolerance of wide thermal variation, flexibility, high tensile strength, and ease of fabrication.
You'd think that rocket scientists, the archetypes of the smartest people on the planet, might have recognized its advantages sooner.
I have far more sympathy for those of us who submit to an annual rectal exam on April 15 to pay the salaries of these bureaucrats.
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