From "Trump reins in Musk after Doge sacking spree upsets rivals and allies/The president is putting his cabinet in charge of federal firings after voters complain about Elon Musk’s cost-cutting layoffs" (London Times).
This is not the first time that the Trump administration has taken the position that Musk only gives advice and does not take the actions he's recommending. His lawyer argued it in court last week — blogged here.
Musk needs to build trust. He can't go on instinct alone, and he can't treat the entire government as a trial-and-error experiment. No matter how much his fans enthuse about the method of moving fast and breaking things, he will fail if he doesn't inspire confidence. He's willing to throw ordinary workers into a panic. Does he enjoy the suffering of low-power employees? What kind of person are we dealing with here?
In the comments to that post, Temujin wrote:
You are correct. What he's doing needs to be done. But not the way he's doing it. He clearly never took a Dale Carnegie course, nor had to win people over in sales. He won them over by his brilliance, ideas, and productivity. And now, by the sheer force of his wealth. But there's a better...and an easier way to get this done. WITH cooperation. WITH the approval of most all the people. He seems to not be cognizant of the fact that he's unnecessarily pissing off more people than he should. Again- what he's doing is good and necessary. How he's doing it is almost childish, in-your-face. Not necessary. Better to explain it, sell it, and win over people.
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95 comments:
That's not reining him in. It's not even ending the firings, which are very popular with the MAGA coalition AND severely weaken the Democrats going forward. This is a simple delineation of responsibilities. Elon Musk points out the weaknesses, cabinet officers act on them. Anyone who drags their feet won't be in the cabinet for long.
I realize that the Rich/ Cook axis needs a win before they start suicide bombings, but this isn't one.
Maybe Trump said it that way. We'll see. The problem is that they do have to move quickly. Fully a third of federal employees in DC (excluding Pentagon) were hired by Biden. We can certainly pare back to 2019 levels without impeding the work the bureaucracy does. But Biden added three quarters of a million employees just to justify the annual budget increasing by 50% during COVID.
I'm skeptical of the "clipped wings." At least until I hear more from Musk and Trump.
Thanks for the Temujin quote. It would very helpful to figure out a way to note at the beginning of the comment section if Temujin has a contribution following . . . would save a lot of wasted scrolling time. Or even better, make sure any Temujin content is always at the top of the comment section, no matter when received.
Seems reasonable. Likely planned now that the Cabinet members are in place, but Democrats will take any announcement of this type to pretend it is a win. Better than taking drugs to help them get through their day.
The new employment report is out, looks like the stable genius has started to crash the economy. "art of the deal!"
Another few weeks and Trump won't even know who Musk is. But this is a reminder that people don't actually want a smaller government. They want one that works efficiently for them.
Captain Ketamine should focus on building rockets that don’t blow up.
This was always the process. The change is clarity of the messaging. And as mentioned above that cabinet leaders are in place now, not just nameless caretakers. This is just media trying to create a wedge between Trump and Musk.
The London Times, writing a story about what they wish would happen, to see if they can stir up any more hair-on-fire types. It's a good thing I don't have to wish I didn't read the London Times - I already knew that Elon doesn't fire anybody, and I already knew that the Biden Administration juiced their employment numbers by adding hundreds of thousands of federal workers, whether they were needed or not - mostly, not.
No big deal.
It has been mentioned here before, where was all the empathy for the union workers who lost jobs when Biden killed Keystone XL? Or when the Rust Belt got hollowed out? Or when Obama (without evidence) said those jobs aren't coming back?
I don't care one bit about federal workers and NGO people who lost or will lose jobs.
Jobs report today said 10k federal workers filed for unemployment benefits. That's just the beginning.
Most of the outcry is organized USAID funded type stuff. If there is an outcry at a Republican's town hall, you can bet that it is not coming from the people who voted for the guy.
The London Times is a neocon organ, well, they call themselves "Atlanticists" and what they believe in is that their cabal should run the entire world, that's what they mean by "globalism" and Trump recognizes this as a sure path to WW3, so they need to get him out of the way. Nothing that you read in the London Times should be taken literally as the truth, it should only be read with regards to its Atlanticist agenda.
The mating cry of the weak-kneed moderate "I like what he's doing, but not the way he's doing it. He needs to be less extreme, and nicer". LOL.
I find all this just liberal/left fantasy. Musk was never "in charge". He cant fire anyone. And never could. He can just advise, and trump has to approve his recommendations or not, and then inform the cabinet members.
I could care less about federal workers losing their jobs. They have a major impact on the private sector through their actions. Jobs are lost all the time in the private sector because of the federal government. Fuckem. To quote Ray Stanz "You don't know what it's like out there! I've WORKED in the private sector. They expect results"
Remember when Pam Bondi accused the FBI of withholding thousands of pages of Epstein evidence from her and gave the SDNY 24 hours to produce the documents or else?
And then nothing ever became of any of that and the media completely dropped the story like a hot potato. And she hasn't released the Epstein list, or begun investigations of any of the pedophiles that Epstein was providing young girls to rape.
It should be noted that the head of that FBI office was allowed to retire and now gets a 7-figure pension that you're paying for. He hasn't been arrested for hiding evidence or defying an order of the Attorney General of the United States. He wasn't even fired. He retired.
He's rich now, and doesn't even have to show up for work.
Trump isn't the success that he's being projected of being and reigning in Musk is the first step in the betrayal of those who elected him.
Anyway, as shown by the recent SCOTUS ruling, every Trump action has to be approved by every single one of the 1000 District Judges. They the ones really running the country. 1 out of a 1000, can stop Trump in his tracks.
As for being glad about Federal workers being fired, I guess you can get a vicarious thrill out of that, just like getting a vicarious thrill out of killing Gazan kids or "Ruskiees".
Political theater for the courts and constituents.
"As for being glad about Federal workers being fired,"
How many of them can we afford? How is it that new Federal employees were propping up the GDP numbers and unemployment numbers and these chickens would never come home to roost? I am not happy that they got tangled up in this clusterfuck that Biden created, but I am glad that it is being straightened out.
151,000 jobs added.
BTW, isn't it odd how there are never any Democrat moderates "tone policing" their side. Or showing up on TV to decry the extremism of Pelosi, Schumer, etc. I don't remember Biden getting much criticism from the Democrats, no matter how extreme or rude he was.
But Trump cant do anything, without an army of Republican "moderates" running to the TV cameras to disagree, and decry the "vulgarity" "rudeness" or "extremism". If its not Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Sununu, Liz Cheney, its Susan Collins or Lisa Murkey. At least Mitt Romney has disappeared from the scene.
LLR-democratical Rich, the Harry Sisson of Altgouse blog: "The new employment report is out, looks like the stable genius has started to crash the economy. "art of the deal!"'
LOL
Reality: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett: "Last year, 111,000 manufacturing jobs were destroyed by the Biden administration's policies. This month alone, in February, we got 10,000 manufacturing jobs and 9,000 auto jobs."
Loojs like Abacus Boy Rich is BACK in Full Kamala Is Going To Win Mode!
This is going to be fun.
Can you imagine the horror Rich is feeling knowing there are significant unemployment claims by terminated federal employees while the productive sector actually grows?
Musk should get to work on Greenland. I'd like to see the island nation declare its independence and then become, as a first step, part of a monetary union with the United States.
"And then nothing ever became of any of that"
She fired the man who withheld the documents, and now she has thousands of pages of documents to sift through, since simply releasing them would be unethical and you choose to use this fact to blame Trump for the delays caused by an intransigent FBI official, who has been forced to retire.
Why is the simple truth never good enough for you guys?
Has Kaki explained why all of the job growth in the election year last year has been revised away?
Why isn't the simple truth good enough for these guys?
I'm always struck at the emotional hatred toward Federal Workers. Of course, 2/3 of Government workers are state/Local. But they don't get much attention. My bet is that most of the haters just don't like paying taxes, and hate the IRS. Its probably some weird losertarian thing.
Republicans like waste and graft, too. I suspect this will be quite evident in the next spending bill…
Good cop, bad cop?
Despite Ann’s bleating there is no wonderful way to fire people. The softening the language approach ends up being taken as condescending. The best way is to say it without emotion then thank them or tell them how much they are appreciated only if they deserve thanks or appreciation.
The worst scenario for all of humanity is to keep people in unsustainable jobs because of empathy. It’s childish and pathetic…and talk about no money left for medical care or whatever thing you want to buy…
They've gone from trying to get Trump mad at Elon to trying to get Elon mad at Trump. I expect it will work about as well as the first attempt did.
My husband is one of the probationaries on the line. He's been in the same workplace for 18+ years on the civilian side, but was asked to take a Fed job in the same building in December, which he took because with his Navy experience, it gives us the possibility of Fed retirement in 12 years. Not all "new" people are new. Also, newer blood isn't as jaded as some of the longer term employees. Husband's command is fighting for him and he may be exempted (he's directly involved in training warfighters), but it's still nerve-wracking for us. We have 4 kids, 2 in college. We will be ok no matter what, and we both agree cuts are needed and we voted for DJT.
I don't take glee in private sector layoffs and think people painting Fed workers with a broad brush need to slow down and realize that there are patriots that think like them who may be out of a job, too.
We've been hoping for the scalpel rather than the machete and hopefully the cuts will be more sensible if people take half a minute to use their brains.
Do you remember reading or hearing "news" reports that expressed concern for who was making decisions while senile Joe Biden was busy taking naps or eating his ice cream cone?
Yeah, me neither.
All the facts that reveal what we already knew about Crook Joe and his ruinous rule... are coming out and the left can only focus on ankle biting. whatever.
You can kinda sorta pick and rip the band-aid for a couple weeks or you can rip it off with quick and shocking pain and then everyone gets on with their life. A slightly better-sized government will be happier and more productive…
I await Trump giving Musk the Medal of Honor or Presidential Medal of Freedom, or whatever it's called. I saw in the paper yesterday that 3 companies in WI were cutting people. Uline, and two others. Somehow, a great hue and cry has not sprung up about that, in comparison to trimming the Federal workforce. A telling comparison.
"NASA has lost 42 spacecraft and 17 astronauts.
DoD has lost 550 spacecraft.
Space X has lost 9 spacecraft out of 477 launches. Frequently the ones being lost are EXPERIMENTAL. "
oops.
…and we should have set ground rules as to what constitutes the end of DoGE. I picked St.Patrick’s Day as the date DC would end them…
Musk is an advisor, Trump is the chief executive, judges are the king, and London Times is falling down, falling...
" it gives us the possibility of Fed retirement in 12 years. "
Show me the private sector job with that kind of retirement benefits. Just one. I am not talking about CEO golden parachutes, I mean a non C-level private sector job with a deal like that.
…I will concede that it must be quite shocking for a government employee to learn they do not have lifetime job security…
Kamala Aide Under DOJ Investigation For Allegedly Falsifying Paperwork To Get Musk Buyout
Corrupt democrats doing what they do best. NOT working for the American people. no no.
Instead illegally embedding themselves like Soviet Spies - then taking OUR tax dollars.
"I'm always struck at the emotional hatred toward Federal Workers. "
At what percentage of our total workforce will we finally have enough of them?
"I'm always struck at the emotional hatred toward Federal Workers."
You could start with the sense of entitlement so many of them express regarding their jobs (you know- the recent reaction to the "five bullet points" email, for example). Maybe that'll be a helpful clue.
Under the Biden Administration the Federal work force increased 46%, from 2.1MM employees to 3.0MM employees. You'll never convince me the almost 1MM new hires are essential to the Nation, in fact I'll posit they're unessential.
Labor and environmental (i.e. regulatory) arbitrage (e.g. outsourcing).
Immigration reform (e.g. insourcing).
DEI (e.g. racism, sexism, incestuous relationships) or institutional, systemic class-disordered ideologies.
Political congruence ("=") or selective exclusion.
Redistributive change schemes (e.g. Obamacares umbrella, school loans forgiveness, welfare/EBT, etc) forcing progressive prices.
Green deals (e.g. environmental blight, unreliable energy).
Economic shutdown (e.g. Covid policy), forced choices (e.g. non-sterilizing, experimental "vaccines', leaky masks, grooming).
Trans/sim therapy without informed consent.
Planned Parenthood (i.e. homicide from six weeks, hate crime from conception with Loving). Human rites performed for social, political, criminal, clinical, and climate progress. A wicked solution.
Pro-Choice [ethical] religion. Everyone has a religion.
"there needs to be more respect and empathy for the ordinary employees whose livelihood is threatened".
Why, exactly? You think they want "respect and empathy"? You're mistaken. They want money, lots of it. So put your respect and empathy away, and get out your checkbook. Write a 9, and then start adding zeroes. We'll tell you when to stop. And by the way, we respect and empathize with you. So that's all OK.
What would be a fair distribution? How would it be assessed? Who would judge it? Should merit be a salient metric? Should we clear real and perceived "burdens"... uh,, burdens, to improve viability? Is all fair in lust and abortion?
This is no different than how things operated on Jan 20. Just a continued effort by the media to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk.
“Thank you NASA for not relying on @elonmusk's exploding Space X rockets. Please keep astronauts alive and make space travel great again.”
—— Shitinmahat Ali
Kak is wack.
Empathy? Or em-pathetic appeal as leverage? Now, it matters? The protesters need to lose their religion, scalp their liberal license, leave the twilight fringe. This didn't need to happen. #HateLovesAbortion
"Does he enjoy the suffering of low-power employees?"
I don't know if he enjoys it. Do you think those workers enjoy messing with the lives of ordinary people all around the country who suffer when they do their job?
Not a big deal. Trump is merely clarifying for the opposition and the obtuse that Musk is making recommendations, but not in charge of implementing those recommendations.
That power resides in the President and his appointed heads of the various departments. They can decide how to, or even if they are going to take the recommended actions. The decisions are not those of Musk. Merely clarifying the chain of command.
"there needs to be more respect and empathy for the ordinary employees whose livelihood is threatened". Why???. The respect an empathy should be for those "ordinary" people who are working at ordinary jobs and have to PAY for those government workers, working in jobs that are not necessary, redundant and which are actively doing things that the ordinary citizen voted against. Where was the empathy for people who lost their jobs due to ridiculous Covid rules, cancellation of jobs and projects by the political whims of of elected officials and UN-ELECTED bureaucrats?
Belle, I've got nothing against your husband personally and I'm sure he's been doing a great job as a contractor. I also don't blame him for jumping at the chance to get the GS level job. But the government pension after 12 years is what gets me. Most private sector workers don't get a pension at all. Mine was frozen 15 years ago and I've had to play catch up in my 401k donations. GS salary levels are very good so the old argument that workers can make more in the private sector so they deserve the sweet pensions doesn't fly anymore. I wish nothing but the best for you and your husband but my tax dollars pay those GS salaries and pensions so my caring bank is a little low. Icing on the cake is I come from a coal mining town and I didn't see anywhere near this level of concern when they all lost their jobs and were told to learn to code.
Captain Ketamine should focus on building rockets that don’t blow up.
Pop Quiz: What is the number of successful, non-experimental, US based orbital space flights for SpaceX vs all others since 2020?
Bonus points: How many were manned?
@Begley, who wrote: "151,000 jobs added."
Thanks, I'll wait for the always downward revision in another month when nobody is looking.
@Jaq who wrote: "She (Bondi) fired the man who withheld the documents ..."
No, she didn't. He retired and is now getting a 7-figure pension that you are paying for and he doesn't even have to show up to work each day to get that kiss in the mail each month.
Pam Bondi didn't fire anybody.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-james-dennehy-new-york-forced-retire/
Biden also turned on social security for govt workers, which doubles their benefit relative to the private sector. Also speeds up soc sec insolvency.
Re the responsibility announcement - seems to me Trump is taking that job off of his own shoulders and delegating it to his agency leaders. Totally appropriate at this time.
I told you so. I told you so. I told you so.
1. The government is a literal "power trip" for those who play the game. It is not a business and the Swamp is embedded in absolutely everything in DC. Musk does not understand how government works, and his "move fast and break stuff" sledgehammer simply doesn't work. There are loads of anti-Trump judges and anti-Trump Republicans all around. Winning an election merely means they'll have a conversation with you.
2. Musk's 18-year-old virginal DOGE data geniuses lack the ONE THING they need to effectively use all those atrocious federal databases: contacts with the technical backroom people who can explain how they work, and who have semi-functional patchwork methods for analysis. Good luck establishing trust with those people, as Musk/Trump belittled them and aggressively threatened their careers. Ignorant Musk and his ignorant data virgins also had no clue that OPM was the very last place to look for useful federal data. Each component agency has better data than useless OPM...if you've ever dealt with a 3rd rate HR department, look down from there to find OPM's staff. I'd even venture that anti-Musk forces directed him to OPM to slow him down.
3. Rage against Musk has taken hold among MANY elected and officially-confirmed Republicans, to include senators and recently-confirmed Cabinet members. They leak their power-tripping hostility toward Musk with regard to so-called closed-door meetings. Every. single. day. Just monitor the top stories at The Hill. Everything coming out of DOGE will now be filtered through them (and likely whitewashed by the Swamp).
I've been trying to clean up DC for a very long time and I don't know what (if anything) will work. I do know that Musk/DOGE so far was a guaranteed path to failure.
@Belle17, I am guessing that the '12 years to pension' is because of your husband's time in the Navy being additive to that total required. I am skeptical that any of the firings have been indiscriminate. I know that there's a cycle at the start of campaigns when the fuss is being kicked up to the advantage of creating momentum. Once the dust settles a little but, it usually becomes clear that things aren't as dire as first protrayed. I hope your family fares well.
" it gives us the possibility of Fed retirement in 12 years. "
Show me the private sector job with that kind of retirement benefits.
The original commenter was saying they could retire after another 12 years, on top of the 18 already in. In other words, they're contemplating retirement after 30 years.
Also, keep in mind that unless you were a high-level manager, the typical federal pension is likely to be around $15-20k per year, plus whatever portion of your salary you put into the 401k equivalent over the years.
“… after an outcry from voters …”
I have doubts.
So, running the government like the running of X hasn’t worked out as well as anticipated, eh?
"...there needs to be more respect and empathy for the ordinary employees whose livelihood is threatened...." Maybe, how did Clinton/Gore do with this when they laid off tens of thousands in their day? If respect and empathy interferes with the downsizing, it must be set aside. Trump offered a buyout.
Motorrad, my husband served almost 9 years in the Navy, hence the 12 year timeline to 20 years. He's not the guy you want getting the axe, trust me. He helps train our fighter pilots and is really good at his job. He also had a boat accident 21 years ago and is missing half a leg, takes not one dime of disability, and was RECRUITED to go Fed because he's good at what he does.
Again, scalpel. If wisdom is used, he will retire at age 66.
If these people were being let go with official flowery empathetic language about how being fired is awful and how I elon musk and donald j trump billionaire have nothing but respect and empathy for everyone being fired so we have emotional counselors standing by juice boxes and tissues and emotional support animals would that be okay with Ann? I reckon not…
A sausage factory move. Leviathan doesn't grind up easy.
…really what’s happening is targeting the vulnerable with the jedi mind trick of empathy for the pain with the solution to the problem being nobody gets fired. It’s working…
@Belle17
I agree with most of what motorrad says. I was hired as a Test Psychologist by DoD in 2008 when the government went on a hiring spree under Bush. In 2013 under Obama they realized they had hired too many people and started a reduction in force. My position was cut but they couldn't easily fire me because I had passed the probationary period. I was the oldest guy in the division and looked like low hanging fruit. It felt bad. Management ended up transferring someone who was still a probationary to another job leaving me alone. Several months later they did the same thing again except this time they offered me a $25k buy out. I took it and retired. Months later when I reached 62 I began collecting my FERS retirement check which is around $500 a month. Maybe that happens in the civilian world but I don't know of a business that will give you a defined retirement after only 5.5 years of work. Knowing what I know now, if the government had offered me 8 months salary to quit like they did in January, and I was on probationary status, I would have taken the money and found another job. Since your husband worked in a similar position on the contractor side maybe his supervisors can find a way to adjust his time in service date to reflect his experience and move him past probationary status.
I don’t think it’s possible for people living more than fifty miles outside the Washington Beltway to grasp the level of waste and fraud embedded in the structure of the US government. Here’s only one example — our government funds health programs to discourage smoking, but over in the Department of Agriculture there are programs to financially encourage tobacco farming. The government funds programs to help people lose weight, but also funds programs to encourage growing sugar cane. Those are two just off the top of my head.
Meanwhile the government’s entire approach o fraud is to pay even dubious claims (e.g.Social Security for 200 year old people) and try to claw back the money later. Hat means modest-sized frauds get away with it for years because it’s more expensive for DOJ to let it go than to litigate a claw back.
And that’s for starters.
Looks likr P-Inga is still lashing out in anger over the child from the Congressional Address beating cancer.
Perhaps P-Inga would be happier if that child joined MS13? P-Inga is very protective of them.
“Thank you NASA for not relying on @elonmusk's exploding Space X rockets. Please keep astronauts alive and make space travel great again.”
—— Shitinmahat Ali
Who gets to tell her that NASA must rely on SpaceX, because NASA has lost its own capability to produce rockets and spacecraft, plus their contractor pool outside SpaceX has failed after decades of funding to produce anything that has worked without major failures for even one mission. If NASA were to cut all contracts with SpaceX tomorrow, they would have to abandon ISS immediately and it would become the sole property of Putin's Russia (thanks to the deals made by President Bill Clinton) or they could go back to buying flights directly from Putin's Russia, which is effectively the same.
Breezy said...
"Biden also turned on social security for govt workers, which doubles their benefit relative to the private sector. "
Hi. Retired Federal worker here. That's not what happened. The old retirement program (CSRS) was not eligible for SS, and there were no deductions for it, but had a much larger, almost unrestricted payout.
Starting in 1990, the retirement program was reconfigured and called FERS. This has a three part program consisting of a much more restricted retirement payout (which the worker contributes to), vested SS, and a 401K type contribution.
It's still better than what most folks get, but it isn't Biden's fault.
Not that it matters, but when Biden threatened federal workers with "you're fired" if they didn't take the jab, it was only Republicans who spoke out against that policy.
And I don't remember a single government worker going without a paycheck during the lockdown era.
The downstream effect of Democracy is that administrations vary, and their policies always negatively affect someone or some group. Maybe a televised layoff lottery with one lucky layoffee spared personally by Musk!
I will say that the National Park layoffs were a PR disaster.
Obama fired 197 officers including 9 commanding Generals.
Yeah, CSRS is insane. I have a relative, GS 13 with 35 years service, who retired at age 55. She makes almost six figures retirement a year. The government has already paid her about a million in retirement and she's not 70 yet. She doesn't need SS.
2017-2020:
Public sector: 9% of U.S. job growth
Private sector: 91% of U.S. job growth
2021-2024:
Public sector: 31% of U.S. job growth
Private sector: 69% of U.S. job growth
February 2025 job report:
Public sector: 7% of U.S. job growth
Private sector: 93% of U.S. job growth
Its almost as if there is a pattern based on policy differences....
One thing we could do now that the tip of the waste and fraud iceberg is exposed is calmly and professionally reduce the size of government without all the hype and exposure, away from the eyes of the Ann’s of the world waiting to help kill it but just like the Democrats who can’t shut up for 5 minutes nobody will keep quiet…
David53, out of my husband's entire division, he was at the top of list for exemptions. That's how highly he's regarded. The contractor has a plan B if he gets cut, but it will be a pay cut as his old job is filled. As I said before, we will be fine. We have savings and a ton of equity in our house, but with a high school sophomore, moving isn't an easy thing for two more years if we can manage to stay put.
There is a man in my husband's office that is career, that has "worked from home" for 5 years because of Covid, and who is back in the office now under the back to work order and had the balls to bitch to his boss about gas costs and child care . But his job is safe with the "cut the probationaries" method. Make it make sense.
You'll never convince me the almost 1MM new hires are essential to the Nation, in fact I'll posit they're unessential.
I'll go farther and assert that they are not just superfluous, but a downright detriment to our national prosperity and liberty. I don't care if they are the part-time third deputy assistant inspector of left handed monkey wrenches in North Dakota. Their presence on the public payroll and the mantle of immunity from consequences of their actions that they carry as government employees makes us all a little bit poorer and less free.
Having lost a job myself to the federal hiring freeze (I was being onboarded for IRS clerk temp work until Jan 21, 2025), all I can say is keep the RIF going. I was going to be paid around $4k/month for filing paperwork and data entry. All that (or at least >95%)can and should be done by electronic filing for taxes, and if it isn't by the end of Trump's administration I'll be very surprised.
"Trump isn't the success that he's being projected of being... "
Yea, after 6 weeks, we should be seeing so much more.
Which President accomplished more in such a short time, and with the entire establishment of government opposing every move?
And, as I've said a few times, there needs to be more respect and empathy for the ordinary employees whose livelihood is threatened.
Their conception of their jobs is to threaten our livelihoods, so fuck them, with a chainsaw.
They want a world where coal miners and pipeline workers lose their jobs, Therefore there should be a world where THEY lose their jobs.
The biggest obstacle to real improvement of our bloated dysfunctional government is suicidal empathy, which will be used as a weapon by some of the least empathetic people possible. The same people that said it was too dangerous to be with your dying family members during Covid,, or that the unvaccinated should be fired and not even given medical care.
Belle17, "There is a man in my husband's office that is career..." That's always been an issue with civil service. Once a lot of them have 20 years service or so they pretty much stop working and just collect a check. I worked for a guy like that. Everybody knows about them but nobody can fire them because of "the system." I don't think even a scalpel can get rid of those entrenched leeches. Unfortunately for you the primary tool they have for firings right now is to get rid of all the probationaries. If you haven't done so already email SecDef and your Congressmen, it can't hurt. I can empathize with your plight, I had two in college at the time they cut me. You're husband sounds like a good worker and I think they will modify they way the firings are happening. And I think your husband should apply for disability. My BiL was diagnosed with Crohn's at the age of 20 while in the USAF, 100% disability. My college roomnmate fell off his motorcycle while enlisted in the USMC, 100% disability. Neither of the injuries were service related. But that's a separate issue. Good luck!
In 2019 federal spending was $4.25 trillion, after Covid et all it is now $6.75 t. A 51% increase of $2.5 t. Now government is saying, we can’t cut anything! Covid is over, qe is fading, why don’t we go back to a 2019 level of humongous spending?
Because the government is a bunch of thieves who never let go of “their” money, you don’t expect to keep it for yourself do you? The great thieves lead away the little thief.
We need Trump because he is the only one in government that is fighting for the people, democrats are angry that it is so hard to steal that you need 5 federal judges just to get your measly ngo funded for $20 billion.
Government workers can’t be fired! That would break my fuc*ing heart! We need them to show the common man who is in charge.
A sausage factory move. Leviathan doesn't grind up easy.
I agree. I see this in two parts. First is the Art of the Deal. No matter how this turns out, it will be better than when Trump came into office. The second is that Trump fully knows that he is ultimately a lame duck president. If he is going to get things done, it has to be done quick fast and in a hurry.
At some point, there will some scandal or political event or George Floyd or covid or court horseshit or SomethingGate or (God help us!) assassination. Get 'er done now while you can as far as you can move Leviathan into its cave.
- Krumhorn
"Their conception of their jobs is to threaten our livelihoods, so fuck them, with a chainsaw."
"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance."
Sound like anybody you're heard of lately?
RIF by virtue of immigration reform, regulatory arbitrage, Green deals, redistributive change schemes, DEI (i.e. class-disordered ideologies), etc. Em-pathetic.
Have we forgotten federal employees were given the option of eight months of severance pay?
Find me a private sector job with that kind of deal.
Sympathy from me? No chance.
So, running the government like the running of X hasn’t worked out as well as anticipated, eh?
Musk isn't running the government, dumas.
The whole premise of the article is false. Musk & DOGE don't fire anyone. They only make recommendations.
Elon Musk's philosophy of iterative improvements can be summed up as "the best part is the part that doesn't exist". A part in a rocket engine that really doesn't need to be there should be removed. Every part is a point of potential failure. Removing the part is better than trying to fix the potential point of failure.
Elon's philosophy is to remove as much as possible. If it doesn't work, then only add back what's necessary. You often don't know what's necessary until it's removed.
DOGE is applying this same philosophy to the federal workforce. Remove as much as possible, then add back in what's obviously necessary. While this is painful for people, it may be the most efficient way to understand who's really needed and who's not needed.
This method also allows actual cuts to happen. If you move too slowly, the bureaucracy has a chance to mobilize its defenses and protect itself against any changes.
Is this the best way to make cuts to federal employees? I don't know, but considering the alternative of being more deliberate, I think that the federal bureaucracy will find a way to protect itself against DOGE's efforts. It may not be the most compassionate way, but it may be the only way actual, real cuts could happen based on the way the current, almost exclusively Democrat, federal bureaucracy is constituted.
"I think that the federal bureaucracy will find a way to protect itself against DOGE's efforts."
Trump campaigned on making cuts, the voters approved. Bureaucrats opposed to this and acting in direct opposition to what Trump (and the people, through their votes) is attempting to do deserve more significant consequences than just losing their jobs.
Leland @11:09AM… my bad:
“Shit in ma hat” Ali is, in truth, Wajahat Ali… an NYT Op-Ed writer. The words quoted are his.
…and we should have set ground rules as to what constitutes the end of DoGE. I picked St.Patrick’s Day as the date DC would end them…
The end date for Doge was announced at the time it was created: July 4, 2026—America's upcoming quarter millennium centennial.
Musk doesn't require aerodynamic surfaces to fly or to audit the kleptocracy.
Trump is the chief executive in competition with judicial kings and queens, the bureaucratic branch of government, and a fourth estate that has the audacity to publish handmade tales.
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