'War on Workers'
“War on women.” “War on religion.” “War on freedom.” Every one of those is over the top, but that’s typical in today’s political dialogue. War is war…carnage, destruction, lifetimes of physical and mental trauma.
War on workers? — But if we are using the word in this sense, then is there a war on federal workers right now? President Donald Trump, who added more to the nation’s debt than any other U.S. president in history in one term ($8 trillion+) seems to be more focused on cost-cutting during the first weeks of his return to office.
Led by billionaire Elon Musk’s unprecedented actions to cancel federal contracts, end programs and policies and eliminated tens of thousands of government workers, the administration works to carry out some of the tenets of the Project 2025 manifesto regarding the federal government.
The uncertainty — We don’t yet know if the courts will decide that the administration’s actions are legal. We don’t know if Republicans in Congress will continue to abdicate what was previously their roles to fund and monitor — along with the president — the operations of the federal government.
We also don’t yet know the ramifications — if the courts allow them to stand — of eliminating a chunk of the federal workforce. And how big will that “chunk” be?
The impact — What will it mean for your mail, social security check, research into the disease that killed your dad, or the safety or your water? The aforementioned are vital services. This isn’t the same thing as a restaurant operating for dinner rush without one of the servers on the floor and you have to wait an extra half hour to get served. These immediate cuts could have immediate repercussions if not carried about thoughtfully.
Size Matters — CBS looked at the federal workforce. Has it rapidly swollen in size? No, the report found.
In fact, the federal workforce today isn’t substantially larger than it was 45 years ago.
In 1980, the workforce was about 2.2 million. It is now about 2.4 million. Over that time the U.S. population increased from 225 million to 330 million. If my math is correct, that means the workforce grew 9% over 45 years, while the population increased 47%. Check out the full CBS report here.
Examining the federal workforce — whether we have too many workers, whether workers and agencies should be spread out more across the country, whether technology can lead to better customer service, whether poor-performing workers are dismissed — may be due diligence that a large company should do.
What do we need? — Is slashing hundreds of thousands of federal workers what is best for the country and its nearly $37 trillion debt? Or is a re-evaluation of that workforce’s production, purpose and performance what is needed?
And who should lead this? Should it be the world’s richest man using some methods like he did when he cut staff at X/Twitter? Or should it be the people elected by the voters doing this review?
Either way, Trump campaigned on cutting federal jobs. He is now doing it after voters chose to send him back to the White House.
Inside Iowa Politics — Your breakfast has been getting much more eggspensive (sorry, dad joke:)
On my show this week, we looked at how egg prices come with a side of politics right now.
Disappointed in D.C. — Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds surprised me with her answer to my question about her experience testifying at a U.S. House hearing on how she implemented reforms and cost-cutting in her state.
It was not the experience that she hoped.
See her response to my question here.
I write this column as part of the Iowa Writes Collaboration, a group of more than 60 independent contributors. Check out their work here.
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Aside from the fact President Musk and VP Trump are indiscriminately getting rid of federal workers who make sure our food is safe to eat, planes don't crash, drugs are safe and effective, banks don't crash the economy and steal your money, etc, etc., the way this has been handled is both unlawful and just plain cruel.
Federal workers are fired without notice. Those same workers would never have quit their jobs without notice. Workers are losing retirement income they have counted on for decades. Now they unexpectedly have no income to pay rent or a mortgage. This from Trump who blew through 111 million dollars of tax revenue to watch half a football game. The same guy who requires the Secret Service to pay millions of dollars to stay at his hotels and rent golf carts to protect him while he plays golf. Musk, who thinks the Oval Office is a day care, receives billions of dollars in government contracts. Want to bet how many of those contracts are considered waste, fraud or abuse and won't be paid?
Musk and Trump overseeing a program to find waste, fraud or abuse makes as much sense as appointing Osama bin Laden to oversee the war on terror.
As the saying goes, "THIS IS WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD!" Frankly, I have no more faith in the Democratic Party than the Republican's simply because they both have exactly the same type of leadership! There are no leaders who haven't surrcombed to the influence of money and greed! After the debacle that was clearly a hammer blow to the Democrats, you may have noticed the terminology coming from the Democrats has changed."Middle Class" has suddenly changed to "Working Class", almost an admission that they failed to represent the people who really supported them! Yet at the same time Schummer throws up his hands and for all intent and purpose has given up! "What can we do? They have the majority in both houses and the presidency?" Well, it would look to me that trying to do something is at least better than doing nothing! There is going to be some need by the other side to try and lessen the blow of what the Republicans have done, and that is going to take getting the Democrats to come across the aisle! There are the looney tunes players on the Republican side that are hard core and will ride this down till they get voted out, so in order to get the edge off, it is going to take the Democrats to vote with them. That means if the Democrats use this to get compromise that makes sense, they start to take control away from the bastards that put us into this mess! Just how many votes do you suppose this will garner from people who were screwed by these fools? The lies are simply catching up with the people who told the worst of them, and if the pressure stays on, the "war" will not be lost! Eventually the Supreme Court is going to have to act without discrimination and favortism or look like the lackies they are and have been for sometime. Fortunately the voters will not easily forget who tried to screw then as a group or even as a single person! It still is a stradigy game, we will see if the Democrats have it in them to out smart the opposition, but giving up isn't the option!