New Orleans Being a federal worker, once upon a time, as recently as months ago, was a good gig. It was a stable job with regular hours, good benefits, decent wages, and real stability, especially compared to the dog-eat-dog nature of the private sector. It was a job that met aspirations and provided security. Now, under Musk-Trump II, forget about it! It’s chaos, and the administration’s mishandling of the federal workforce is one of the key factors threatening the entire US economy. What the frick?
Before Congress, President Trump touted the carnage of the federal workforce after his first two months back at the wheel. Subsequently, he has pulled back on the throttle, as the mayhem and impact of their missteps have become clearer. He has now instructed agencies to implement the cuts, rather Elon Musk’s DOGE. He has now suggested that they use “a scalpel, not a hatchet.”
Is it possible that they have learned something from their disastrous cuts? It’s doubtful, but their embarrassment has to be palpable. First, virtually all of DOGE’s claims have been discounted and discredited with two sets of silent revisions about false claims, bad math, and contract confusion, while they have mainly hit minority and women-led small business, and given a pass to huge contractors, especially on the defense side, where Musk feeds as well. Secondly, they keep taking big, crazy steps forward, and then having to take back some cuts to critical services, as well as losing in court.
The New York Times tried to puzzle this mess out, but the task seems impossible to completely clarify. For example, this week the chief culprit in the cutbacks, the Office of Personnel Management, revised its guidance about terminating all probationary workers in the of legal reverses, now advising that individual agencies are to make these determinations. Who knows who is in and out now? One big problem with the myth of governmental worker irrelevancy promoted by the right, is that the hatchet work also imperilled the safety of food, medical devices, and nuclear arms, forcing almost all of these workers to be reinstated, because their services were vital, and couldn’t be drowned in a bathtub as some conservatives argue. Bipartisan pushback restored some jobs in some departments, while the courts halted the bleeding in other areas. Amazingly, veterans seem to be particularly hit adversely.
Who out there, no matter how partisan, can possibly believe that the administration knows what it is doing? Increasingly, darned few who actually are paying attention.
Meanwhile, government employees on the other end of the hatchet are left confused and uncertain. The terms of the layoff are often so opaque that the workers aren’t eligible for unemployment. Many can’t figure out if they are even really out of work or are about to be called back. What a miserable situation?
If really terminated, others face the prospects of a tightening labor market in the private sector, increasingly uncertain about the overall economy, with some economists now whispering the “r” word and concerned about the Trump moves are triggering not just a slowdown, but a recession. Some workers’ skills were specific, and perhaps not in demand in the private sector. Where’s a park ranger or an environmental scientist going to find an opening?
And, then there is Musk, the federal employee waving the axe, who is supposedly not a federal employee or directing anything, but who Trump said in his speech was doing so, likely complicating, if not conceding, the lawsuits that have demanded that his position required approval by Congress.
He’s on first, but no one knows who is on second, or for how long, as lives, public service, and the economy are being tragically eviscerated.