I am finding it hard to believe that Trump has sent out mass e-mails to federal employees offering them a severance package and asking them to leave their jobs. This just gives absolutely no thought to all of these people’s lives and how much pressure they are being put under to be able to keep their jobs when they have done nothing wrong to deserve something like this. On MSNBC’s show Morning Joe they were even saying now they have these young kids fresh out of college interviewing a lot of these people about what they do every day, and they said they feel like they are being monitored constantly. Who wants to work under conditions like that? I know I would not be able to perform my job the same way if I knew I constantly had eyes on me just waiting for a reason to fire me.
I do not remember what company it was but one employee said Elon Musk and his whole family moved into the 6th floor of the building he works in so he could have eyes on them constantly. In my opinion, this is a terrible idea, we are going to lose essential workers who are experienced and know exactly what they are doing for absolutely no reason. Then, when this administration realizes that they need those employees, they are going to have to hire new people and spend all that time training them, trying to get them up to speed on how to do their jobs. This is not a good idea—especially not with the FBI; they want to get rid of such a huge percentage of the FBI. I do not see how it would be possible for us as a nation to be safe without such a big percentage of the agency gone all of the sudden. It makes the United States very vulnerable to all of our enemies trying to get intel on us and the same thing is happening with the CIA, so he is just opening up our borders for something terrible to happen.
This kind of news really does worry me, especially having a young daughter who is at the age of 13, and I am scared for her future. What is really scary is this is just a couple of weeks into the new administration and so much craziness has already taken place. I know the VA was another government institution that was affected by these e-mails asking them to resign, and that has had them nervous as well. I believe they are eventually trying to get rid of the VA and privatize it so that they can just start sending veterans out into town to regular doctors and lose a lot of the other benefits veterans need such as disability and specific care such as combat PTSD groups that you cannot find in another medical center, and it means a lot to the guys because most of them won't open up to people that have not been through the same thing. So overall, I don’t know what is going to come of it, but I think the only person that needs to be fired and sent home is Elon Musk.
Sure does make me wonder how the richest guy in the world has all of these huge companies and has all of the money in the world but yet that’s just not enough for him, he has to try to inflict pain on people. It is insane how much free time he has considering he owns Space X, Tesla, X, etc. You would think he would have something better to do with his time then follow Trump around like a lost puppy.
Here are some concerns I have:
1) Reorganizing the federal government and pushing the bureaucracies to become more efficient may be a laudable project, but much depends on the approach used. In the 1990s, the Clinton-Gore administration made such an effort, and it was largely successful. I had an uncle who took part in the reorganization from within the Department of Energy, and he speaks with pride of how he shifted funding from atomic weapons to the human genome project. I share your concerns that Elon Musk and the Trump Administration are not pursuing efficiencies and reorganization in a way that is likely to achieve the desired goals.
2) My understanding of the Constitution is that the funding for these various agencies comes from the Congress (especially the House of Representatives), and the president just is responsible for putting the laws and funding given by Congress into effect. My understanding is also that the President cannot simply withhold funding once it has been allocated by Congress (see the 1974 Impoundment Control Act). Thus, I am concerned that DOGE and the Trump Administration may be breaking laws and violating the Constitution.
3) My understanding of labor law and human rights associated with workers is that Federal Workers are protected by contracts and labor law, and my impression is that many of the firings of federal workers are illegal.
4) Although I have several criticisms of various branches of government and departments, and can therefore empathize with feelings of anger and hostility directed toward the bureaucracies, my general understanding of federal agencies is that they are staffed by competent and hard-working people who are highly skilled and often near the top of their fields. The NIMH and CDC have frequently impressed me, and I have known people in both of those organizations, and attended one NIMH conference. I have also known people (some old friends I've known since childhood, and some family members) who work at HUD, the Department of Transportation, the CIA, the State Department, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of the Interior. Without exception, every one of these persons I know within the federal workforce is a person of admirable character, intellectual brilliance, and awesome competence.
The wholesale attack on federal workers and agencies everywhere in the government seems to me like it is directed by people who are governed by gut feelings and cult-like political enthusiasm, and not by well-informed understanding of where the problems lie. The inclination of Musk and his young assistants reminds me of the revolutionary zeal of Chinese Red Guards during the cultural revolution, more than the sober and well-thought-out reforms that would address the real problems in the federal government.
I'm concerned that in the long-run, this sadistic populism that attacks authority and government with ignorant enthusiasm will become a dominant approach in American politics, used by demagogues on the right and left, leaving serious people of the left and right and the technocratic center increasingly marginalized. I doubt whether any revolutionary pragmatism or extreme human rights advocacy will be able to save our society if cult-like movements worshipping the rhetoric of madmen and incompetent ignoramuses gain power.
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