Government Efficiency (3 Viewers)

[RobF]

I think this topic deserves its own thread, both to discuss generally the topic of government efficiency, and specifically the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' and the incoming Trump administration's aims to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies".

The announcements have been covered in the The Trump Cabinet and key post thread, but to recap, Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will work together on a not-actually-an-official-government-Department of Government Efficiency, which is intended to work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," with the 'Department' to conclude its work "no later than July 4, 2026."

Musk has previously said that the federal budget could be reduced by "at least $2 trillion", and Ramaswarmy, during his presidential campaign, said he would fire more than 75% of the federal work force and disband agencies including the Department of Education and the FBI.

 

[B4YOU]

Yes, the formal follow up email to DOD civilian employees went out on Tuesday and there is supposed to be an informational session this afternoon addressing questions about the new offering.

They're really trying hard to get good, hard-working people to leave the agency and leave everyone else holding the bag. It's maddening.

Still doing the dumbass 5 bullets every week. Most of the people I know are just copy/pasting their previous week bullets because it's not like our jobs change every week.

USDA basically being told to expect relocations. DOGE hoping people take the 2nd chance early out or accept you will be in ND doing the workload of 3 people.

People don’t realize how many businesses tied to the federal government are just now laying off people. That 280k federal employee number is just the start. For every govt employee I talk to who lost a job, there’s a private sector person in the same boat. Employment number reporting lags actual firings by 2 months.

The 6M person DMV region will experience a recession with increased prices from tariffs.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Just found out everyone at my brother’s agency was put on administrative leave today

He’s devastated

He just got the termination letter today

On leave until early May then federal career is over

If I haven’t said so before fork everyone who voted for this

 

[B4YOU]

DC local government RIFs have started. Any HHS grant funded employee will get notified shortly. It doesn’t matter that a judge blocked HHS from terminating 11B in public health grants. Agency has to get ahead of the bleeding. Expect other state and local governments to take similar actions.

House is still dragging their feet on the DC 1B budget reduction fix. Freedom Caucus wants to end Home Rule, but GOP will likely settle for abortion restriction, ending medical weed, and reciprocal concealed carry.

Hiring freeze in place at job. My union contract is up for negotiations for the Oct new fiscal year. Guess I should expect another 0% raise while being grateful I can point to revenue generating activities I perform.

 

[coldseat]

Ran across this today. Couldn't agree more.

 

[Sendai]

“From Maryland to Hawaii, states, cities and counties have signaled their openness to hire federal workers who have been fired by the Trump administration, with jobseekers packing job fairs and flooding online employment portals. Recruiting civil servants dismissed by DOGE could have several benefits for local governments. Many cities have staffing gaps that haven’t been resolved since the Covid-19 pandemic, and federal agency veterans can have expertise in fields like information technology and taxpayer services that are particularly valuable to local governments.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-04-01/local-governments-vie-for-fired-federal-workers-after-doge-cuts

 

[MT15]

It’s nice that a fraction of the people fired will find jobs in state and/or local government. But this doesn’t even represent a drop in the bucket to the chaos and illegal firings that are happening every day. From the article, emphasis mine:

“The plunge underscores how much federal contracting contributes to the local economy. “At the end of the day, you’re going to have way more people who lose their jobs here than could ever possibly gain jobs,” he said.

McKay added that he’s not sure it will be easy to connect people with very specialized federal skill sets to the job openings that exist in Fairfax County. “I think there’s a false narrative out there that somehow there’s enough other jobs to accommodate all these people, and that somebody who is working in a federal job that provides veterans affairs services is all of a sudden going to be able to be a high school teacher,” he said. “I think that has been used as an excuse, frankly, to ignore the real elephant in the room.”

So don’t even think about using this article to make yourself feel better about what Trump and Musk are doing. It’s a crime against this country the way they are doing this. This is a terrible administration who is doing terrible things.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The Peace Corps is the latest federal agency to be targeted by Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency”. It appears “Doge” could be eyeing cuts to the agency, which sends US volunteers around the world to work in local communities on health, education and environmental initiatives.

“Staff from the Department of Government Efficiency are currently working at Peace Corps headquarters and the agency is supporting their requests,” the agency said in an email to the Guardian on Friday.

One Doge representative, Bridget Youngs, visited the Peace Corps headquarters on Friday, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Those people said Peace Corps staff confirmed her identity with the White House and that she was in the building for a few hours. She asked for access to the agency’s financial records and said other Doge workers might visit the building over the weekend to continue the work, according to the two people.


In an internal email shared with the Guardian, Peace Corps administrators wrote: “We will be welcoming the Doge folks this afternoon. We have been made aware that they intend to work on the weekend, so we will need you on standby.”

The email instructs staffers to cooperate with any Doge workers and “if data from the system is requested, confirm what is required to meet their needs (data, format, etc)”.

The email adds that “under all circumstances, ensure that clear records are kept on what is requested and provided”.………..

Doge eyes cuts to Peace Corps with in-person visit and records access

Agency that sends volunteers to countries around world expects ‘additional visits’ from Musk cost-cutting team

www.theguardian.com

 

[MT15]

Loathsome, completely. These people making these decisions are scum.

 

[longtime lurker]

Remember this in ‘26 and ‘28….everything that made America special is being flushed down the toilet by the Right:

The team is still on the ground in Myanmar. It was first reported by PBS.

US earthquake recovery team in Myanmar fired: Source

A source familiar with the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance informed NewsNation of the move.

www.yahoo.com

 

[longtime lurker]

“From Maryland to Hawaii, states, cities and counties have signaled their openness to hire federal workers who have been fired by the Trump administration, with jobseekers packing job fairs and flooding online employment portals. Recruiting civil servants dismissed by DOGE could have several benefits for local governments. Many cities have staffing gaps that haven’t been resolved since the Covid-19 pandemic, and federal agency veterans can have expertise in fields like information technology and taxpayer services that are particularly valuable to local governments.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-04-01/local-governments-vie-for-fired-federal-workers-after-doge-cuts

Keep this in mind when the next administration cancels all of Musks contracts with the government. They will easily find work elsewhere.

 

[UriUT]

Keep this in mind when the next administration cancels all of Musks contracts with the government. They will easily find work elsewhere.

I see what you did there

 

[longtime lurker]

I see what you did there

That Trump blueprint of how to run a Government and its people into the ground can be shared by one and all.

 

[bird]

The correct response of every government agency should have been to not allow any DOGE idiot into any building and nor access to any data base. DOGE is not a government department. There should have been immediate stonewalling to force the issue.

 

[UriUT]

That Trump blueprint of how to run a Government and its people into the ground can be shared by one and all.

Right? Do what I say but not what I do? As expected from these Musk fan bois and maga.

In the name of efficiencies, we hereby declare Blue Horizon to be the next supplier of government launches to low earth orbit. No need to figure which is the cheapest and most functional. Just arbitrarily choose whatever (more like corrupt bids). Hmm...we're doing it now by giving spacex that monstrous contract.

And what of the farm subsidies? That right there is quintessentially "efficiencies" according to these fools. [edit: Yet none of these subsidies are targeted to be cut. On the contrary, this administration is now considering more subsidies. I wonder why?]

What Farm Subsidies Are and Why They Matter, Explained

Farm subsidies make meat and dairy much cheaper — but fruits and vegetables? Not so much. Here’s why.

sentientmedia.org

According to data from “Meatonomics”, the U.S. spends $50.17 billion on animal agriculture every year (including state, local, and federal subsidies) while plants for human consumption receive about $24.69 billion. The meat industry dodges between $80 and $200 billion in environmental costs (the conservative estimate is included in the graph above). According to EWG, alternative proteins net around $30 million (too small to be seen on the chart).

That means the U.S. spends an estimated $75 billion per year, from all levels of government, on direct agricultural subsidies.

Billions in federal farm payments flow to a select group of producers, report shows • Kansas Reflector

The top 10% of recipients of federal farm payments raked in more than 79% of total subsidies over the last 25 years — producing billions of dollars for a relatively small group of U.S. producers, according to a new analysis of federal data from an environmental group.

kansasreflector.com

In total, the federal government paid more than $478 billion from 2015 to 2021 in farm support for crop insurance, disasters, conservation payments and subsidies for certain crops like corn and soybeans, according to the analysis of federal data the Environmental Working Group released Wednesday.

The U.S. Agriculture Department programs support hundreds of thousands of producers across the country. But a select group of super collectors is bringing in an outsized portion of farm subsidies.

The top 1% collected 27% of total subsidies between 1995 and 2021, according to the report.

All the while, these fools are screaming welfare queens at mothers who need help to feed their starving kids. What a joke that these fools always applaud bailouts and subsidies to the people who least need it.

Oh before I forget, let's all be proud that we're now orbiting earth!?!?

Wait, didn't we do that in the 1960s? Using computers with less computational power than my old flip phone? Next thing we know...we're gonna be proud of someone digging a hole in the desert.

 

[DaveXA]

The correct response of every government agency should have been to not allow any DOGE idiot into any building and nor access to any data base. DOGE is not a government department. There should have been immediate stonewalling to force the issue.

This is precisely what I don't understand. But keep in mind the courts have done next to nothing to actually stop it. They've already had a couple of test cases, and their authority to do what they're doing vis a vis stepping into any agency and essentially proceeding unimpeded.

The agencies also have also already been coopted through the agency heads being controlled by Trump appointees.

There's not much they can do without Cpngress stepping in, which is what should have happened day 1.

 

[Sendai]

It’s nice that a fraction of the people fired will find jobs in state and/or local government. But this doesn’t even represent a drop in the bucket to the chaos and illegal firings that are happening every day. From the article, emphasis mine:

“The plunge underscores how much federal contracting contributes to the local economy. “At the end of the day, you’re going to have way more people who lose their jobs here than could ever possibly gain jobs,” he said.

McKay added that he’s not sure it will be easy to connect people with very specialized federal skill sets to the job openings that exist in Fairfax County. “I think there’s a false narrative out there that somehow there’s enough other jobs to accommodate all these people, and that somebody who is working in a federal job that provides veterans affairs services is all of a sudden going to be able to be a high school teacher,” he said. “I think that has been used as an excuse, frankly, to ignore the real elephant in the room.”

So don’t even think about using this article to make yourself feel better about what Trump and Musk are doing. It’s a crime against this country the way they are doing this. This is a terrible administration who is doing terrible things.

It’s an article that came through ny news feed. Read it, found it interesting and decided to post it.

Didn’t really feel one way or the other. These are experienced educated folks. They’ll find work. Many will be better off.

 

[Sendai]

Keep this in mind when the next administration cancels all of Musks contracts with the government. They will easily find work elsewhere.

I’m sure the Spacex folks won’t have problems fining other jobs. But mom way would NASA remotely want to cancel contracts with Spacex.

 

[MT15]

I’m sure the Spacex folks won’t have problems fining other jobs. But mom way would NASA remotely want to cancel contracts with Spacex.

I would like to think they would, unless Musk is forced out. We cannot have a man like him involved in anything remotely important to national security. He’s so completely dangerous, it’s insane that we have let him do what he has done so far.