roamer-1...
Show me the money.
Yeah, that's my mindset. After spending a lifetime doing what they are attempting, reducing operating cost, the Trump/Musk approach is NOT pursuing the most reduction in cost. Not even close.
Somehow, these two want to decimate the federal employee pool, and replace with contractors. That is not reducing cost, that is jacking it up, BOTTOMLINE. Contractors cost roughly twice what an employee cost.
Let me remind all of you, there are
2.4 million federal employees (excluding postal and military)
there are
7 million contractors(excluding postal and military)
Frankly, they are doing it backwards. The single greatest cost savings would be to eliminate the contractors, and there are no civil service protections for any of them. NO DRAMA, NO COURTS! I say remove most of the contractors, put the employees to work getting the work done, begin a process of defining work that is essential for now, for the future, work that is nice to have, and make work. By putting the federal employees to the task of doing the work without the contractors, the dead heads will leave, at least many of them will. And many folks with 20+ years will retire. No package needed.
You want savings, you want a productive workforce, the above approach will work lightyears better than what Trump/Musk are doing.
They claim Musk is saving $1 billion per day. The above approach is saving $500 billion to $1 trillion if the whole of the workforce is included. That is a one hour discussion, no drama, no lawsuits.
The latest request from Musk is that every federal employee send a report with 5 bullet points addressing what he/she accomplished last week to him/DOGE, copying the supervisor. This is not the way one runs an organization. You want an entity like the federal government to implement project management approaches, develop it within the framework of each organization so that the management team actually manages.
The issues that exist with the federal workforce are not a problem with the workforce, it is a problem with management. I am not sure Trump/Musk have any idea of the difference.
This is why if Trump wanted to make lasting change, he would work to accomplish two things. Two amendments to the Constitution:
1. Mandatory balanced budget, only exception during periods of declared war by Congress
2. Term limits for all member of Congress
These two things alone would accomplish lasting change in Washington. Force the self serving thieves in Congress to embrace both these objectives, and Washington begins to make permanent change. The EO route is erased with the next Democommie dummy.