Category: Bureaucracy

Quote Of The Day

Bureaucracy, QOTD

“25 million individuals over age 100 remain in the Social Security database even though there are fewer than 100,000 people aged 100 or older alive in the U.S. today.” — DOGE

Let’s hear it for Gummint efficiency.  And if it’s not inefficiency… then it’s fucking fraud, and the recipients of said fraudulent payouts need to go to jail.

And while we’re there, the people responsible for checking for and preventing such anomalies should be fired.

Small Beginnings

Bureaucracy, Trumpism

I submit these two little snippets for your  enjoyment  contemplation:

First:  the I.R.S.:

The Trump administration has executed one of the most significant workforce reductions in U.S. history, targeting over 200,000 probationary employees across multiple government agencies.

It was first reported that Trump’s administration plans to axe around 9,000 jobs at the IRS, primarily targeting employees still in their probationary period.  However, as many as 15,000 IRS workers have been identified for possible termination as early as next week.

The targeted employees, many of whom were added during the Biden administration’s expansion of the IRS, reportedly hold non-essential roles unrelated to processing tax filings.

One can only hope that this will end with the department’s complete abolition.   I’m not kidding, either.

Second, the CDC:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is poised to lose roughly one-tenth of its workforce due to a Trump policy axing probationary employees as part of a larger effort of the Trump administration to cut the size and scope of government.

This reality comes as the Trump administration orders federal agencies to cut off probationary employees. That includes roughly 1,300 staffers at the CDC alone. Those employees, according to the Associated Press, are expected to receive roughly four weeks of paid administrative leave.

Let’s hope that the reduced CDC staffing means that those quacks will be going after actual diseases like smallpox and malaria, instead of inventing “epidemics” like accidental gun deaths and suchlike.  (I’m hopeful, but not optimistic that this will happen;  if it doesn’t, shut them down too and leave it to the states to deal with.)

Like I said, this is a good start, going after the low-hanging fruit (“probationary”, “non-essential”, FFS), but let’s not stop there.

Quote Of The Day

Bureaucracy, QOTD

From my soul brother Elon:

“We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who who have a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars, but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth.” [beat]  “We’re just curious as to where it came from…”

Yeah, me too.  Investigate all of them — Democrats and Republicans.

Single Step

Bureaucracy, Gummint

One might think at first that this was heartening news:

More than 65,000 federal workers have reportedly accepted the Trump administration’s buyout offer.

However:

“If you resign under this program, you will retain all pay and benefits regardless of your daily workload and will be exempted from all applicable in-person work requirements until September 30, 2025 (or earlier if you choose to accelerate your resignation for any reason),” the memo sent in January to roughly 2 million federal employees reads.

So:  65,000 down, leaving 1,935,000 still to go.  And:

A federal judge is expected to weigh in on the matter Monday.

A federal judge in Massachusetts.  The People’s Soviet of Massachusetts.  Any prizes for guessing how that will turn out?

Gah.  Still, I guess we should take heart in the 65,000 number — it’s better than nothing.

As long as Trump and Musk keep applying the screws…