Last week, the mass layoffs of federal administration by Trump’s administration caused tormented termination of affected employees and many others in Philadelphia.
Congressman Brendan Boyle, a democrat, spoke in Union Rally outside Hall Independence Hall And he called a sudden dismissal of about 400 IRS employees in the city “a blow to these families, our local economy and every taxpayer.” City council officially condemned Department of Government Elon Musk (DOGE) for an attempt to open federal agencies and the president’s efforts to “exceed” his executive rights.
“The amount of money, which Doge claims that they save before these sharpens, is a decrease in buckets,” compared to additional revenues brought by IRS dismissed employees, read One typical commentary on Philadelphia Reddit. “It’s not about saving government money. It’s about saving money about a billionaire donors. They want a return on investment. “
However, there is support for a decreasing approach to reducing the federal workforce, even in the left Philadelphia.
While some say they think that cuts could be done more carefully, people on the right and middle who talked to Billy Penn said that they generally agree with the impulse of President Donald Trump to significantly limit the government.
“Do I think that there is a waste in the government that we must solve? Of course – said Drew Murray, leader of the republican branch and a former candidate for the city council. “Do I see the advantages of what President Trump and Elon Musk do? Yes.”
“After that he ran a campaign,” he added. “And although I do not necessarily agree with all this, I think that the president who conducted a campaign about a policy says:” I go and do what I said that I am going to do. ” “
“The government is still growing”
Murray and others quickly stated that they sympathized with employees who lost their jobs, most of which were sampling employees who had less than a year at work or recently advanced.
“In time it happened many of us,” said Matt Wolfe, leader of the republican branch in West Philly and a lawyer specializing in electoral law. “This is a destructive thing, both financially and for your emotions.”
But the cuts are very much needed, they said and had to start somewhere.
“Everyone who thinks that the federal government is a slim, mean fighting machine is naive. There is a lot of bloating there, “Wolfe said. “So if you’re going to look for a workforce, the first thing you have to do is eliminate test workers.”
He noticed that some are already Employed back – For example in FDA. And he said that launching will eliminate only a miniature part of “ineffectiveness”, which he and others argue, are common in the federal government. But “it was something they had to do if they had more flexibility on the road to increase the performance of the labor force,” he said.
In the world of business, release and reductions are a well -known phenomenon, because companies try to become more productive and respond to changing economic conditions, said Andy Bloom, communication consultant and former operational manager at CBS 94WiP and 1210WPHT CBS radio stations.
“I was reduced without work and there was no great protest in the whole country for a job in the media,” said Bloom, who also writes for Broad & Liberty, a conservative information site based in the media, PA. “The only industry with which it does not happen is the government. The government is still growing practically from year to year, regardless of the economy. “
The number of federal employees increased from about 2.7 million decades ago to just over 3 million in January, according to data from data from Federal Reserve St. Louis. The growth has been particularly acute in the last 2.5 years, and 172,000 has been added since June 2022.
Less chain chain and more scalpel, please
Cixture defenders indicate that the presidents of both parties have been promising and sometimes acting in decades to reduce waste and excessive expenses in the government.
Task group created by President Bill Clinton in the 1990s eliminated 426,000 federal positions, mainly from the Department of Defense, and took $ 112 billion savings, Bloom noticed Wa latest article. President Barack Obama also tried habit of waste AND reduce government expenditure.
Obama “himself made many of these cuts without the consent of the Congress,” said Bloom. “They are only people reacting to the fact that they are Donald Trump and then we have Elon Muska.”
Wolfe also argued that indignation among leftist Philadelphians partly reflects them deeply rooted reluctance to everything that the current president and his deputies do.
The Trump’s “Trump disorder” is real and they just moved it to the musk. This is not a victorious message at national level, but it is very real and there is a very real polarization, “Wolfe said. (Some commentators similarly described the reflective right -wing fears of former president Joe Biden as Biden disorder syndrome.)
The work of Clinton, the national partnership on the re -invention of the government, was very different from what the government department or dog is done. Clinton’s task group eliminated jobs gradually for seven years, observed the standard processes of changing regulations and the removal of federal regulations, and he has never been sued.
Murray, a former democrat who describes himself as a headquarters, said that he would prefer the Trump administration to act more deliberately.
“I would like the approach to a scalpel, or maybe somewhere between the scalpel and the chain chain. I would prefer to see how Elon Musk and President Trump have a little more empathy – he said. “I hated the image of Elon Musk Going with a chain chain. “
Murray is the chairman of the Civic Group, Philadelphia Crosstown Coalition and the vice president of Logan Square Neighborhood Association. He said that his interactions with the government taught him that the change was a sluggish process by nature and requires compromises.
“Business melandry is good, but you must have these controls and balances,” he said. “You can’t come as if it was your company. This is not Tesla. You can’t just say that I will release all these people. “
Bloom agreed to some extent.
“Ultimately, they must observe constitutional procedures regarding the approval of budgets in order to zero agency, to obtain budgets. They must follow the constitution – he said.
“Some of them take place too quickly,” he said. “It is certainly different than ever before. But we are also in a different situation. “
Existential moment?
According to Bloom, what is different now and makes it very vital to reduce the government is a huge domestic debt.
“In 2000, when Bill Clinton left the office, the public debt amounted to about USD 5.7 or 56% of the domestic domestic product,” he said. “Today, the debt is over $ 36 trillion and accelerates at the interpretation rate. By June we will reach $ 37 trillion, and the debt is currently 130% of GDP. “
“We have heard about existential crises, climate change, white supremation-all are quote” existential threats to democracy. ” Well, I can say what is really an existential threat to democracy, to the country, and if we continue to apply debt at a pace, which until now exceeds our gross domestic product, that we have no chance to catch up. In this way, countries fail – he said.
“So do we have to do unconventional things to lower the debt? Yes, I think so – said Bloom.
Wolfe repeated this sense of diligence. “The federal debt is simply too high. We can’t continue to do it and survive as a country – he said. “One of the many ways that we will have to [address the debt] It is by decreasing or increasing the performance of federal workforce. “
They rejected the idea of increasing taxes from wealthy Americans or other groups to escalate revenues and repayment of debt. “If we want to maintain our quality of life, if we want to maintain our national security, we cannot simply raise taxes,” said Wolfe.
Federal revenues, mainly from personal income tax as well as social insurance and medicare taxes, increased from USD 4.3 trillion in 2015 to USD $ 4.92 in 2024, according to inflation corrected by inflation, in accordance with Treasury data of the USA.
As a percentage of gross domestic product – the measure of the entire American economy – revenues dropped from 18% to 17%.
For Murray, a huge problem to be solved is high maintenance costs. He blames the inflation of the last few years for excessive government expenditure, whether in the form of federal salaries or other expenses.
“Act on inflation reduction [passed in 2022, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic] They had the opposite effect because they simply put money into the economy artificially. When the money supply increases, you have an inflation period and we had record inflation – he said.
“Of course, the government has roles. They should pick up our rubbish. They should pave our paths. Safety should ensure us. They should make sure that the capitalists do not get too much power, right? We don’t want a monopolitan, “he said. “This is the role of the government. It’s not just about infusing money management. “
