Ignore the progressives: DOG is working, and Americans support it
By: Ingrid Jacques
USA today
..... Most writers are familiar with the expression "Kill your darlings."
.....
Why am I telling you this? Because it directly relates to what Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are trying to do with the federal government.
..... The writing advice isn't as violent as it sounds. It's speaking of the well-known concept that when it comes to words, less is more. Brevity is better. Yet that force writers to take a hard look at their won certain. Once something is on paper (or the computer screen) it becomes hard to "kill it. It's yours, after all.
..... The same holds true of the federal government, which Musk and Trump are working to downsize and make ore efficient through DOGE ( the Department of Government Efficiency). The government employs more than 2 million civilians and has operated roughly the same way for decades.
..... Change is hard. Logions your job is very hard. So it's understandable why many federal workers are feeling attacked. About 30,000 employees have lost their jobs so far.
..... However, it;s you and I who pay their salaries, and it's past time to ensure that our tax dollars are used in the best possible way.
Just 1 Yosemite staffer to 'rescue visors from locked restrooms'?
..... There's plenty of evidence that's not the case.
..... For instance, The Washington Post reported the following: "At California's Yosemite National Park, the Trump administration fired the only locksmith on staff on Friday. [02/28/2025]
He was the sole employee with the keys and the institutional knowledge needed to rescue visitors from locked restrooms."
.....
The newspaper, like many media outlets since Trump took office, was clearly trying to offer an example of how awful and harmful Trump and Musk's cuts are, but it served another purpose.
..... It showed just how inefficiently the national park operates. Why in the world would you have only one person who has access to the parks keys? That's absurd.
..... Rather than come to that conclusion, the Post observed that Trump's "purge of federal employees" was "not only upending the lives of National Park Service workers, but also threatening to harm the visitor experience at national parks across the country.
.....
From NPR to CNN, the legacy news media has searched for "threatened" federal employees telling their sob stories as if no one has ever faced uncertain employment before.
..... Meanwhile, they ignore that the majority of Americans support what DOGE is doing. A new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found Trump's approval rating at 52%, with voters most pleased with his actions on mitigation and reducing government costs.
..... The survey found that "67% of voters say the current level of U.S. federal government debt is unsustainable"; "83% of voters favor redcurrant government expenditures over increasing taxes" and "77% say a full examination of all government expenditures is necessary."
..... Plus, 60% of voters think DOGE is helping to make htis happen.
..... CEOs get it, too. Last week, [02/27/2025] JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC that he supports making the government more efficient.
..... "Why are we spending the money on these things? Are we getting what we deserve? What should we change?: Dimon said. "It's not just about the deficit, it;s about building the right polices and procedures and the government we deserve."
Federal employees freak out when asked what they did in past week
..... Last weekend, [02/22-23/2025] Musk cause a stir by issuing a government-wide email asking employees to offer five bullet points of what they did the previous week. Sure, it could have been handled better. Employees got conflicting guidance from Trump-appointed agency chiefs, especially those in defense and intelligence jobs, who told them to ignore the directive.
.....
Yet, given the reaction from federal employees and the media, you'd have through Musk and Trump asked for something truly extreme.
..... The uproar is quite telling. The email should have taken about five minutes to respond to (assuring the employee actually did work in the preceding days), and regardless of whether a worker wanted to do it, it's jot too much to ask. Those of us in the private sector routinely have to justify our contributions to our employers.
..... The largest union representing federal employees didn't appreciate it, however.
..... "It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify there job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life," Everet Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement.
..... Cruel? Come on, now.
..... Argentine President Javir Milei recently gave musk a chainsaw at CPAC, the annual gathering of conservatives. Milei has used a metaphorical chainsaw of his won in recent years to cut his country out of economic ruin through tough government downsizing.
..... His efforts have worked. Musk and Trump are right to try the same in the United States.
..... Just get ready for a lot of hysteria in the meantime.
..... Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA Today. contact her at ijacuques@usatody.com or on X: @Ibgrud_Jacques