Week Four: No Rest for the Grifters

American Thinker ^ | 16 Feb, 2025 | Clarice Feldman

[MtnClimber]

The creation of the Department of Government Efficiency has exposed the often-archaic bookkeeping and computer systems and the enormous waste and grifting in the operation of the federal government.

In the 1960s when my husband and I first worked in Washington, D.C., according to the Office of Personnel Management, there were about 1,808,000 (which includes military; non-Department of Defense was 761,000) federal employees. At the start of President Trump’s second term there were 2.3 million, of which about 775,000 were military and Department of Defense employees. This astonishing bloat in the federal bureaucracy is even more inexplicable when you consider that in this same period so many of the jobs being performed by these people have been made strikingly more efficient with the creation and improvement of computers and the internet, requiring fewer personnel to accomplish more.

A rough estimate is that about 10% or 275,000 federal employees are no longer on the payroll. 75,000 took the payout option and there were about 200,000 probationary employees who were laid off. There may be more as agencies are lopping off components. It’s possible not every probationary employee was riffed, but I think this is a fair estimate.

The creation of the Department of Government Efficiency has exposed the often-archaic bookkeeping and computer systems and the enormous waste and grifting in the operation of the federal government. I will deal below with some of the things DOGE has uncovered, but the big news is the President has signed a new executive order this week that empowers DOGE to spearhead the complete reorganization of the federal workforce. Among other things, it gives DOGE hiring approval for all positions; reduces the number of new hires (one for every four departing employees) with exceptions for those performing jobs relating to public safety, immigration enforcement

[MtnClimber]

Anyone screaming about DOGE should be fired too.

[mewzilla]

LOL...

I thought this was going to be a Prince Harry and Meghan Markle story.

Wrong grifters.

[RoosterRedux]

Excellent article by Clarice.

People who favor big government to not seem to understand that the federal government is a monopoly and monopolies have no need to improve because they don't face competition that requires it.

And organizations that don't improve don't just remain at equilibrium, they devolve.

[Liz]

Trump’s attention to detail is amazing.....the big news is he signed a new executive order
<><>empowers DOGE to spearhead the complete reorganization of the federal workforce.
<><>gives DOGE hiring approval for all positions;
<><>reduces the number of new hires-one for every four departing employees
<><>(exceptions for jobs relating to public safety, and immigration enforcement)
<><>and so on and so forth.

[Jolla]

So the size of fed govt non-military has basically doubled? 775,000 to 1.5 million, while the population has roughly doubled?

[yldstrk]

The Courts are closed on Monday for President’s Day, so how the heck is there going to be a hearing on Monday?

[Sicon]

Actually, she said that in the 1960’s, there were ~1.8 million FedGov employees, and that there are 2.3 million now. That’s an increase of ~28%. Not insignificant, but also not all that shocking, given population growth over the same period.

[Jolla]

yes if you include the military,

[nopardons]

BTTT

[AndyJackson]

But back when it was 1.8 M it was all feds. Now we have a "blended workforce" with contractors augmenting the feds on a >1:1 ratio. And they can do things feds can't do and they senior leaders can get contractors to do things that it is actually illegal for feds to do.

It's another part of the tangled web of deepstate corruption.