Posted on 04/22/2025 1:35:13 PM PDT by cgbg
Confirmed Cuts: At least 49,100
Employees who took buyouts: About 75,000
More planned reductions: At least 171,080
Tens of thousands of employees across the federal government have left their jobs, been put on leave or been fired as a part of the government-gutting initiative of the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk. Federal agencies have been directed to make plans to reduce their work forces even further.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
These numbers should be added together to get a total estimate of 295,000 by the end of this fiscal year.
In just the past few days since the last update many thousands of employees have been moved from the "planned category" to the "took buyout" category--so we are probably close to 100,000 in the "took buyouts" category as of today.
Bill Clinton got rid of nearly 400,000 federal employees.
In my view this article understates the planned cuts quite substantially for some agencies.
For example—It looks like HUD, the Department of Energy and the Department of Labor announced DRP 2.0 numbers (estimates made available in the last couple of days) far exceed even the “planned” numbers in the New York Times article.
For that reason the 300,000 total number looks low to me—probably looking at 350,000 or so.
About a third of a century ago Ross Perot warned the Federal debt would become an enormous problem. If not addressed we would go bankrupt as a nation he warned.
Nobody did anything. Only one year with a balanced budget under Clinton/Gingrich. That’s it.
Now that fateful day has arrived when drastic action must be taken before this nation no longer has any leverage.
True—but it took Clinton eight years to do it.
President Trump will probably hit that number by January—one year.
It’s a start.
“Only one year with a balanced budget under Clinton/Gingrich. That’s it.”
Not true — the deficit INCREASED that year due to ‘off budget’ spending (SS & MC) — it’s just a bookkeeping trick.
Clinton certainly wasn’t up against what Trump has been. Clinton wouldn’t have lasted a week in this environment.
Really five years.
The civilian federal workforce has increased to over 3 million people. That is unprecedented. The last time the federal government had over 3 million workers was before the post-Cold War defense cuts. So the growth has been in non-defense. Cutting 295,000 is a drop in the bucket. We need to cut 600,000 to 700,000 to get back to where we were 10 or 15 years ago. Federal workforce growth has been insane.
Agree with your analysis—I think we can and probably will cut 600 to 700K—but that will probably take three years.
Some of those cuts are taking place now in the Pentagon civilian force—and that will continue.
If the Republicans do not keep the House in 2026 of course those numbers will not be hit.
Only one year with a balanced budget under Clinton/Gingrich. That’s it.
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That happened when Clinton rolled short term debt over to long term bonds. In essence, he started using a credit card for day to day expenses. That will increase your cash flow…for a short time. Then, your long term debt needs to be paid. It’s what a lot of companies do….right before they have a crisis and go belly up.
With none of the drama.
A significant (not all) % pf the cuts was made by reducing the defense workforce because it was the end of the cold war.
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