"Feeling of Dread" as Federal Workers Face Mass Culling
In a deeply satisfying headline, CNN is reporting a widespread "Feeling of Dread" among the millions-strong Deep State -- er, federal bureaucracy -- afraid that Donald Trump will fire them.
In case you're curious why they used your tax dollars to influence the election.
Kicking off with Executive Orders
CNN kicks off how the federal workforce is "on edge and bracing for the likelihood its ranks will be purged."
We can only hope.
In particular, they're terrified Trump will re-impose an executive order known as Schedule F, which would give him the power to hire and fire tens of thousands of bureaucrats who are in a "policy-determining or policy-advocating” positions.
Estimates range between tens of thousands up to 50,000 -- a solid start to draining the swamp. Particularly given “policy-advocating bureaucrats” are the mother ship of anti-democratic government resistance.
CNN breathlessly calls it the biggest change since 1883, which is when the modern independent bureaucracy -- the Deep State -- was born.
The Empire Will Strike Back
Now, mass firings won't happen on day one. For a couple reasons. First, the left -- and the Deep State -- will deploy lawfare on a mass scale to shield the bureaucrats. Who earn nearly twice what tax-paying peons make to spend their days coming up with new rules and feeding money to activists so they can mutilate children and burn cities for social justice.
Lawfare means it's got to be done carefully — the one thing government bureaucrats is good at is using taxpayer funded lawyers.
Beyond lawfare, the second reason is Trump doesn't necessarily have to fire all 50,000 for them to fall in line. The mere threat that he could fire them will concentrate minds among otherwise hostile bureaucrats clutching their gold-plated benefits and pensions.
For this we can look back to one of the greatest presidents in American history, Andrew Jackson — who, incidentally, Trump kept a bust of in the Oval Office.
Jackson vs the Deep State
In the 1830’s, Jackson — like Trump — was a populist up against the establishment, including near-universal opposition among the federal workforce.
Of course, in 1830 it was much smaller with roughly 5,000 federal employees since there was no income tax and no federal reserve.
Still, they were united in opposition to the populist Jackson.
How did he win them over? Easy: he fired one out of five — about 800.
The rest fell in line.
Now, given Elon Musk wants to cut one in three dollars from the federal budget in his Department of Government Efficiency, we’re looking at not 800 but 800,000.
Meaning even schedule F is just the first sentence of the first chapter of a wholesale government retreat in the face of the people.
Enter the Constitution
Going by Trump 1.0, the bureaucrats main tool will be a raft of civil service privileges imposed over a century starting with the Pendleton Act in 1883.
But the Constitution is very clear -- Article 2, section 1 vests all executive power in one single person -- the sitting President. The 2 main relevant Supreme Court cases say he can fire any political appointment -- Myers, 1926. And he can fire anybody in a so-called executive agency -- Humphrey's Executor, 1935.
Together, that’s nearly 98% of federal workers — 2.9 million out of 3 million.
Those two cases mean whatever pretty laws Congress passes to shield bureaucrats nearly every single one is available for firing at Donald Trump’s pleasure. Everybody outside the 100,000-odd who work for either legislative, judicial or independent agencies — sadly including the Federal Reserve, which would need Congress to fire.
What’s Next
Beyond the deeply satisfying opportunity to use 2.9 million former bureaucrats to pick fruit and mow lawns when illegals go home, a 98% headcount reduction should give Elon lots to work with on the way to cutting the $2 trillion in spending he’s aiming for.
As for what’s next, in many ways Trump 1.0 got played by the Deep State. But their sheer savagery these past 4 years has hopefully opened his eyes.
Meaning millions of deep-state minions are right to feel that deep sense of dread as they dust off the resume and consider turning their life around and doing something useful for society.
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I’ve worked in corporations and so has my husband. We’ve both been through multiple rounds of layoffs over the years. The idea that the federal government should never have to review their various departments for efficiencies is absurd. The pearl clutching is wasted on me, I’ll be happy to see a large chunk of the useless class go away and find private sector jobs.
Don’t forget about all the government contractors. Not the just ones who make weapons systems and aircraft, but those thousands of non-government employees who work for the various government agencies under contract. The deep state runs deep.