According to the Partnership for Public Service, federal workers accounted for 1.1% of the American population in 1967. They now account for about .06%. These statistics show current employees are serving more people with less staff.
The layoffs currently happening throughout many agencies will have little to no effect on reducing the United States budget. It does mean that any new employee in training that are now gone and most likely lost to future hire is going to cost the government twice as much to replace and retrain when the current, older employees are gone.
These are employees who are critical to maintaining our infrastructure from transportation to nuclear safety and their replacements cannot be expected to do their jobs safely and efficiently without adequate education and long-term training.
I also think to focus on Social Security and calling it a “Ponzi Scheme” is wrong. I have paid into Social Security every year since I was 16 years old. My employer also paid into the program on my behalf to which I am grateful. It is not an entitlement, it was an investment to ensure when I reached retirement age that I would have funds to stay housed, fed and afford healthcare. To try to privatize it and put it in the hands of Wall Street is ludicrous. Look what is happening to my small 401k in this current environment.
Where we should be focusing on reductions to our budget is in our contracts. Over the next few years, Musk’s companies alone will continue to hold 52 active federal contracts totaling an additional $11.8 billion, with the majority of the financing coming from the DoD and NASA. I agree we should be able to defend ourselves and I am not against exploring space but the Department of Defense cannot even pass or refuses to pass an oversight audit. We do not even know who has contracts and for what, this is where I would start.
Kari Tomperi
Wadena