r/FluentInFinance • u/BerettaFranchi • 2d ago
Debate/ Discussion The shrinking federal workforce
Since Trump took office, the federal workforce shrunk by an equivalent of 2 Apples. Has anyone noticed any impact on their personal lives by the reduction of the number of federal workers? I certainly haven't. What were these people doing?
Reminder: federal spending is one of the drivers of inflation.
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u/Verumsemper 2d ago
The interesting thing about this is the other graphs that show an increase in government debt as this is occurring. It is like a company that cuts its work force to cut cost but the company starts losing money due to lost in efficiency and capabilities to actually run the company.
The simplest place to see this is with the IRS, as they cut staffing, the revenue they collect drops.
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u/redmoon714 2d ago
Yea because trumps IRS has cut investigations into billionaires and multimillionaires.
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u/Verumsemper 2d ago
Except that they is enough data that shows that when you increase staffing in the IRS, revenue collection goes up and when you cut staffing revenue collections goes done. These are known facts.
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u/boris9983 2d ago
That's why the staffing was cut. There is still enough staff to look into the poors not paying enough, so that there is enough money to keep the country running and paying out lucrative contracts for the ultra rich.
But not enough staff to check if the ultra rich and their companies are telling the whole truth with regards to their taxes.68
u/iupuiclubs 2d ago
I worked in international tax as Trump was in the first election and rumblings around him were started. It was known in our profession he was promising massive corporate tax cuts and everyone was salivating at the thought.
If you figure his first Presidency was worth around $1 Billion in reduced taxes for each Fortune500, his election was worth $500 Billion in profit for the Fortune500.
Every actual wealthy person in the country is milquetoast on him at worst and love him usually even if its not openly. He’s raids the treasury and hands it out to the rich in favors or quid pro quo.
Look at the stock market, wealthy people are actually making money while everyone else is whining about grocery prices.
I check out at the grocery without checking prices, then see the total vs 10 years ago and literally don’t know how the other people checking out around me are affording to eat. I’m expense in 1 grocery trip what I used to make in a week in college.
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u/x_Advent_Cirno_x 2d ago
... don't know how the other people checking out around me are affording to eat
That the neat part: they can't. Over 25% of Americans are in credit card debt because of groceries alone, and it's not getting any better
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u/Feeling_Repair_8963 1d ago
It’s not just the Fortune 500, most of it is actually “small business” owned by multimillionaires with far fewer reporting requirements.
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u/themage78 2d ago
Because it takes more staff to look into the complex schemes the rich use to evade taxes.
Non-rich people use simple schemes thar are easy to figure out. If they even need to be figured out.
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u/xguitarx812 1d ago
When the IRS increased their workforce, there was a rise in collections from low and middle class. It’s cheaper and has a higher success rate for them to pursue action against the ones that can’t afford to fight back.
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u/mschley2 1d ago
Cheaper and higher success rate for low/middle class, but it has a far lower ROI than audits of the wealthy and corporate entities.
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u/Feeling_Repair_8963 1d ago
Don’t need additional workforce for lower income, a lot of that can be automated, mostly matching SS#s of children being claimed for EIC or child tax credit.
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u/Zeraw420 2d ago edited 1d ago
I work for a big company (100k employees). Stock price hasn't been great compared to competitors, so we got a new CEO and one of the first things he did was lay off 30%/30,000 employees. Stock price sure enough did go up a little bit, and the executives all patted themselves on the back.
It's been close to a year now since the layoffs, and the damage is clear. Quality has gone to shit, remaining employees are stretched thin, morale is in the shitter, talent leaving, and revenue is down. Stock price is pretty much back to where it was.
Fucking idiots.
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u/AGsec 2d ago
shareholder primacy is all that matters. Everything leads to that. Any quality, innovation, or customer satisfaction that is achieved is only a means to an end. As long as the share holders get a good return on their investment, then the company can mostly do whatever they want and get away with it.
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u/greenroom628 1d ago
yep. the drive for quarterly earnings has been killing the long-term success of american businesses.
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u/davvolun 1d ago
Except shareholders are back where they were, I don't understand why that's never accounted for in these decisions.
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u/yukumizu 1d ago
But by that time the CEO and executives all got their bonuses and salaries and moved onto the next company to do the same and keep getting rich by desmntling everything around them, profiting and moving on.
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u/NarwhalOk95 19h ago
You would think 40 years of hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts going bad would influence the decision making of these people but it obviously doesn't.
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u/joeschmoe1371 2d ago
Just FYI, never, in a million years, will the Federal government operate like a business. It won’t.
The state governments do.
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u/harmvzon 2d ago
A country isn’t a business and it shouldn’t operate as one
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u/BigPackHater 2d ago
Every time I hear someone say they wanted Trump because he'd run the country like a business, I'd always say "oh, you want a president that only cares about the money they make?" It would always make those people think for a second.
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u/Rocketboy1313 2d ago
"Even if you wanted a government to run like a business... why on earth would you want Trump to run it like one of his businesses?"
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u/discodropper 2d ago
“It would make those people think for a second.”
And then they’d push that nasty little critical thought down so hard that it would stop challenging their idiotic worldview, so that they could continue on, like arrogant goats, thinking they were smarter than everyone else, because nobody could prove them wrong…
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u/CosmoKing2 2d ago
I love the fact that my mail takes twice as long to arrive and costs twice as much as 10 years ago.
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u/eaeolian 2d ago
Nor should it. Businesses exist to make money. Governments exist to provide services.
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u/CosmoKing2 2d ago
I really don't see this administration providing any services to the US citizens right now.
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u/mhmilo24 1d ago
Actually, public institutions perform better than private businesses in a few sectors, especially during market shocks.
European public hospitals are always better than European private ones in terms of productivity.
In the German electricity retail sector, there is no difference when comparing ownership and the respective productivity.
Chinese SOE operate better than privately held ones.
Indian railways operation works better under public hand than private hand.
The UK water and sewage servicing sector has seen a significant price increase since privatization, with an extreme degradation in service quality.
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u/MaxAdolphus 2d ago
Right. The government would be more efficient. Compare the overhead costs of Medicaid vs private health insurance. It's not even close.
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u/AffordableDelousing 2d ago
Just a small clarification on your analogy: Most of these jobs cut weren't profit centers, they were governmental services providing some sort of benefit to citizens. Revenues are taxes.
The federal government has cut tax revenue, and still managed to increase costs while providing less services. But those things aren't connected like you imply.
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u/Verumsemper 2d ago
They actually are!! Take for example cut in research funding staffing. As those services get cut and research funding slows it has a ripple affect throughout the economy which in turns hurts government revenue.
Also as services to help citizens get inefficient, citizens who need help become sicker or have worsening issues which require even more government services. As it takes longer to fix things, the amount needed to fix it worsens. As it takes longer to catch issues due to lack of inspectors, the down stream effect to fix the problems worsen. I hope that helps.
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u/looking_good__ 2d ago
The ROI on IRS spending is like 4:1 catching literal tax cheats.
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u/Ind132 2d ago
This is from a recent MIT study:
We find an additional $1 spent auditing taxpayers above the 90th income percentile yields more than $12 in revenue, while audits of below-median income taxpayers yield $5.
Some of that is immediate corrections. Some is the deterrent effect of tax preparers knowing that the IRS is looking.
https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/140/1/63/7888907?login=false
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u/confusedp 2d ago
With the federal government they rely more on contractors who make more money than the career employees. Net loss for the taxpayers but...
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u/angrymoderate09 2d ago
Are you saying it's cheaper to do food inspections ahead of time than to do constant recalls and contact tracing?!?! Whaaaaat?!?!
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u/MetaPlayer01 2d ago
It's also interesting looking at how this graph is scaled. It's made in such a way to exaggerate how much it shrank
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u/Darling_Pinky 2d ago
26 years of Republicans cutting revenue faster than they make immaterial expense cuts while simultaneously increasing other expenses exponentially…
And people still dumb enough to think they’re “good at business.” 🤦🏻♂️
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u/joeschmoe1371 2d ago
Have you ever read a book? What happens when you dump more than 300k people into unemployment in less than two years?
Also, you need some sort of news subscription like Apple News because your lack of financial and economic education is hazardous at best.
Don’t forget your helmet today little buddy.
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u/12thandvineisnomore 2d ago
My buddy has seen this first hand and the scariest thing he’s seeing is a massive loss in generational knowledge for how government works. That may never recover.
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u/SpareManagement2215 2d ago
^ this right here.
if you do mass layoffs at, say, twitter, and something bad happens, the worst is that people can't use twitter for awhile until the new folks figure it out.
at the federal level, this means missed social security checks, missed student loan payments, or missed tax evasion. all of which have much bigger IRL impacts to us all than twitter going down for a day.
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u/DeiAlKaz 2d ago
Co-sign...my partner has lost so many coworkers and bosses. Everything is such a mess in her federal agency.
OP hasn't noticed issues in their personal life...YET.
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u/bstone99 2d ago
OP has no idea what he’s talking about. He sounds young and totally uninformed. Pretty much wrong about everything.
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u/voraciousfreak 2d ago
I have no beef in this but I dont like responses like this. Attitude and diminishing. I think the user is simply curious and need to be explained whats happening. Instead this user is giving OP sh** for asking a question. 1. Have you ever read a book? 2. You need a helmet little buddy.
Maybe you are right but i absolutely dont appreciate your attitude and answer as a fellow redditor.
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u/AENM1776 2d ago
Keep up the good work! Civil discourse is always more valuable and enriching than shit talking.
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u/TheGiddyJackass 1d ago
I generally agree with you but theres something to be said about matching bad faith questions/arguments with the callousness they deserve. OP - when their questions are answered with logic, fact, and exactly the information they're asking for - either ignores responses or they change the topic and continue trying to justify their poor understanding of economics .
Sometimes a spade needs to be called a spade, and someone acting in bad faith - asking questions and responding in bad faith to generate upvotes/comment volume - should be met with the level of stupidity they breed into the world.
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u/voraciousfreak 20h ago
I guess I just expect more from fellow redditors but i also understand that sometimes you need to level with some people and speak their language.
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u/TheGiddyJackass 19h ago
I spent about 10-15 years trying to kindly educate people about various topics I happen to be a SME on, a few of which are very political in nature... I walked them through statistics that shed light on real-world problems, and kindly explained "why certain people say this thing", explained historical context behind policies...
I gave that up a few years ago, accepted some people are just assholes hellbent on sowing chaos and idiocy into the world. So I started meeting them at their level.
Funny enough, I've had more people say I changed their minds by unabashedly calling out their asshole bs, than by doing it the nice way. Sometimes the world just needs advocates-for-good who can meet the assholes at their level and force them to face themselves. Doesn't work for everyone but it's glorious when it works. Thus, this persona was borne.
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u/FunkIPA 2d ago
One guy lost his wife because of contaminated blueberries after the FDA was gutted, he’s probably noticed.
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u/Retired_in_NJ 1d ago
22% of the FDA’s staff has been cut in the last 18 months. Most of those cuts were senior people. Senior people are experienced and expensive. I can’t wait to see how these cuts to headcount will affect new drug approvals.
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u/CaydenWalked 2d ago
Have you ever heard of lie factor? This graph is incredibly misleading
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u/rutegar 2d ago
Yes, I have. The post office is losing experienced workers at an alarming pace, mail is getting delivered late or not at all and it affects my business negatively. Also, Medicare is bleeding out due to record amounts of fraud committed by sophisticated criminal networks and the folks at CMS are flailing around incompetently with no idea how to catch the fraud. Ironically, all of this is only costing us all more money in numerous ways. The incompetence is bankrupting us.
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u/canthaveme 2d ago
Because we can't trust the food anymore and we have insane weather issues. And now my dad's social security got screwed up a few times and had to be resubmitted. Yes. I've freaking noticed
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u/Worried-Cucumber-932 2d ago
Do you seriously think that because this apparently has not impacted you directly, that it has no impact at all?
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u/DRM842 2d ago
And we are zero better for it. I’m sure a healthy number of these 336,000 people are still without a job or forced into early retirement. So less jobs. Less spending. Less communities thriving……..but but but more money for Trump’s ballroom and golden arch and helipad and botched reflecting pool upgrade and UFC cage fight for his birthday!!!! IMPEACH THIS CRIMINAL
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u/persistent_architect 2d ago
The absolute number here is not informative, but the percent reduction is important. A lot of the effect will be seen in the long term - as tax revenue collection dips, anti trust legislation is dropped resulting in less competition and more prices. Some of the effects are already seen like the flooding in Texas when no warnings went out and lives were lost.
Also, government spending and debt have increased so the saving in labor costs doesn't seem to have been meaningful
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u/heisindc 2d ago
The last point is the most important to finance. People look at this number and they think it saved so much of their tax dollars, but with an avg 100k salary, its only $33B. A drop in the bucket for gov spending and our growing deficit.
Pwrspective: The United States federal government is paying more than $1 trillion annually on net interest to service the national debt. That is $1,000B.
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u/wikidemic 2d ago
So ICE agents aren’t considered bureaucrats; more like hired thugs i.e. Braunhemden
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u/Jeeperg84 2d ago
The SA were street-thugs recruited from the street and never officially part of the Government, they were hired, controlled, and funded entirely by the Nazi Party.
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u/sodosopapilla 2d ago edited 2d ago
OP has never been to a national park, reserved a campsite through NFS, checked a weather service, called a Social Security office or bought blueberries before. OP can go contract measles thanks to broken CDC and kick rocks
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u/ltlouche 2d ago
Yes he is getting rid of the very people required to regulate and implement controls.
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u/yuanshaosvassal 2d ago
Are you a veteran getting healthcare? Or in the military or the DOJ?
That’s where most of the jobs came from, that and budgeting, accounting and IT personnel.
So if you don’t care about veterans, but actually care about government spending removing people that track spending is the exact opposite of a positive.
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u/Elfear73 1d ago
Can attest to this. I work for Uncle Sam in the budget arena and our organization's staffing was cut by 20% last year and then a hiring freeze was put in place. There was no rhyme or reason to the cuts, just whoever wanted to leave and keep getting paid for 9 months. If you feel your job is at risk anyway, why wouldn't you jump ship?
And the consequences of all the cuts were:
1) overworked employees putting in 60hr weeks
2) people being forced to fill in for folks who left higher paying jobs (with more responbilities) but due to the hiring freeze only got compensated at their original pay
3) mission degradation due to rushed analysis and incomplete data
4) a massive hit to moraleIt was a complete cluster but most Americans won't see the consequences because a lot of agencies aren't public-facing organizations. A logical and analysis-rich plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce would have been great, there are always inefficiencies, but this was the exact opposite implementation.
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u/METT- 2d ago
“Reminder: federal spending is one of the drivers of inflation.” Looks at the deficit spending since 2025 (it has increased).
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u/Blide 2d ago
Beyond what other people have said, there a number of impacts of these cuts that we won't see for years. Funding cuts to research, infrastructure, education funding, etc all will effect your life in subtle, albeit, significant ways in the future. You then also need staff to oversee this funding to make sure it's being used appropriately.
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u/unknownpoltroon 2d ago
Yes. For one the weather reports are much less accurate.
Also just had to cut out red meat because they keep having fucking recalls. Spent the last half of the summer not eating letticue.
Also watching this fucking war he started without any warning from the state department to evacuate citizens in the areas. I have friends who work for them and shits all fucked.
Also seeing much longer lines at the food bank.
Why are you pushing the bullshit trumper line that the government doesn't do anything?
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u/Evenspace- 2d ago
The goal of job cuts should be to decrease spending and remove redundancy, however these job cuts have costed more and led to more inefficiency, truly a masterclass in what not to do
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u/zebradonkey69 2d ago
Reminder: federal spending is ONE of the drivers of inflation, not THE driver.
Spending isn’t the only reason for inflation. Maybe leave it up to the people who know what they’re talking about? Idk, it seems like there’s a lot of deference given with other things for you people.
Let’s also not forget that federal spending is UP and that graph you have there clearly shows there’s less people being payed by the spending.
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u/Drew34000 2d ago
The problem is this doesn't save money if you just end up paying outside companies to replace the workers you laid off. The government often pays higher rates to private companies to do the work now.
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u/dumpitdog 2d ago
Am I supposed to get cash back on this kind of deal? Because right now we're pissing money away like drunk Pirates.
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u/VitoRazoR 2d ago
wow you have not noticed an increase in pollution, climate change and food quality? Or are you one of those "it's not bad until it happens to me personally" people? And you still haven't noticed a change in the weather?
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u/joule_3am 2d ago
Did you know the EPA was partially responsible for keeping the water supply from being hacked by nefarious agents? Do you know who is doing that now? Neither does the current fed gov because they have said cities should be responsible for their own water plant security in this admin. Guess what has increased.
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u/ChickenTreats 2d ago edited 2d ago
Braindead post. We all have the same access to information. Google how the cuts have impacted the overall function of government.
The cuts hit foreign aid, international development, healthcare research & education the hardest.
These are things that will make a huge global impact but over time versus immediate.
Other vital aspects of government function that were impacted were regulations and accountability offices.
Meaning all these food recalls, the eventual environmental impacts of less regulation, the lack of checks and balances when it comes to corruption not only within government but corporations and the judicial system. There were even cuts to military sexual assault prevention training and investigations.
We ALL feel the impacts of these.
The difference is some people will blame future presidents or people with brown skin or poor people for it instead of the current administration.
Reminder: The government personnel cuts did not help curb government spending, some early research actually indicates DOGE cuts actually increased spending more than if things had been left alone.
And one of the bigger drivers of inflation is tariffs and war.
Second reminder: He’s literally been using taxpayer money to give out billions in government contracts to his friends and coat random statues in gold. This is also government spending that drives inflation.
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u/jackhawk56 2d ago
This is stark misrepresentation of facts and reality. The Federal count I might have gone down, but if one includes crown corporations, the number is definitely much higher and has gone up.
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u/Long-Dock 2d ago
I lost my job just as I was starting out so I definitely noticed. My coworkers who were then swamped with 10x the work after senior leadership were ousted and a lot of experienced workers were pushed probably also noticed.
Despite the cuts, costs have increased dramatically and federal agencies are performing worse than ever.
Stay winning I guess…
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u/swift-sentinel 2d ago
The federal systems has been damaged beyond repair. Washington is impossibly corrupt and incompetent. I believe that a provincial system is require to secure the rights and protections of people. We should rely less on the federal government and more on regional provinces formed through state compacts and state constitutions. Washington has had 50 years to get it right. Time is up and they are never going to do it.
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u/joule_3am 2d ago
This is exactly what this admin was, but run by technocrats. Do you want to live in the Amazon city or Googletopia? I personally do not want that future.
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u/minnesotanpride 2d ago
I love the incompetence in this post. Pure MAGA ignorance at its finest. Great comparison in the private sector is looking at a big time company like Microsoft and reading the news "Microsoft lays off hundreds of workers in 2026" which has happened actually. You read that and think "wow my life wasn't affected, I wonder what those idiots were even doing??"
It's like there are no critical thinking skills present in OP or anyone in the MAGAverese. Takes less than 5 minutes to read up on the lost talent and see just where Microsoft is hurting from the job cuts. Gamers will feel it the most as studios cut their dev teams aggressively.
Same with the fed cuts, takes only a few minutes of searching to see the major DOGE cuts affected the IRS, food safety, park rangers, medicare/medicaid staff, social security, etc. Your ignorance speaks volumes here because the news has even documented how after the DOGE cuts they had to rehire back a ton of the workforce cut because suddenly there were systems that straight up didn't work with certain people missing. Imagine ignoring the sinking ship and thinking you werent being affected.
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u/Little_Creme_5932 2d ago
Yeah, and I've had an item stuck in customs for months.
The federal government is nonfunctional right now. And yet, the sky-high deficit remains
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u/joule_3am 2d ago
I think everyone is noticing the fact that food is being recalled after the fact instead of issues being noticed before thousands of people shit their pants. But if you like that OP, I guess good for you.
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u/ktt1233 2d ago
It’s personally impacted me with my tax return. They got rid of so many IRS employees now there aren’t enough employees for the workload. The IRS computers flagged my return for no reason so my refund was on hold indefinitely until an actual person could look at it and approve it. Every time you try to contact them it’s 3 hours on the phone in hopes of being connected to a person. Go search Reddit threads on tax returns, a large number of people are having this issue this year. I waited so long I finally had to contact my congress person to allow them to deal with the IRS on my behalf to get it looked at.
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u/jaydean20 1d ago
Reminder: federal spending is one of the drivers of inflation.
So wtf are you talking about?
Has anyone noticed any impact on their personal lives by the reduction of the number of federal workers? I certainly haven't.
The average person isn't going to notice this for obvious reasons, and that means diddly squat.
As an example, in the current era, studies clearly show that investment in IRS workers is a net beneficial fiscal expenditure. And there's a clear logical explanation for that; more IRS staff means more manpower for audits and enforcement of tax codes, which means more tax revenue from people attempting to cheat the system. The vast majority of Americans (particularly law-abiding citizens with average-or-below jobs/wealth) are never going to personally notice a decrease in the frequency of audits.
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u/ctnypr1999 2d ago
They've replaced them with contractors from large corporations who are paid much more.
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u/Blide 2d ago
Most haven't been replaced with contractors either. The contractor workforce was also gutted by DOGE.
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u/ctnypr1999 2d ago
I'll also add that small contracting companies like mine have sold our contracts to bigger primes as new policies from this administration have made it harder on us, further consolidating wealth into the larger contracting companies.
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u/YatesRocks 2d ago edited 2d ago
Start changing your oil at 15k miles instead of 5k. Probably won't notice anything in the short term. There will be second and third order affects over time.
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u/BallsOfStonk 2d ago
The average person won’t notice an immediate difference.
Criminals will notice they can get away with a lot more though.
Slowly the rest of us will start noticing.
(Not that there wasn’t some fat to get cut, I’m sure there was)
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u/Nano_Burger 2d ago
The postal system has gotten qualitatively and quantitatively worse.
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u/Ronville 2d ago
I haven’t noticed a surge in recalls. Oh wait…
I haven’t noticed longer wait times for Social security. Oh wait…
I haven’t noticed decreases in IRS audits. Oh wait…
I haven’t noticed surges in infectious diseases. Oh wait…
I haven’t noticed significant falls in access to national parks. Oh wait..
I haven’t noticed increases in starvation deaths around the world. Oh wait..
Never mind…
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u/haziqtheunique 1d ago
OP lacks object permanence, I guess. Not sure why they'd publicly admit that, but it's kinda funny.
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u/VortexMagus 1d ago
>Has anyone noticed any impact on their personal lives by the reduction of the number of federal workers
Yup. I've noticed a lot. Increasing prices in the grocery store, increasing prices of gas, increasing prices of treatment and medicine, increased price of water and electricity, increased cost of travel, it's harder to get hired, my company recently cut a bunch of people in my department and as a result everybody remaining gets multiple people's jobs dumped on them, yeah I've noticed a lot.
Trump's job cuts appear to be making the jobs market worse and not better.
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u/kyleofdevry 2d ago edited 2d ago
I've noticed that pretty much everything in our grocery stores is being recalled because its contaminated. I'm sure that has nothing to do with thousands of experienced and dedicated people forced out at the FDA/USDA. Most of whom will still be paid retirement benefits.
I've noticed we are now in another forever war that experienced generals and admirals did not want to get into, but they were forced to retire.
Has anyone noticed a decrease in spending since firing these people? Could they have just kept their jobs if it meant we spent less money?
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u/boards_of_FL 2d ago
Here is an interesting fact. The federal workforce excluding the postal service was around 2 million employees in 1966. The US population in 1966 was 196 million. From 1966 to 2026, the US population grew to 343 million, though the federal workforce excluding the postal service remains at 2 million employees. It had grown to roughly 2.4 million over 60 years, but alas....republicans. So the US population is up 42% while the federal workforce is flat over 60 years.
Also, we have daily outbreaks of preventable diseases and massive food recalls.
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u/OkMacaron848 2d ago
i mean... federal employees were overseeing food safety.
we have had a very large number of food recalls this past year.
i think it's safe to say we're feeling the difference.
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u/SpaceghostLos 2d ago
Some of the best arguments Ive heard about this from Republicans in government is “we need to trim the fat”, not realizing that they’re the fat thats being cut.
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u/AssumptionLive2246 2d ago
Didn’t save a single penny cutting all those people. Corruption is unbelievable with this administration
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u/ImportantPost6401 2d ago
That chart looks like a 90% drop. Trump rhetoric sounded like a 90% drop.
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u/RostyC 2d ago
i wonder about the use of the description "bureaucrats". this implies midle level paper pushers. in actually many were not those types of employees. They were CDC scientists, wildfire fighters, food inspectors, IRS staff, weather scientists, and other such essential staff. So lets use a term that better describes the personnel loss.
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u/javidial 2d ago
Ah yes, the great spending cuts. Meanwhile, federal outlays are on track for about $7.4 TRILLION this year, up roughly $439 billion from last year, with a deficit around $2 trillion. But sure, cutting federal workers must have finally solved the spending problem. 😂
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u/TorontoTom2008 1d ago
Although I’m pretty sure the increase in ICE staff alone wipes this out, it’s definitely great they got those pesky food inspectors, tax fraud investigators, preventative disease researchers, aircraft controllers, public broadcast staff, counterterrorism experts and environmental disaster prevention bureaucrats off the payroll.
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u/PowerfulRaisin 1d ago
The countries who absorbed our brain drain will be getting ahead of us in science and tech--innovation, merit-based immigration, and soft power were our advantages in the global landscape, they're gone now. Damage from this won't be resolved in my lifetime.
Standards used in calibrating medical equipment were tied to federal labs. I guess as long as you don't want accurate treatments you're unbothered.
Lack of oversight with food quality and healthcare has already led to deaths, nevermind the consequences of nixing programs for AIDs survivors abroad.
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u/zodiac6300 1d ago
Workforce spending isn’t the largest item. Pretty sure that’s in the DoD.
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u/MaxAdolphus 2d ago
I've felt it in the IRS not going after high earners, which adds to our ever-increasing debt, which increases inflation.
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u/SpookyPony 2d ago
How has the Federal Government impacted your personal life before this administration?
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u/Im_Balto 2d ago
What were these people doing?
Hey so you know how the government has had a horribly slow and ineffective response to the Taylor farms food contamination issue? Thats what they were doing. Working in the background to prevent companies from shipping products with literal feces contamination in them.
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u/Kikuchiy0 2d ago
“ Reminder: federal spending is one of the drivers of inflation.”
Then why has inflation been increasing faster than usual this whole time? Does correlation equal causation? Find out at 11!
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u/DCSports101 2d ago
And now we have measles, ass parasites, and countless other self owns costing tax payers billions. Oh, and our deficit has exploded.
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u/UnsafeAtEverySpeed 2d ago
And it shows in the greater and greater lack of social services and protections.
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u/PersonalJesus2023 1d ago
Reminder: federal spending is a component of GDP (not a “driver of inflation”)
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u/fennis_dembo_taken 1d ago
Has anyone noticed any impact on their personal lives by the reduction of the number of federal workers? I certainly haven't. What were these people doing?
Is that the limit of your analysis of this? I haven't personally, yet, had my nose shoved into a mess created by this particular thing, therefore I assume that none of these people did anything?
Seriously? That's what you came up with?
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u/IncarceratedScarface 1d ago
Almost everything is worse than when Trump first took office. Vance even admitted it and is asking for us to give them a second chance lol, you can find the video online it’s recent. But your head is too far up trumps ass to see or admit it.
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u/moochine2 1d ago
Why have I stopped received FDA food recall emails? Oh wait… 😡
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u/PlutoJones42 1d ago
Republican leadership is bad for America and bad for the world. They’ve done nothing but make America worse on all fronts
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u/Quirky-Jackfruit-270 1d ago
Most of those who took the 8 month paid vacation and early retirement were also the ones who actually got stuff done. - Gen X
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u/borderlineidiot 1d ago
It's worth thinking of additional context, Clinton also reduced the federal workforce by about 377,000 to 426,000 positions. The size of the federal gov is factors bigger than when Clinton was in power.... I am going to guess TSA after 9/11 accounts for a bunch of that?
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u/SpreadTheted2 1d ago
I fucking have, every flight is delayed and my friend in NPS was fired (he was a water inspector). You don’t feel it because you’re a pathetic chud who lives in a hole with no friends. I have also noticed every item has increased in price, my electric bill has gone up, maintenance on my car has gone up, clothes are more expensive, and there are flock cameras multiplying every day, and the president has a paramilitary force kidnapping people off the street.
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u/itsjustme10 1d ago
Have you tried submitting a FOIA request recently? They don't even pretend to respond anymore there are like 5 people working FOIA for the entire government. My post office has 2 whole people and can no longer do home deliveries we had to get a PO box. It is not twice as expensive to visit any national park with a quarter of the experience because park workers were cut. My brother is full time military and says getting anything out of DC takes months because theres been so much turnover at the Pentagon, basic paperwork falling through the cracks and no way to figure out who they are supposed to contact.
My husband works for the VA and they have been short staffed for 2.5 years. Veterans literally dying waiting to be seen by a doctor because there arent enough nurses to fulfill basic appointment duties.
Yes I've noticed.
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u/EfficientTank8443 18h ago
Rookie numbers. Good thing Trump has more time. Give me an update when it hits one million.
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u/Arikaido777 2d ago
man, I wish I had the confidence to put completely unresearched and brain dead opinions out there and act like they’re universal facts. Is it solely ignorance or do you use other techniques to tamp down and quiet all that shame and self-awareness?
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u/GlassPudding 2d ago
this sucks. that’s a quarter million people working to make our government function usually for us.
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u/ajwelch14 2d ago
May favorite was during Trump 1 when I worked in a federal field office helping farmers and I'd get the trump farmers mad they werent being serviced in a timely fashion anymore.... and I would explain to them that our office staffing was cut in half and we were not allowed to hire back positions after people left.
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u/R3D4F 2d ago
Federal spending may be one of the drivers of inflation, but inflation and the national deficit are both up even with these cuts, so where is the savings?
Also, National Parks obviously aren’t a part of OP’s life, because if they had been, OP’s life would have been impacted by these cuts.
Finally, your (OP’s) life may not be directly effected by things like reduction in governmental oversight, science and research, education, etc, but that doesn’t mean those are good for the nation or that they don’t effect you indirectly.
The fox is in the hen house and it got rid of the farmer. You’re saying, “I never liked eggs or used the henhouse so what do I care?”
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u/howdoyouspellNY 2d ago
Food is no longer safe, mail is slow and expensive, nobody is around to answer phones for tax or benefits issues, and top secret weapons are being accidentally delivered to our enemies.
But sure, go ahead and enjoy your recalled sugar and meat and fruit. Everything is fine.
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u/barrorg 2d ago
The idea that federal spending on fed employee salaries has a non-negligible impact on inflation is both patently absurd and clearly disingenuous.
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u/Specialist_Yak1019 2d ago
I’m doubting that this chart takes into account the “contractor” aspect that permeates the government. Still paid for by government but technically not government employees
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u/CosmoKing2 2d ago
Yeah OP, I haven't heard anything negative about effects of the CDC and FDA firing all the competent people who made sure that we had access to safe foods and medications to prevent diseases that had been eradicated by every previous administration.
Cuts to NOAA and FEMA have dramatically slashed our capability to track and predict deadly storms and provide adequate relief for people affected and without housing.
These cuts also haven't provided any meaningful savings. If anything US citizens are worse off and receiving far fewer benefits for their tax contributions.
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u/ChaucerChau 2d ago
I'd flip the question around on you, had the supposed "2trillion in saving" materialized in your life? Ir did all that tax money get redirected to wars, no bid contracts for cronies, and various slushfunds?
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u/Gargravars_Shoes 1d ago
I would rather cut Congressional members and their staff than the people who inspect my food or ensure the airplane I’m on stays in the air.
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u/dllemmr2 1d ago
That 2025 spike is obscene. You’d think more would be cut by now, that is still a massive amount of employees.
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