Anger. Confusion. Betrayal. These words capture the emotions of more than 30,000 federal employees who found termination notices in their inboxes. The Trump Administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, have launched sweeping layoffs to cut down, restructure or gut federal agencies.
These changes are part of an effort to overhaul a flawed federal government.
“When you look at the bureaucracy, you see this really bloated, inefficient mechanism that is not providing the services it is supposed to be providing,” social science teacher Brandon Burmeister said. “This has been felt for a very long time by the American public … and even as far back as the Reagan Administration.”
While the administration thinks these reforms will help in the long run, it could potentially hamstring the distribution of government resources and services, and lead to significant unemployment.
“It’s unclear as far as what the approach is, other than just firing everyone which is not necessarily an approach, because a lot of these people are doing really good work and have things that are necessary to make the country function but we’re not getting any clarity on what the process is,” Burmeister said.
Ph.D. economist Nick Sargen concludes in a Forbes article from Feb. 21 that the cost of federal employees represents only a small fraction of total federal expenditures. So, even significant reductions in the federal workforce would have a limited effect on the national deficit, which is driven by larger structural issues such as entitlement spending and tax policies.
Among the various restructured agencies, one of the most noticeable was the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
According to an HHS release on March 27, their plan aims to save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year through downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 employees. Although the purpose is to improve efficiency through streamlining processes, this reorganization temporarily leaves the United States vulnerable to outbreaks due to a less efficient capacity to respond.
“When you look at (what is being done to the) HHS, we’re seeing a measles outbreak that’s running rampant through Texas, and nothing is being done about it because there’s no personnel,” Burmeister said.
The same could be said for the Department of Education.
A U.S. News article from March 20 lays out both sides of the story. On one hand, a 50% reduction in workforce for the department could be beneficial. Similar to the HHS, it has been referred to as a ‘bloated bureaucracy’, where the department functions as an excessively large and inefficient structure. Reductions in its workforce could help address these inefficiencies, similar to the approach taken with the HHS. On the other hand, the dismantling of the Department of Education could impede the distribution of billions of dollars in federal aid to Title I schools and students with disabilities.
Moreover, the funding cuts could impact 29.6 million students in public schooling.
“You’re going to see kids at school go hungry because of the Education Department shutdown,” Burmeister said. “Because (the department) can’t fund lunch programs, the states can’t fund lunch programs, so kids that can’t afford to eat at school are now not going to eat.”
Looking ahead, these job cuts are not only affecting current federal employees. They are deterring the next generation of the workforce from pursuing federal jobs.
“It was pretty disappointing and disheartening when I found out about the job cuts,” said Vassar college junior Jordan Alch, who was considering joining the National Park Service. “For postgrad, I’m kind of turning away towards making that my initial goal because … people aren’t getting hired.”
Despite the uncertainty, many like Alch are remaining hopeful for the future.
“Just realizing that while things seem scary, hopefully one day they will all be ok, so we have to see what happens and be there for each other,” Alch said.
