Last Wednesday, the Trump administration ordered the Pentagon to cut the defense budget by eight percent each year for the next five years, the Washington Post reported. That same day, an Air Force spokesman told the Dayton Daily News it was “awaiting guidance” on how cuts would impact Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by the unelected Elon Musk, has an important task — cutting government spending. For decades, Democrats and Republicans have complained about an out-of-control bureaucracy that wastes taxpayers' money. The country’s national debt is an unsustainable $36 trillion. The debt to GDP of about 124% means the United States has more debt than its gross domestic product (about $28.3B).
The federal government has to cut debt. But it’s going about its austerity all wrong.
First, DOGE has mostly targeted the estimated 220,000 probationary employees because it’s easier to fire them since they don’t have civil service protection. An estimated 3 million people work in federal jobs, including, for disclosure, people I know.
Why is someone on probation of less value than someone on the job for a decade? That’s the first flaw of DOGE, a presidential advisory board. The administration has decided to wield an indiscriminate axe without a cursory look at the impact job cuts have on operations. Business Insider, for example, interviewed employees with exemplary performance fired simply because of lack of tenure.
DOGE has shown itself to be sloppy and inefficient, despite its efficiency claims. The administration fired hundreds of workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the country’s weapons stockpile. In Texas, the government cut 30% of the staff that handles the reassembly of nuclear warheads. Realizing its mistake, the Department of Energy, which oversees the NNSA, is now rushing to rehire workers.
Talk about potential damage.
Musk, the richest man in the world who seems to be the co-president (J.D. who?) might be a good businessman, but running a business with a profit motive isn’t the same as running government agencies responsible to the American people.
We’re seeing that lack of expertise at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he’s gone all Marie Antoinette on the people there.
The DOGE effort could have been done quickly and more orderly. DOGE has demanded a list of probationary employees from the agencies it’s targeting. They could have simply asked to include which employees serve “mission critical” functions — like handling nuclear warheads — so they could continue to support the most important programs.
When I managed budgets, I had to carefully analyze needs, determine what I could do without, and make cuts as needed.
Washington can do that, but instead, it chose to rush without regard to those crucial government functions.
We have to cut the government but need to do so in a way that doesn’t damage our national security, a prime function of WPAFB. DOGE sees people as numbers to cut instead of seeing them as the critical cogs that support the functions that serve all Americans.
The possible indiscriminate cuts at WPAFB show DOGE to be worse than an outlaw group with a government cache. It’s filled with people who don’t understand the impact of their actions. DOGE is on its way to doing more harm than good, including in the Miami Valley.
Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday.
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