'Bass-ackwards': The Rise of US Government Inefficiency
- Smith
- Jul 17
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 21
Once upon a time, Americans had common sense.
If your boss fired you after claiming, without proof, that you were lazy, you would run to a lawyer. If your boss fired so many workers that institutional knowledge was gone, you would think he or she was incompetent. After all, there would be no one left at the company who knew how to make the sausage or had the recipe for the secret sauce.
That is what is happening to the federal government. President Trump mandated that Elon Musk and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) get rid of government workers and shrink agencies not aligned with his priorities.(1)
Trump justified his actions by falsely stating, “Many of them [federal employees] don’t work at all.”(2) Musk then directed DOGE to “Cut 20 percent more than you needed and then add back.”(3) The carnage: More than 260,000 federal workers have been fired, taken buyouts or retired early, according to Reuters.(4) Musk and DOGE also terminated more than 10,700 contracts.(5)
Critical nuclear power plant workers, bird flu experts, medical experts, National Weather Service (NWS) employees and Alex Wild, a ranger and the only EMT at Devils Postpile National Monument (California) were among those let go.(6) Some were later rehired either because their loss left the US vulnerable or because courts said the action was unconstitutional. My mother would call this as being “bass-ackwards.”
Trump has gutted government services and destroyed the civil service. Some may say that he made the country more efficient by reducing waste, fraud, abuse and lazy stay-at-home workers. That is not supported by the data and the result has been chaos. It’s one thing to cut and another to cut intelligently.
The first actions should not be to cut and then ask questions later. It should instead be to ask what Americans need.
Research shows that Americans actually want government help in the areas that have been cut. A 2021 study found “Strong majorities of voters across party lines view access to clean water, a quality public education, adequate food, and housing as basic human rights that should be secured by the federal government.”(7)
It is common sense—not woke, liberal or snow flaky—to ask what resources and laws are needed for people to have adequate health care, for roads to be well tended, for parks to be preserved, for world class research to remain world class, for housing to be affordable and for public schools to provide a solid educational foundation for children. It is not woke to say it takes money to tackle problems. It is not woke to ask why we have to wait two hours to talk to a Social Security representative.
The cuts have ramifications for generations to come. For example:
A study co-authored by UCLA determined that cuts in US foreign aid would result in 14 million deaths by 2030 of which 4.5 million would be children under the age of 5.(8)
The Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA) found that 700 federal research grants worth $1.8 billion were cut between the end of February and the end of April.
“They are systematically and cruelly dismantling our nation’s public health system and workforce, which threatens the health and well-being of everyone in America,” said Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (as reported in USA Today.)(9)
What Does This Mean?
Many fired workers lost their jobs with little notice. They lost their medical insurance and may be unable to pay for housing. They lost their trust in public service. Alex Wild, the park ranger/EMT/DOGE victim, wrote on Instagram, “Today I lost my dream job as a permanent park ranger in the NPS [National Park Service]. I'm still in shock, and completely devastated.” No one deserves to be treated this way.
Writ large, what do the cuts say about America? That we lie. That we aren’t loyal to our allies and to workers dedicated to public service. That we don’t care about science or children living in poverty. That we don’t play fair. That we’re really bad managers.
Many of the same people who say, “But what about the deficit!,” supported the June 14 Army and Trump birthday parade, which is estimated to have cost $25 million to $45 million; Trump’s proposed sculpture garden, at approximately $34 million; and the Air Force One gift plane from Qatar which is expected to need hundreds of millions of dollars in adaptations.(10,11) The Big Beautiful Bill is projected to increase the deficit by $3.3 trillion.(12) The people who decry the large deficit knowingly supported measures that increase it. The deficit argument is a ruse.
Trump is in office because the majority of those registered voted for him and the Republican majority is falling lockstep behind his policies. Voters elected them, too.
We voted him in; we can vote him out.
What to do? Stay abreast of the news. Know what is going on. Fact check. Write your legislators about issues. It’s a quick process. Google their name, go to their official site, select “Contact,” and voice your opinion. Temple University has developed a helpful fact-checking site. https://guides.temple.edu/fakenews/factchecking.
This month, Texas floods killed more than 170 people and, as of this writing, more are lost and presumed dead. Earlier in the year, almost 600 employees left the National Weather Service because of Trump/DOGE actions. In an open letter written before the flood, five former heads of the NWS wrote, “Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life.”(13)
We cannot stay silent.
Notes: The cuts and reinstatements continue to change and change back depending on the actions of the courts, White House and Congress.
(12) https://apnews.com/article/cbo-trump-tax-bill-republicans-senate-5f591bea21bd95eec45ba90c93c50687
We carefully fact-check and document. We do our best to avoid, but cannot be responsible for, errors or changes from our sources and otherwise.
