I'm a federal employee and have been for 25 years.
Some years back my parents were visiting from Florida and asked to borrow a car (I had two), and I said sure. Then, later, I said something about how busy work had been, and my father starts laughing at how funny that is - and calls my older brother - so they can share a laugh about me "working hard". Both lifelong Republicans, I will note.
I was like, hey, did you want to borrow the car that my hard work paid for, or not?
When I called them out on it, they said I was absolutely correct and apologized.
Ah, the Fox Business brain trust peddles its economic logic—golden parachutes for public servants framed as fiscal savviness. “Get a real job” drips with the private sector’s trademark disdain for anyone not chasing quarterly bonuses. Federal work—infrastructure, disaster response, public health—reduced to a punchline in their profit-worshiping catechism.
The arithmetic is perfect: swap lifelong stability for a one-time payout and genuflect before the gig economy’s algorithmic altar. Feast on capitalism’s crumbs before the vultures pick the bones clean. When has short-termism ever collapsed industries or gutted pensions? The real crisis? A world where civil service is mocked while hedge fund carnage gets tax breaks.
Yeah, and if you ever ask a vet what they did, unless they'd been to literal war, they're going to tell you that they were basically just put in charge of stocking a broom closet and were bored 95% of the time.
Edit: just want to add that I do respect the military, and if anyone wants to tell me why I'm wrong, I'd love to hear lol
My mom was a mechanic in the army and never got deployed. For her mandatory four years, she just fixed trucks in the day and got wasted with other mechanics at night. She says it was a job, not actual service. She doesn't consider herself a veteran because she didn't do jack shit.
One of my call center buddies was in charge of receiving requests for freight transport and asking his NCO to approve them. His NCO say directly behind him. So he'd stare at a computer screen until a request came in, turn around, ask for approval which would be framed, then turn back around and click the approve button.
And many of the people I've talked to among different agencies are taking this offer. Those that were sort of close to retirement, for example December and the like.
So wait, is this dumb bitch expecting us to believe these people are forgoing their entire retirement for a few months pay? Or does she expect us to believe that retiring them a few months early and saving one or two months pay (basically fucking pennies) is saving significant government money? I genuinely don't know what else she could mean.
I guess that's what they do though. Throw out useless anecdotes, say it's a good thing, and let the user generate feelings based off it while having no idea what it actually means.
Right, these are likely people with fully vested pensions basically taking terminal leave above and beyond their accumulated leave. Most feds can accumulate 240 hours of leave to be cashed out on retirement. Trump basically offered people nearing retirement the opportunity to cash out 1280 hours. Much efficiency. Very cost savings.
This. And there is no way Trump will keep any "deal" that costs him money. He has literally built his business around stiffing contractors. No one should trust him or expect him to keep his word.
AF vet here. Big govt personnel cutbacks followed by "Oh shit!" followed by hiring expensive contractors that do half the work is a tale as old as Uncle Sam.
...that said, I dunno if there will be an "Oh shit" moment this time around: Trump is acting on malice, not stupidity. Weakening the US is his goal.
It's actually a very common right-wing idea to take anything publicly owned and turn it into a profit-driven private entity. Chances are, if they don't own that entity, someone they know does. When the contract goes over budget, you know they're enjoying the spoils.
Even if it's owned by nobody they know, at least it's profit-driven enough to bribe politicians for better contracts.
I've gotten some confused looks when I tell people that what Trump is doing right now is exactly what Republicans do every time they're in power.
I think they thought I was defending Trump. No, I'm condemning Republicans.
Every year they vote to remove my right to vote in DC and every year it's just as fascist.
"Totally, tremendously real. Trust me, I know real. I can, 100%, totally confirm that her hair—like my tremendously great hair—is real. No doubts. Everyone else saying it's fake—they're fake. Fake news. Don't believe what the Democrats are saying. It's Hillary's fault. With all this AI, nobody can tell. They think it's fake. They think everything is fake. I'll tell you. Her hair, my hair. It's real. All real. True American hair. Didn't even need a hair dresser. Just wake up with great hair. All day. Every day."
Abuse the system until it breaks
The system no longer functions, as expected.
This prevents the system from leaking revenue
Claim this broken system is unnecessary junk
Remove the junk
Repeat as necessary
Logical conclusion: total destruction of money leaking service sectors without firing a single person. Avoid payouts related to severance because everyone "quit." Save any costs those services were spending.
Agreed! Making sure I receive my Life-Saving Social Security Payment is a Job for Teenagers to get their Feet wet! REAL JOBS are the people yelling at me on the TV that I can EASILY survive without!