(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
'Don't Know What You Got 'Til It's Gone': Trump/Musk Gutting of Govt Continues: 'BradCast' 2/18/2025 [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-18
Indiscriminate mass firings expand, critical services endangered, laws violated, as even senior Trump-appointed 'acting' officials resign in protest...
Incredibly, many Trump-supporting MAGA dupes still believe any of this is being done in the name cutting government "waste, fraud and abuse" -- much less "efficiency" in the federal government. As discussed on today's BradCast, I guess there are still millions who won't give a damn about any of it unless -- more likely, until -- it effects them directly. And it will. [Audio link to full show follows below this summary.]
As David Dayen helpfully reported last month at The American Prospect, if you fired every single federal worker in existence -- all 2.3 million of them -- you'd save about $271 billion per year. While that may sound like a lot, it's just 4% of the annual budget. Of course, we'd lose much more in uncollected tax revenue, unprosecuted fraud in the private sector, lives lost, just to name a few big points. And, of course, Americans, such as Social Security recipients would lose a lot on a personal level when there was nobody left in government to send out their monthly checks.
But, as Republicans have been telling us (lying to us about) for decades now, the federal government has just become too bloated. It must be cut down to size, even if it's randomly done through mass firings at every federal agency, of anybody viewed as legally fireable (whether they are or aren't doesn't matter.) But here's another fun fact from Dayen: in 1960, amid the Golden Age of America's middle class, the federal government comprised 4.3% of all workers. Today, that number is just 1.4%.
Other than that, our government is huge, bloated and out of control! Who needs all that air traffic safety, security of nuclear weapons, food inspections, safe drinking water, disease tracking, cancer cures, law and order, disaster response, medical care, education, Social Security checks or life-saving weather reports and climate data? The federal government is just too "big". Let's gut it all! Legally or otherwise!
Much more on all of this -- and some of the heroes (even Trump-appointed ones!) trying to block and/or call attention to the worst of it -- on today's program, as culled from, among others, some of the following source material...
AP: Delta jet flips upside down on a snowy Toronto runway and all 80 aboard survive
Rolling Stone: FAA Employees Say Trump and Musk's Firings Are Dangerous
AP: Trump fires FAA air traffic control staff, just weeks after DC crash
NYT: Adams's Lead Prosecutor Quits Defiantly: 'It Was Never Going to Be Me'
WaPo: Mass resignation marks a new kind of defiance in the second Trump era
WaPo: High-ranking D.C. federal prosecutor resigns in protest
WaPo: Musk's DOGE seeks access to personal taxpayer data, raising alarm at IRS
WaPo: Top Social Security official exits after clash with Musk's DOGE over data
NBC: Department of Homeland Security preparing to fire hundreds of senior leaders this week
Bloomberg: US Health Department Layoffs Expand to Medicare, FDA
NBC: CDC 'disease detectors' among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts
Politico: Mass firings continue across nation's health agencies
Guardian: NOAA imposes limits on scientists, sparking concerns over global forecasts
The Hill: EPA fires nearly 400 workers after OPM order
The Hill: EPA puts employees who tackle pollution in overburdened communities on leave
The Hill: National Science Foundation cuts 10 percent of staff
Wired: National Science Foundation Fires 168 Workers as Federal Purge Continues
AP: Trump's firing of 1,000 national park workers raises concerns about maintenance and operating hours
SF Chronicle: Yosemite halts camping reservations, with no timetable for their return
Fox 13 Utah: 'Crisis' at Zion as mandated job cuts hit popular national park
Reuters: USDA probationary staff fired at three agencies, sources say
NBC: USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is trying to rehire them
The Oregonian: At least 600 workers to leave Bonneville Power Administration, spurring concerns about transmission grid
CNN: Hundreds of FAA probationary workers fired by Trump administration, union says
AP: Trump wants states to 'clean up forests' to stop wildfires but he cuts funds
Other than that, slow news day.
Also, on similar notes, we close today with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report, as the costs of our climate crisis continue to mount in from coast to coast in recent days; Trump's FEMA is already denying critical disaster aid; and the Administration is desperately trying to find fired Dept. of Energy workers after figuring out that they were the ones who safeguarded the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile...
* * *
While we post The BradCast here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they're available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at iTunes, Pandora, TuneIn, iHeart, Amazon or our native RSS feed!
[Cross-posted from The BRAD BLOG...]
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/18/2304695/-Don-t-Know-What-You-Got-Til-It-s-Gone-Trump-Musk-Gutting-of-Govt-Continues-BradCast-2-18-2025?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
