A callous remark by a heartless politician inspired this diary. During a House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, Rep. MT Greene (R-GA) trashed 2.3 million federal employees. When confronted with concern for the fate of government employees twisting in an ill DOGE wind, the Georgia Screech said:
“You can protest all you want, but the American people disagree with you. The bureaucracy is not a business. Those are not real jobs producing federal revenue. By the way, they’re consuming taxpayer dollars.
Those jobs are paid for by the American tax people who work real jobs, earn real income, pay federal taxes, and then pay these federal employees. Federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees do not deserve their paychecks.”
Blind to irony, Marge fails to realize she is a member of the class she despises. She receives a paycheck “paid for by the American tax people who work real jobs, earn real income, pay federal taxes.” It’s the same for all politicians, the military, judges and court personnel, and the White House staff (c.1,800, including those who bring Trump his sodas). There’s more, but the reader gets the point.
Blind to truth, Marge also lies like a professional — which, considering she gets a taxpayer-funded $174,000 p.a. and an expense account north of $1.5 million, is well-compensated dishonesty. Greene, who pulls facts out of her ass, says, “The American people disagree with you .” No, they don’t;. Fewer than four in ten Americans (taxpayers) agree with her. More Americans think DOGE is a cancer than don’t.
Note: Trump is underwater in approval in 11 of 15 policies. So it isn’t just cost-cutting where the American people think Trump, and his clown chorus, are screwing up.
As a taxpayer, I have no issue with an independent apolitical audit of how the federal government spends tax revenue. But what separates sober-minded fiscal disciplinarians from the slash-and-burn — feck the consequences — temple razers is compassion.
Look at Greene’s language: Federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees do not deserve their paychecks.” There are 2.3 million federal employees. No doubt some are goldbrick feather-bedders. But I reckon the vast majority work hard. They got their jobs by answering a want ad. They played by the rules. They didn’t create the position. To attack them for employment opportunities created by others is cruel.
A Christian would say something like: “I feel terrible that some federal employees will have to lose their jobs. But fiscal prudence demands we shrink the workforce.” After all, losing a job is high on the list of shitty life experiences. But that is not how conservatives roll. Adding to Greene’s dismissive cruelty is that, the same day she displayed her disdain, she also voted to give America’s richest a ten-year extension on their tax cuts. The dots are clear. Conservatives are firing people relying on a paycheck so oligarchs can afford a better yacht.
But cruelty is not new to the right. In 2000, George W. Bush campaigned as a “compassionate conservative”. People were quick to point out the oxymoron. However, the question is, “Why did he feel the need to soften the edges of his philosophy?” The answer is obvious. Conservatism is cruel. And its practitioners are sadists.
Bush Jr. knew he had to distance himself from the 12 years of Reagan/Bush Sr. fiscal policies that left the bottom 50% behind*. He also had to distract the electorate from Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America (aka Contract on America). A plan that, among other things, frayed America’s already scant social safety net.
It’s no wonder that the apolitical but vindictive Trump decided to plant his flag on the far right. Say what you will about Democrats. Their damning sobriquet is “bleeding heart liberals” — not “ flint-hearted bastards.” Trump would be a waterless fish in a party that cares about people.
Now the thin-skinned ass has taken the Gingrich’s ‘Contract’ and dialed the hurt up to 11. Newt’s ‘fuck the people’ plan contained a demand that a major independent auditing firm conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse. The orange malignancy has widened the brief to include the entire government. However, Trump has dropped the independent professional audit requirement and handed the task to a drug-taking South African neo-apartheidist — Elon Musk — a man who revels in barbarity.
Cruella de Vil, working with the Marquis de Sade, would be hard-pressed to devise a more arbitrary, capricious, and hard-hearted scheme to reduce the federal workforce. And it is unlikely they would have designed something so dishonestly incompetent.
America is the world’s most prosperous country. Yet, citizens are not guaranteed healthcare. Sanctimonious politicians kill pregnant women. Families go hungry. Anti-science stupidity kills children. And the minimum wage trails that of other OECD countries. There are many things DC could fix if concern for the general well being motivated politicians. But empathy we will have to wait for a Democratic sweep.
Meanwhile, mean-spirited Republicans rub their hands in demonic delight at the thought of millions of families losing a paycheck.
WTF is the matter with these people?
*Two massive tax cut bills, the Economic Recovery Tax Act (1981) and the Tax Reform Act (1986), did the heavy lifting. The latter was the first bill to lower tax rates on top earners while raising the lowest rate (the one working Americans were paying). Note: Democrats controlled the House then. They must shoulder some of the blame. But let’s also note that, at that time, there were liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats — who would probably be more at home in the other party today.
