Longest Shutdown Ever Reveals U.S. Could Stand To Fire A Lot Of Federal Workers
One thing the shutdown seems to show is that there may very well be quite a few federal employees America could do without.One thing the shutdown seems to show is that there may very well be quite a few federal employees America could do without.Democrats brush off pressure from federal workers’ union to end government shutdown
Senate Democrats have brushed off pressure from the nation’s largest union of federal workers after the organization put pressure on lawmakers to end the ongoing government shutdown.
'It’s time for our leaders to start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike.'
As the shutdown enters its fifth week, the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800,000 workers, called on both parties to abandon “partisan spin” and instead take action to ensure federal employees do not miss another paycheck.
“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” Everett Kelley, president of the AFGE, stated. “It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.”
Republicans previously proposed a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government until November 21, but Democrats repeatedly blocked it.
“When the folks who serve this country are standing in line for food banks after missing a second paycheck because of this shutdown, they aren’t looking for partisan spin,” Kelley continued. “They’re looking for the wages they earned. The fact that they’re being cheated out of it is a national disgrace.”
“It’s time for our leaders to start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike,” he added.
Yet CNN reported that Democratic lawmakers “appeared to be unmoved” by the AFGE’s demands, despite more than one million federal workers going unpaid.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) stated that the AFGE’s comments had “a lot of impact,” noting that the union has “been our friends and we’ve worked with them over the years.” However, he told CNN, “I’m not seeing any change in position at this time.”
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Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said, “I work very closely with [the AFGE]. That matters to me. But the issue that I’ve always been focused on, that I’ve shared with y’all is, is a deal, a deal? And the AFGE would not want us to cut a deal and then have Trump fire a bunch of people next week. If we cut a deal and then he did that, they would come to us and say, ‘What the hell were you guys thinking?’”
The AFGE filed a lawsuit in September against the Trump administration to block any efforts to fire federal workers furloughed amid the shutdown.
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Career feds act like they’re the ones running the country
It shouldn’t have to be said, but here we are: No, it is not normal for federal employees — whether career staff, political appointees, or otherwise — to defy the direction of the president of the United States.
It doesn’t matter which party is in power. It doesn’t matter if you disagree with the president on a certain policy. Short of a murderous dictatorship or truly Constitution-threatening administration (and regardless of what they say on Bluesky, this isn’t that), the powers of the executive branch are vested in a president. All federal employees work for the president and have a duty to the American people to see their will enacted through each new administration.
Those who are fearful of losing their coveted and protected government jobs are gnashing their teeth at the sight of real accountability.
You wouldn’t know it, however, watching the second Trump administration.
Amid the streamlining of the federal government, many federal employees have taken aim at Trump’s policies mandated by the American people. Some may actually be motivated by their understanding of the Constitution or their love of country. But given the years of malfeasance in the Beltway, few deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Most are federal employees looking to save their comfortable jobs and pampered skin. These employees are so entrenched that they believe they are entitled to their jobs on the taxpayers’ dime — with one recently going as far as to claim that the Trump administration shows “disrespect” to federal employees.
Entitlement runs deep
Their resistance goes beyond Trump-era deregulation. Many of these same employees continue to complain about returning to the office after COVID-era stay-at-home orders — something the private sector largely resumed years ago. They claim that going back to their federal workplace is an “arbitrary punishment.”
Worse, the corporate left-wing media is attempting to spin the lack of resources at these bloated offices on the Trump administration, as if the previous president hadn’t allowed wanton remote work.
At the center of this bureaucratic backlash is President Trump’s push to reinstate Schedule F — a policy that would reclassify certain federal employees to make them more accountable to the executive by placing them more directly under the president’s purview.
Naturally, the federal employees ringing alarm bells about this policy are the same ones who want to retain the litany of job protections not afforded to people in the private sector. Redesignating certain staff as Schedule F employees ensures that those working in the government aren’t phoning it in and collecting a paycheck for decades on end.
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This isn’t a new problem. Both Trump administrations have faced internal resistance from the civil service. But so did the Biden administration. Though Joe Biden didn’t see nearly as much resistance as Trump, the scenarios were just as egregious.
Arguably the most high-profile issue that spurred federal workers to buck Biden was Israel’s war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas after the deadly anti-Semitic attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. Some federal employees didn’t just protest the Biden administration’s stance on Israel’s war outside the White House; they staged a walkout in support of the war-fighting Islamic terrorists who hate America. A U.S. airman even immolated himself in protest.
These instances underscore a significant problem facing the federal government: federal employees who believe themselves both above the policies of the presidents they serve and more knowledgeable than the American people who decide our leadership.
It doesn’t matter which party or president is in power — those who are fearful of losing their coveted and protected government jobs are gnashing their teeth at the sight of real accountability.
When bureaucrats act like they’re above democratic accountability, they not only weaken presidential authority, but they also jeopardize the nation’s credibility on the world stage. In doing so, they erode the trust Americans place in their government.
While it’s imperative that federal workers speak out in the face of actual constitutional danger from any administration that seeks to upend our nation, the actions undertaken by federal employees in the current and previous administrations severely run the risk of the American people viewing all federal workers as boys and girls who cry wolf.
Perhaps some of these individual revolts are emotional reactions to perceived injustices or policy blunders. It’s tempting to see a pattern in their occurrences and the media lionization of the malcontents. But wisdom says never to attribute to malice what you can to incompetence.
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