Having actually worked in government as an elected official, and in the fire service, I can see both sides to this issue. There are facts here though that cannot be denied. Our Federal Government is bloated beyond the needs. We have a spending problem, added to by the excessively oversized Government Bureaucracy of people (staff), we don’t have a revenue problem. Our Federal workforce needs huge cuts. Until the entire plan comes into focus we really don’t know if those cuts are good or bad. For example, the way the Forest Service is made up as an agency and all the nuances that go with it may be better served by starting over. With rules and regulations the only way to maybe do that is to make what looks like draconian cuts so that the agency as a whole can be rebuilt so in the end we actually have a fully functioning agency that you all have been advocating for. Imagine this happening in the whole of government agency by agency. That’s why it looks so massive and in some examples really crazy. This administration saw what they did wrong in the first term and learned. In this second term they have actually gone in with a plan and have enacted a lot at once. Partially because it has overwhelmed the opposing party to such a degree they don’t know how to respond. It’s much harder to put roadblocks and walls when it appears massive and chaotic. I would just say wait until the whole cake is baked to make absolute opinions on wether it worked or not. What if a lot of these cuts across government created a huge windfall of savings that actually allowed the Forest Service to be funded at full budget to do the job that’s needed across the country and pay its firefighters what they deserve? Food for thought! Politics and Policy is a very messy thing that when done correct nobody is really 100% happy. It’s a very give and take recipe where you have to give up things to get things and only in the end do you really see the result of wether you hit the mark, or not. Cheers!
Absolutely the federal government could be made more efficient and save some money. I’m fairly certain the overwhelming majority would agree with that. The ‘move fast and break things’ mentality that the tech industry is known for does not work in this situation and it’s being proven on an almost daily basis. Just today an email was sent to CDC employees to come back to work, some feds got a similar email, even SCOTUS has pumped the brakes on this. The salaries of the federal workforce are a mere drop in the bucket of the federal budget. If the goal is to streamline government efficiency and save money then it needs to be a bipartisan effort and meet in the aisle to work it out. At the current temperature that’s not going to happen. The results of not doing this in a thought out and calculated manner won’t be truly shown until a catastrophic event happens. Until then it’s going to be nightly news blurbs unless you’re directly effected.
The problem is that your internal bias shows through in your comments. This should not be about party or politics… but it is.
A thoughtful review of government to look for options to reduce the workforce can be achieved in a different way. One which involves a thorough and methodical review and recommendations for action. One which involves reduction in workforce through finding overlaps while protecting critical functions.
It has been done before by other presidents without much fanfare.
What if instead a review was completed and clear goals were stated with a path to get to the goals. If resistance is offered up then you can bring out the sledge hammer. As I said earlier… the sledge hammer is going to create cracks that are not visible but will weaken the foundation.
Waiting for a crappy cake to bake is still waiting on a crappy cake.
“Transgenic” is not “transgender”. Such failures of cognition say much about us.
Thinking people decide to turn themselves inside out reveals complete ignorance of the science of gender diversity based on current knowledge of our gene system. We are no longer in the 1950’s and there is no longer any valid reason to consider that gender is a simple matter restricted to “XX” or “XY”.
What any of this has to do with fire management and defense escapes me. Somehow I don’t think taking a chainsaw to my chicken coop will get me more eggs.
my 2 cents, if the goal is to reduce federal spending why go after something that is such a low percentage of the overall budget ? Another is USAID is 1.2% and is such a global strategy why get rid of it completely? Will be sad when these foreign countries decide to buddy up with their new hero Russia/China/N. Korea who will bring them food and water and say oh by the way now that we are friends can we build a military base here? Those americans abandoned you, trust us now.
Is there fraud and waste sure there is. But get rid of that stuff but like what was said earlier using a sledge hammer instead of a scalpel is gonna cause 3rd order effects we might not see for some time.
The thing that perplexes me the most is if Musk is such a genius why does he resort to such rudimentary means to do the RIF? For a guy who sends rocket ships into space and returns them seems they could find a better way that actually made sense.
Since you mentioned rockets…
I feel it is safe to say that in this situation forestry & range technician losses feel no different to DOGE than a “rapid unplanned disassembly” like tonite’s 2nd Starship failure & self destruct over populated airspace. Hopefully none of the debris hit anyone or anything in the sky or on the ground.
It’s not…
He’s not…
So much for no political bias in conversation.
E O L.
Wow, I thought this was a FF page where we can all disagree and be able to disagree more without being offended. BTW, all of my Fed friends are doing okay burning piles in the snow and DOD guys are still randomly drug tested weekly. It’s clear to see who would sit at the POTUS skiers right during the SOTU address and not clap for anything even if it fits their agenda. Saying that finding any wasted money is of no significance to us? Really? It needs to get worse before it gets better. And for R5 and 21 units, its already getting better especially on the southern border.
It’s not an internal bias, it’s just the facts. Washington D.C. is broke currently beyond repair. Just peace-mealing it bit by bit doesn’t work, it just extends the pain. This administration has 2 years to fix Washington D.C. before the midterms, unless they can keep both houses. Two years in D.C. is like tomorrow. It comes way too fast. Hence, this is why the sledgehammer is happening now. I would make the same argument if the other party was in charge. D.C. needs to be reorganized and the big government bloat needs to be streamlined, period. The American people recognize this in a big way and the 2024 election showed that and elected this President. So, he has a mandate to perform and accomplish his promises, and that includes right sizing our government. This is what the voters want!
I think that is the problem… you cannot recognize your internal bias. Yes we work on a majority rule process. In a successful model the majority would find common ground with the minority to work towards a common sense solution.
The fact that you recognize that there will be another swing of the pendulum in two years speaks volumes. Maybe if the current majority would adopt some of the guiding principles that we use in our work they could be more successful. The first that comes to mind is SMART objectives.
Why go down a road that is not sustainable and is having such grave impacts on the services that we need as a nation?
I suspect your answer will be to plant the flag as far as possible knowing that some ground will be lost. I would offer a different view… Why not take a sensible approach perform in depth analysis and then produce a plan to meet stated goals.
Show the end state and the benefits of getting to that end state and garner support. Yes… a message was sent by the voters, I will refrain from any further discussion on that as it is really off topic, but I will say that opportunities are being lost to capitalize on the results of the elections.
I will stand by my comments… sledge hammers create cracks some seen and unseen. The unseen cracks are the most devastating.
The electoral college “vote” was won with a minority of votes. So any discussion of “mandates” or “majorities” overlooks an organizational quirk that has handed the highest office in the land to the winner of a minority of votes several times, recently.
IMO this should be kept in mind when expressing opinions.
@cdftruckfc nobody is arguing against change or “the mandate”. Its the process brother. Even the supreme court which has a conservative majority has ruled against the current process aka the sledgehammer.
Oh, those SMART objectives being put in play as we speak. He’s been very “Specific” in what he wants to accomplish and 37,000 criminals in his 1st month is very “Timely”.
Your comment about “37k criminals” has 0 relation to with the topic of this thread and 100% a typical talking point used to deflect from the actual issues, like we are attempting to do here.
Must be nice to just run on stellar outstanding citizens everyday. What forest, city, county, unit or dept. is that?
Please show your work because IMO nothing in your reply is a cogent response to WTS110’s post. Thank you.