Elon Musk listens to US President Donald Trump
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday laid the groundwork for more large-scale layoffs, as downsizing czar Elon Musk pledged that he would move quickly to slash spending. At the first meeting of Trump's cabinet, Musk said he aims to cut the $6.7 trillion budget by $1 trillion this year, an ambitious target that could entail significant disruption of government programs. Trump reiterated his promise to refrain from cutting popular health and retirement benefits that account for nearly half of that total.
"We're not going to touch it," said Trump, whose unprecedented government overhaul has so far fired more than 20,000 workers, frozen foreign aid, and disrupted construction projects and scientific research. But it has not slowed spending so far. According to a Reuters analysis, the government spent 13% more during Trump's first month in office than during the same time last year, largely due to higher interest payments on the debt and rising health and retirement costs incurred by an aging population.
"If this continues, the country will go de facto bankrupt," Musk said at the cabinet meeting, where he wore a black "Make America Great Again" baseball cap and a t-shirt that read "tech support."
Trump is simultaneously pushing Congress to extend the 2017 tax cuts, the signature legislative accomplishment of his first term, set to expire at the end of this year. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the 2017 cuts added $2.5 trillion to the nation's debt -- now $36 trillion -- and that the new cuts could cost more than $5 trillion over a decade.
The layoffs so far have focused on probationary workers who lack full employment protections. Trump's administration is preparing for deeper cuts targeting career employees.
A memo released ahead of the cabinet meeting called for a "significant reduction" but did not specify how many workers should be laid off, beyond the 100,000 of the nation's 2.3 million civilian federal workers who have already taken a buyout or been fired.
Agencies would have to submit plans by March 13, a day before current government funding is due to expire, according to the memo signed by Russell Vought, the White House budget director, and Charles Ezell, acting head of the Office of Personnel Management.
CUTS AT EPA, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Trump said the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, had said he might reduce headcount at that agency by 65%.
The Social Security Administration eliminated two offices this week that oversee civil rights and internal processes, putting 200 workers on leave.
Separately, the Bureau of Prisons has scaled back an incentive program to help retain guards and other workers at understaffed facilities, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, a labor union.
The Interior Department was told on Tuesday that bureaus such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs should prepare plans for workforce reductions ranging from 10% to 40%, an Interior source told Reuters.
Late on Tuesday, Republicans advanced a plan for Trump's tax cuts with a 217-215 vote in the House of Representatives that would cut taxes by $4.5 trillion and reduce spending by up to $2 trillion. They now are considering cuts to health and food aid for the poor, though specifics have yet to emerge.
Some senior members of Trump's administration were surprised by a Saturday email directive to federal workers to justify their jobs. Some agencies told employees to ignore Musk's demand.
Musk, the world's richest person, told the meeting his email was an attempt to find out whether government paychecks were going to actual workers. "We think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead," he said, without providing evidence.
Trump suggested that the roughly 1 million people who did not respond to Musk's email might be at risk. "They are on the bubble," he said.
Twenty-one workers resigned from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in protest on Tuesday, saying they did not want to use their skills to dismantle public services or jeopardize Americans' personal data.
Musk's team has sought to access sensitive payment, health, tax and personnel records, raising privacy and security fears.
Federal judges have questioned the secrecy of DOGE's activities.