To the Editor:
I read David McKane’s letter published Feb. 21. He encouraged a previous letter writer to “Get a grip and read or watch some factual news.” Mr. McKane has a right to his point of view. I hope he realizes that the rest of us have a right to ours too.
I personally believe the actions of Elon Musk through DOGE are indeed cutting federal employment (and thereby costs), but most cutting is not being done with any proof of actual waste, fraud or even inefficiencies. There has been little transparency about why the various job cuts have been made (other than the employees have been in their positions less than two years, and/or they are not Trump acolytes).
Musk and DOGE have taken a chainsaw approach to pruning the backyard bushes. They have not taken the time to gather enough data so as to target cuts which might improve efficiency. They just do blanket layoffs without a good analysis, like the layoffs they made at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and then had to scramble trying to rehire the employees the following day.
I believe most citizens would agree that some cutting is needed and that government, just like any other business, can be more efficient. However, when a company reduces staff or cuts expenses it at least analyzes the potential impacts, before diving into the deep end.
I wonder how Mr. McKane will feel if a terrorist attack happens in the U.S. and it might have been prevented if 405 positions at Homeland Security had not been cut. Will Mr. McKane, like the Shakespeare line he quoted, “not protest too much” if tragedies happen.
Like Mr. McKane, I pay federal tax too. If DOGE was doing a significant analysis of how our tax dollars were spent before trashing large portions of agencies approved by congress, I might be able to accept their reasoning. Since tax rates are set by legislative action, I do not believe Musk, DOGE or these cuts will reduce my taxes. They will also not reduce the federal deficit if the proposed tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations get passed.
So, I do protest the way Elon Musk and DOGE operate. If we really wanted to cut costs, perhaps DOGE could review the multibillion-dollar contracts that Elon Musk has with the government and maybe even add in a clause so when one of his SpaceX rockets explodes he pays for it out-of-pocket. He can certainly afford it.
As a US taxpayer, I don’t want to pay for his failures, but alas it looks like we will all pay because of Musk and DOGE for years to come.
–Dave Guile, Keizer