Tuesday,
February 18, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 25
by Tim Swarens
Losing a job is hard. The severance package often includes fear, anxiety, a sense of betrayal − and anger that the sacrifices you made and the good work you did weren’t appreciated.
The only two panic attacks I’ve had in six decades of living both hit within five days of my unexpected layoff notice in 2019. I had read the research on the mental and physical health consequences and the financial outcomes for men in their 50s who were laid off. Suffice to say, they’re not good.
So, I do have empathy for the thousands of federal workers who were notified last week that their services are no longer needed. Being laid off, in a word, sucks.
I know also that layoffs are often necessary, no matter how painful. Companies fighting for survival, as my former and current employer was in 2019, must make hard choices.
US may face a ‘debt death spiral’
The federal government, after decades of bipartisan fiscal mismanagement, is now at the point where hard decisions must be made to avert even more painful consequences for all Americans in the not-too-distant future.
Let’s look at the numbers: Our government ran a deficit in the last fiscal year of $1.8 trillion. (That starts with a T, and it stands for trouble.)
Over the years, we’ve accumulated a national debt that now exceeds $36 trillion. A bit of simple math: Last year alone we added a hefty 5% to the total debt that America has accumulated in its 248-year history. That is not sustainable.
It’s why financial experts such as Ray Dalio, founder of the Bridgewater investment firm, say our nation is heading toward a “debt death spiral.”
It’s also why honest Democrats such as Jon Lovett, a former aide to President Barack Obama, have acknowledged that President Donald Trump and cost-cutter in chief Elon Musk are fixing problems that should have been addressed long ago.
“Honestly, some of this is pretty annoying because it’s some of the stuff we should’ve done,” Lovett said on the “Pod Save America” podcast. “You could do some of this.”
Maybe they should have. And maybe Americans should know what they’ve been paying for all these years.
The average federal employee makes almost $40,000 a year more than the typical American worker − $106,382 versus $66,621. And the value of federal employee benefits far outpaces the private sector, including a generous pension system that most employers had to abandon decades ago.
There’s another, largely unspoken, benefit, according to FEDweek: “The federal government has other perks like job security as it is very difficult to get fired as a federal employee.”
At least it was “very difficult” until last week.
Size of federal workforce has grown substantially
The number of federal employees also has increased steadily for years even as the government continues to pile up debt. The federal workforce of 2.4 million, excluding the Postal Service and the military, has grown almost 30% since 2000.
Does anyone believe that the quality of government services has improved 30% over that time? That − the return on investment for taxpayers − should be the point in hiring and firing, especially for a government that can’t pay its bills and faces a financial disaster if dramatic changes aren’t made.
Our leaders needed to ask long ago: What is truly essential? How much government can we afford? How do we cut the annual deficit to a sustainable level?
Dalio recommends cutting the deficit to 3% of gross domestic product; we’re at 6.28%.
I have empathy for the federal workers who already have lost their jobs and for those who may suffer a similar fate in the weeks ahead.
But I have even more concern for my children and grandchildren and for the millions of Americans whose quality of life will suffer immeasurably if our government can’t learn to better manage our money.
Trump and Musk are admittedly imperfect drivers for this transformation. It’s better, however, to have a bad driver who turns the car around before plunging off a cliff than one who believes the law of gravity no longer applies.
Author is deputy opinion editor of USA TODAY.
