OPINION:
There was a time in this country when government service was a privilege, not something taken for granted. People served and were willing to sacrifice for the honor of serving the people.
There was a time when it was clear you had to show up to work and demonstrate competency and value. No program or individual was indispensable. Standards were high, and expectations were higher. Ask the folks who worked on the Manhattan Project, the Apollo program or the Civilian Conservation Corps projects.
Those days are long gone, sacrificed at the altar of public employee unions that will stop at nothing to gird their power at the expense of the American people, even if it means jeopardizing the nation’s financial sustainability.
Although the federal government still has many good and necessary public servants, the size, scope and cost of the massive administrative state require a reset to a time when expenditures and staff were more clearly justified.
What the Trump administration is doing with the Department of Government Efficiency is critical for restoring federalism, fortifying the Constitution and devolving power away from Washington.
Sustaining the effort and public support for the cuts required more transparency about the waste, fraud and abuse on the chopping block. Americans need to hear specific examples of what the Trump administration finds daily. The president and Karoline Leavitt have stood before the cameras and read lists of the “crap” we’re paying for, and it has worked. Americans are justifiably incensed and concerned.
The honeymoon is over for President Trump. The press and Democrats are settling on two principal messages: that Republicans will gut Medicaid and that Mr. Trump and Elon Musk are destroying lives by cutting budgets and firing federal workers.
Mr. Trump’s team must make messaging on cuts a daily occurrence. Just a few examples of DOGE progress daily will create a drumbeat that will help buttress the effort over the long term.
Americans appreciate that the government is wracked by waste and inefficiency. Additionally, Democrats and the press don’t understand that government workers — unionized, protected, practically unaccountable — are not a sympathetic party.
Every year, they receive cost-of-living adjustments to their pay and step or grade increases. According to the Congressional Budget Office, federal workers with high school diplomas make 40% more than private-sector workers. Workers with some college education, such as associate degrees, make 38% more. Workers with bachelor’s degrees are 5% ahead of their private-sector counterparts.
Federal employees can retire with 50% pay with as little as 20 years of service. The average American lives until about 80, meaning the taxpayer carries the legacy costs for millions of federal workers for decades.
Federal employees have trust funds equaling more than $1.2 trillion for those legacy costs. The cost of the federal workforce, not including contractors, is an estimated $317 billion annually. For context, the entire Social Security Trust Funds at the end of fiscal year 2024 was $2.7 trillion for every recipient nationwide.
Here is another bonus the unions have scored for government workers: They pay less into Social Security than do private-sector workers.
This imbalance, caused by the administrative state alone, is a massive problem for a free market economy. If you live in a socialist or communist country, the government is the best game in town. However, America’s success depends on the people and the private sector not being weighed down by a bloated government it can’t afford.
DOGE is a bold and unprecedented strategy driven by the White House, but it requires more press conferences featuring lists of garbage Americans are paying for, more long-failed programs that still sap our resources, and more evidence of workers who don’t deserve the privilege of serving the public.
More data means more cuts and resiliency against the critics circling the wagons.
The American people are ready for it, and the Trump administration should embrace aggressive transparency by telling the public as much as possible as this process continues.
So, more waste, please, Mr. President. Shock us. Surprise us. Outrage us. Whatever you do, keep telling us more.
• Tom Basile hosts “America Right Now” on Newsmax TV.
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