By Ben Banchs | Business Manager | LIUNA Local 1776

February 13, 2025

Mandeville, LA - Before we get into the whole Veteran topic let's just say it...many of the things the Trump administration is currently doing should not come as a surprise to anyone. He told us exactly what he was going to do. However, the "Fork in the Road" offer that seeks to gut the federal workforce was not one of them. Right after the "fork you" email offer came out, most people ran to their respective corner of the political boxing ring. Many Trump supporters screamed "hell yeah" in response to the cuts while opponents stood mouth agape in disbelief and loudly voicing opposition. But who's correct? The reality is both sides are. The federal government could probably use a little trimming, but the way that Trump and his acolyte Musk are going about it is unnecessarily chaotic, illegal, and to some extent disconnected from reality.

This is not the first time that a massive adjustment of the federal civil service workforce has taken place. Bill Clinton took an ax to the federal workforce back in the early 90's when he came to office in an effort to streamline the workforce and reduce the deficit. At the time, the federal workforce was around 2.1 million employees-strong, not much different than today. By the time it was all said and done, he reduced it by 273,000 (13%), which is significant. The majority of reductions came from the Department of Defense (DoD), the Veterans Administration (VA), the Department of Transportation (DOT), and Health and Human Services (HHS).

Here's the difference, Clinton's reduction efforts came as a result of a bi-partisan act passed by Congress called the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994. In other words, legislation was proposed and both the House and Senate deliberated on the measure, which eventually cleared both chambers and was sent to Clinton and then signed into law. The Act also spelled out in detail how the reductions were going to be enacted, primarily through attrition (abolishing certain positions as incumbents left the workforce) and early retirement buyouts under the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP) program. In other words, the Clinton administration had legal standing to reduce the work force, and it also had bi-partisan Congressional support. That's not to say there wasn't opposition to the job cuts, but at least it was a deliberate process.

The way Trump and Musk are going about it is not only illegal, but also ridiculous. More importantly, if the Trump administration fails to follow federal law and regulation when it comes to reducing the work force, there will likely be thousands of appeals and lawsuits filed by federal employees who were dismissed without being provided due process, eventually resulting in potential reinstatements and back-pay settlements as well as legal fees to attorneys representing these employees, which in the end would negate any cost savings that would have resulted from reducing the workforce. This is because the federal government isn't Twitter, as much as Musk and others want to act like it is.

Aside from the chaos and partisan politics that are plaguing the current "fork you" offer, here's the problem I and others have with all of this. Because this has become such a hot button political topic, and because many Trump supporters, including Republican politicians, follow him blindly never daring to question what he's doing, there's a disturbing trend taking place where every federal employee is being labeled...pardon my French...as a lazy sack of shit moocher, feet propped up on their desk or sitting at home in their jammies eating Bon-Bons, suckling tax dollars from the government teet and offering absolutely nothing in return. Well, that's just bullshit. Are there folks like this in the workforce? Of course, there's people like this in every sector, whether they work for the government or at Twitter or at Trump Tower or at McDonalds. Lazy employees don't only work for the federal government, but to the extent that they do then they should be shown the door, I don't have a problem with that. In reality, the vast majority of federal employees do their job and do it well, and the vast majority provide necessary services, like Air Traffic Controllers, or National Guard Dual Status Technicians. 

Now, regarding Veterans...before Trump ran the first time in 2016, there was one area where most could agree, and that was Veterans. To some extent, most still agree that Veterans should be respected and honored for their service. Great, I can get on board with that. I'm a Veteran, and like me, most are ok with just flying under the radar, and if someone thanks me for my service to this great country, I always say that it was my privilege to serve. Here's the point, a full 30%-plus of the federal civil service workforce is made up of military Veterans. I just ask that you think about that next time you hear anyone, whether it be Trump or a friend or neighbor or Musk, shit on federal employes. Remember, 1 out of every 3 feds are those same Veterans you claim to support. And, regardless of whether they are Veterans or not, before you go full "all federal employees suck" remember that they are no different than you or me. They are your neighbors, and they have husbands, wives, children, a mortgage, bills, they get sick, their cars break down just like yours does, they're paying the same for eggs as you are, they are not faceless assholes stealing your tax dollars. And, also, many of them are the ones that stay behind and run towards the hurricane, fire, flood, whatever other disaster plagues your community when you are running away from it.

Remember Hurricane Katrina? Yeah, that one. While the majority of SE Louisiana was running away from the storm, it was federal employees like me and thousands of others, the majority of us Veterans, that were wadding through water up to our necks saving those that stayed behind, or dangling from helicopters picking people off of roofs, or making sure people had food/water/ice, doing whatever we could to secure our towns and make sure the city of New Orleans and its surrounding areas wouldn't devolved any further into something that resembled a war zone more than it did a city in the United States. And, yes, it was guys and gals like me that for months picked up the remains of nearly 2000 of our fellow citizens that perished in the storm.

So, my advice is that you think before you go around parroting talking points that are, essentially, bullshit. Not every federal employee is a slacker. I personally know thousands of federal employees that work for the National Guard throughout the country, many of them good friends to the point that I consider them family. 90% or more are Veterans. Many of them are not just good at what they do, they are some of the best people you could ever know. And there are legit heroes among them. Some of these folks have served in combat not once but multiple times in the last 20 years, some almost dying because they were hit by an IED or received mortar fire or because they were trying to rescue a hurricane victim in Louisiana or a fire victim in California. I implore you and anyone else who reads this, don't be an asshole. It's time to start taking politics out of the equation. I'll agree with you that we could probably use a few reductions in the federal workforce if you agree not to paint everyone that works for the government with the same broad political brush, and also, that there is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and this "fork you" email is not the right way to do it.