Elon Musk fears layoffs and resignations of thousands of executives

The United States will be implementing its own “chainsaw” in the public sector, a term adopted by Argentina’s President, Javier Miley, and it pleases Elon Musk, a self-confessed proud fan of the Miley method. Was. The Tesla boss this week hit back at those who claim he does not have enough powers to make the cuts to the US public sector that Donald Trump has handed him. Far from all defeatism, Musk in an article published by ‘The Wall Street Journal’ has predicted a future departure from the administration through the resignation or dismissal of thousands of employees.

In that text, half signed by Vivek Ramaswamy, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk argues that voluntary dismissals are a very viable way to slim down state and federal departments. In particular, according to the authors of the article, it is enough to eliminate the option of teleworking to create unbearable conditions for thousands of executives.

“We would welcome these departures once we impose the requirement to go to the office five days a week,” say two confidants of the incoming President of the United States.

Musk has been leading by example in this regard for years, given that he has eliminated remote work at companies he owns at both Tesla and X, the old Twitter.

Regarding the dismissal of personnel working in the administration, Musk is far from seeing an obstacle to the rights enjoyed by everyone who has opted for it. Jobs through public tenderGentleman does not go so far as to deny the existence of this shield, but he clearly limits its scope: “to protect employees in the event they become victims of political reprisals.”

When these motivations are not present, and the adjustment is expressed as “staff reductions that do not affect specific employees”, who can be indicated by their political affiliation, the law allows dismissal.

In general, there would thus be room for Trump to sign orders that would lead to large-scale layoffs in the administration or, failing that, allow entire state agencies to be moved outside Washington’s borders.

Both Musk and Ramaswamy have predicted that this next wave of firings and resignations will not be judicially overturned, alleging both have a conflict of interest. To be a judge and party to such decisionsBoth remember that the Department of Government Efficiency is not integrated into the organizational chart of the official institutions of the US government. In other words, none of them have the status of a public servant, much less the status of a civil servant.

With this, Musk has promised to cut spending by “two trillion dollars” from about seven of the US budget to eliminate the huge deficit facing the country.

Total US budget spending reached $6.1 trillion in 2023 (it will reach $6.7 trillion in 2024, although these calculations are based on 2023, which has already closed). Of these, 3.8 billion are “mandatory”, i.e. imposed by law: Medicare (public health care for retirees), Medicaid (health insurance for low-income people)Social Security pensions, unemployment benefits, assistance for low-income families, food stamps, and other similar items. All these expenses are required by law and cannot be abolished except by some other law.

Congress could approve changes to these items (except pensions) with a simple majority in both houses, but Republicans would ultimately have a smaller margin in the House of Representatives: perhaps 220 to 215, which would remain at 217 to 215 over Trump’s appointees. Many representatives come forward as ministers. And, knowing the historical indiscipline in their ranks, it seems almost impossible to approve a law to cut social assistance: all Republican votes will be “decisive”, and the ads are blaming them for being the “key vote” that Thousands of citizens have been left American without any fixed social assistance, in just two years, to remain frozen until the next election.

Trump already faced huge problems in 2017 for dismantling Barack Obama’s health reform due to internal rebellions, and Republicans then had a majority of 47 deputies. Now with a majority of only 2 votes, the political price they will have to pay for cutting into the ‘working class’ will be unbearable for practically all their representatives, especially in the most competitive constituencies.

This also includes interest payments on debt: 659,000 million in 2023, rising to 949,000 million in 2024, and growing at a good pace with the steady increase in debt recorded in recent years and the rise in interest rates . ,

The only thing the government can unilaterally cut is so-called “discretionary spending,” that is, items that are not required by law: $1.7 trillion in 2023. For starters, that figure is already much lower than Musk promised to cut. But practically half of that class is dedicated to defense: 805,000 million in 2023 and growing at 7% annually. Getting Republican representatives and senators to approve cuts to military spending is something no one thinks about.