To the editor: If the chief executive of any private company were to conduct a “downsizing” as chaotically and cruelly as Elon Musk has as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, he would be fired. (“Key agencies tell workers not to respond to Musk email demanding to know what they did last week,” Feb. 23)
Consider Musk’s record: Indiscriminate mass firings of employees without regard to qualifications or performance; absurd demands that Pentagon supervisors produce lists within days of thousands of civilian employees to be fired; insulting requirements that government employees explain what they have accomplished in the last week, under threat of termination if they don’t; and clueless terminations of employees who safeguard our nuclear arsenal (oops).
In the face of criticism of this scorched-earth destruction of the federal workforce (will anyone ever want to work for the government again?), President Trump and his wingman Musk mug for the crowd with chainsaws and send out demeaning cartoons on X oblivious to the anxiety, fears and uncertainty of each and every one of those fired employees.
No normal CEO would ever survive such a show of incompetence and cruelty.
Brian Gough, Santa Barbara
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To the editor: I along with many other Americans believe that we as a country overspend through our government. So, I appreciate the close look at how our tax dollars are spent.
But as the saying goes, don’t use a cannon to kill a mosquito. Careful, you may be seriously affecting people’s lives.
Carlos Mestas, Camarillo
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To the editor: There have been several letters to the editor recently asking why there has been so much outrage over the Trump/Musk downsizing of the federal bureaucracy.
In 1993, President Clinton inherited a bloated bureaucracy after the end of the Cold War. His administration systematically performed a review of federal agencies and departments. It reduced the federal workforce by 400,000 people over several years.
There was no hue and cry because it was done in a thoughtful, considered and responsible manner.
Few people would disagree that the federal system needs to be overhauled. What so many are objecting to is the Trump administration’s slash-and-burn approach, which is bound to result in immense collateral damage.
But inflicting such damage appears to be the goal of the current president.
Gabrielle Nurre, Albuquerque
