US Government Can’t Afford Federal Workers, Can Afford Endless Wars
The BBC breathlessly covers the 'sad' fact that the Trump administration issued layoff notices to over 4,000 federal workers during a government shutdown. A sober reminder, apparently, of fiscal prudence. Yet, in the very same fiscal year, the US military budget hovered around $700 billion—a figure that consistently tops the next ten countries combined. While federal employees struggle to pay
rent, Congress reliably greenlights endless intervention overseas. Recall the bipartisan swiftness to approve multi-billion dollar aid packages to Ukraine and Israel—often with negligible oversight (AIPAC, for instance, reported spending nearly $3.5 million on lobbying in 2023 alone, according to OpenSecrets.org, influencing these very decisions). One might wonder if the government only 'can't
afford' its own citizens when there isn't a war to fund or a foreign ally to arm. How many federal jobs could be saved with just one less fighter jet?