Reap the Whirlwind: DOGE, Chaos, and Bureaucracy

Since January, when President Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began slashing the federal workforce—over 30,000 probationary employees gone, agencies turned upside down—these headlines have fueled a wave of sympathy. Federal workers, we’re told, are victims of a ruthless purge, their lives upended by an uncaring administration. The press can’t get enough of it. Politicians have made stump speeches calling for action and people to ‘take to the streets.’

But wait a minute. I thought I remembered something about…

Ah, right. On January 20, 2021—President Biden’s first day—the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline was revoked and thousands of jobs were gone with the stroke of a pen.

Cut jobs, Break Careers, No Regrets

On January 20, 2021, Biden stated, “The decision is about jobs—good-paying, union jobs—but we have to build back better with clean energy.” Eleven thousand workers—pipefitters, welders, truckers—were out of work overnight, left with nothing but a hazy promise of green jobs someday. No safety net, no apologies. The President argued that he was actually promoting, ‘good-paying, union jobs.’ Yet, Terry O’Sullivan, General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, which has over 500,000 members stated clearly:

The left and media outlets praised this action. With headlines ranging from hyperbolic claims that climate change was being thwarted to unsubstantiated notions that the job losses were mythical and that killing one of the largest construction projects in the country could not possibly mean anyone actually lost their jobs.

The Austin-American-Statesman ran the fact-check:

Their conclusion: “Half-true.” Their reasoning for that label? “The 11,000 and $2 billion figures cited […] are estimates published by the company, but most of the jobs would be temporary.”

Yes, that is correct. Construction jobs are temporary. They are not guaranteed a cushy salary, a pension, or the ability to complain about their workload while not even having to commute into the office. The jobs of most people, demand that there actually be work to merit their employment.

If you cancel a construction contract, they go from having work – for the duration of the project – to having no work at all. However, to call these jobs ‘temporary’ would be like saying an accountant is only a ‘temporary’ worker because tax season comes just once each year.

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Even after ‘build back better’ put construction workers out of a job, the left gleefully supported making private, union or non-union, and even public workers lose their jobs for a new reason.

The vaccine mandates arrived in October 2021. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated,

“If a small percentage of people choose not to get vaccinated and lose their jobs, that’s their choice.”

— WH Press, October 7, 2021

Biden, that same day, justified discharging over 8,000 military personnel:

“We’re requiring active-duty military to be vaccinated… It’s about being patriotic.”

— WH Press, October 7, 2021

By October 20, 2021 Jen Psaki had become even more blunt,

“If people choose not to abide by the vaccine mandates, they’re choosing not to work...”

— WH Press, October 20, 2021

Were the Senators, such as Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders screaming in the streets? No.

Was Congressman Hakeem Jeffries calling for a ‘pause’ to determine how these policies were affecting Americans? Again, No.

In fact, even before becoming President, the left made their view of workers being forced out of jobs quite clear,

“Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake!”

— Biden Campaign, December 30, 2019

Tens of thousands lost jobs—pipeline workers, soldiers, private employees—yet the administration barely blinked. You didn’t see those stories splashed across the news. You saw so-called fact checkers spinning people’s livelihoods as ‘only temporary.’

The Media Clears the Air

On February 9, 2025, 60 Minutes profiled a “fired federal worker” who they described as a mid-level Department of Education manager. The interview saw the worker paint President Trump’s cuts as devastating. They did not mention the humble employee had been an active partisan for the Kamala Harris campaign. Nor did they mention that the individual actually had already started a private-sector job with an even higher salary.

On both sides of the profile, headlines like those featured at the start of the article have inundated every mainstream outlet. Countless ‘voices’ have been featured on television and podcasts.

The Media has finally cleared the air – They do care about workers, if and when it fits their narrative to care.

A World unto Itself

The federal civilian workforce sits at 2.3 million (OPM, 2023, adjusted), plus 3.5 million contractors and grantees (Brookings, 2020, updated)—nearly 6 million total. Average compensation? $151,000 ($106,000 salary, $45,000 benefits; OPM, Heritage, 2023).

Compare that to the private-sector median: $66,000 (BLS, 2023). That’s 2.3 times higher.

A GS-7 clerical worker in DC, no degree needed, starts at $52,000 and hits $80,000-$100,000 in a decade at the latest with automatic bumps. A private-sector admin assistant? $39,000 average, maybe $45,000 after years (BLS, 2023).

A GS-7 Authorized Representative, commonly called an MSHA Inspector, starts at $37,301. As a ‘technical’ role they are promoted by a ladder from GS-7 to GS-9 and then to GS-11 before falling into the ordinary promotion schedule. What does that mean? It means that inside of 6 years the MSHA Inspector who started at $37,000 can be making over six figures. From my personal experience talking to MSHA inspectors – in a very low cost of living market – all of them indicated they hit over $100,000 within their first 5 years of employment.

With such a lucrative advancement schedule you might ask, “What is the basis for that pay growth?” The answer – time in service. That’s it. Stay in for 5 years, TRIPLE your salary.

But wait, there’s more—At the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, employees average $235,910 (Pew, January 7, 2025) to regulate markets—private financial analysts do pretty well, but the range of $110,000-$130,000 means on average a private analyst is make less than half, and their pay is tied to results (Glassdoor, 2024).

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Then there’s DC itself—a city of just 690,000 residents (Census, 2023 estimate), yet a powerhouse of entrenched interests. Its federal workforce numbers 162,000 within city limits, comprising 43.3% of the local workforce (USAFacts, December 2024), with an additional 328,000 federal employees across the broader metro area—a figure that excludes tens of thousands of contractors tied to the public payroll.

Over 1,500 registered NGOs (IRS nonprofit data, 2023) and an estimated 300-400 lobbying firms (OpenSecrets, based on 12,000+ registered lobbyists in 2024) further define the landscape, channeling billions in influence along K Street.

What does that makeup get us—in 2024, approximately 447,000 registered voters—down slightly from 467,000 in 2020 (DC Board of Elections)—cast about 403,000 ballots, with 90% (roughly 362,000) backing Democrats (Politico, January 30, 2025).

Ninety Percent. 9-0.

By comparison, New York City, far from a republican hub voted 68% Democrat, 33% Republican (aggregated across the boroughs).

DC is an outlier, even by ‘blue’ standards. 9 people in 10 voting in lockstep.

And why wouldn’t they?

In addition to preferential pay, non-existence accountability, and pensions the private sector only dreams of—33% of full-time public workers in DC are remote. 90% (once again) are authorized for some version of telework, remote, or hybrid operations. In contrast, the Office of Management and Budget indicates that across the federal civilian workforce ONLY 54% are fully on-site.

To be fair, many federal employees work tirelessly—air traffic controllers keeping skies safe, or park rangers preserving public lands, and border agents working tirelessly despite ridicule from the very administration whose policies made their jobs harder. But the system’s structure—high pay, low accountability, and widespread telework—too often shields mediocrity, leaving taxpayers footing the bill for a bureaucracy that’s grown unchecked.

The situation is so bad, that even Washington, DC’s Mayor Muriel Bowser, has repeatedly called for federal workers to return to in-person work, arguing that widespread telework has hollowed out the city’s economy. With 162,000 federal civilian employees in DC proper (USAFacts, December 2024)—43.3% of the local workforce—and roughly 328,000 in the metro area, their absence from downtown offices has hit hard. Pre-pandemic, federal agencies occupied a third of DC’s office space (Politico, January 20, 2023), driving foot traffic for hospitality, retail, and transit. Post-COVID, remote work left these sectors reeling, prompting Bowser to take a stand.

Accountability Uproar – The Real World Intrudes

When the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, emailed federal workers on February 22, 2025, asking for a five-bullet-point summary of their prior week’s accomplishments, the reaction was swift and furious. The directive, sent through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with a Monday midnight deadline, sparked outrage across agencies. Unions like the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) decried it as “cruel and disrespectful,” with president Everett Kelley vowing to challenge any resulting firings (NPR, February 22, 2025). The National Treasury Employees Union called it “unamerican” (CNN, February 23, 2025). Federal workers, already reeling from 30,000+ probationary layoffs, flooded social media with confusion and defiance, some citing orders from Trump-appointed agency heads not to reply. The backlash painted a simple request as an existential affront.

On February 22nd, CNN achieved peak disconnect. An alleged federal employee appeared on CNN, smile on her face, to decry having to respond by midnight on Monday. She said she could not possibly get together an email with five whole bullet points in only 48-hours.

If you watch the video, CNN’s reporter looks on with a dour expression. Meanwhile the smiling employee declares, “I felt absolutely infuriated….” Why? Because she received a, “demand to provide a response within 48 hours.”

The clip above is 42 seconds long. In that time, she could of typed out the requisite response and sent it. Her own poor use of time, just like the thousands of government workers who were able to protest in DC—during business hours, shows just how spoiled these ‘workers’ are.

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In the private sector, such resistance looks comical. Workers face regular reviews—quarterly or yearly—where results, not tenure, keep you employed. Only 32% of federal employees see promotions as merit-based (FEVS, 2023), unlike the private world, where raises average a hard-won 3% (BLS, 2023) and security isn’t guaranteed. In contrast, just 0.06% of federal step increases are denied (Heritage, 2016).

As a boss, I would routinely send emails to my staff asking, “what’s the status of your workload?” “Meeting tomorrow, be ready to present current work-in-progress.”

A five-bullet email is routine; calling it “dehumanizing” (Reuters, February 11, 2025) shows a disconnect glaring to anyone outside DC’s bubble.

Why Media Suddenly Cares

The media’s abrupt concern for federal workers under President Trump’s DOGE stands in stark contrast to their silence during Biden’s job cuts. What’s changed? Early DOGE reviews, may offer a clue: federal agencies like USAID have been quietly bankrolling mainstream outlets for years.

A 2023 USAID FOIA request, resurfaced on in January 2025, revealed $1.2 million funneled to CNN via cooperative agreements in 2022 alone. USAID provided grants to the BBC and Al Jazeera, with figures like $500 million being revealed.

This isn’t chump change.

USAID’s multi-billion dollar budget includes “public diplomacy” line items—code for shaping narratives—that DOGE now threatens to slash (State Department, 2024). The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, has run 17 pieces since January 20, 2025, decrying DOGE’s “assault on workers” (Post archives), while CNN paints bureaucrats as martyrs.

Yet during Biden’s Keystone cancellation—11,000 private jobs gone in a moment, or after untold thousands of military personnel were discharged over vaccines, the media did not seem to care at all. The more the DOGE audits reveal the more one can speculate as to ‘why media suddenly cares’.

Government agencies spend big on premium media subscriptions—$34 million to Politico, including $8.2 million in 2024 for Politico Pro (USASpending.gov); $26 million to The New York Times from HHS alone; and $19.5 million to AP from the U.S. Agency for Global Media (The Daily Caller, February 7, 2025). The EPA shelled out $500,000 yearly on Politico subscriptions until Administrator Lee Zeldin axed them (February 11, 2025).

With DOGE audits exposing and thereby threatening this flow, media execs face a reckoning—ad revenues are already tight (NYT, January 15, 2025).

The question presents itself—Does the media actually care about workers, or do they just see the latest slate of cuts as opportunity to try and stop greater financial reforms that will adversely affect their own bottom line. You decide.

Hard Work and No Tears

The average taxpayer makes $66,000 (BLS, 2023), works hard for raises, hustles after customers, and spends long-nights innovating—no cushy guarantees.

We’re footing the bill for a $151,000-per-head bureaucracy that’s ballooned to 15 cabinet departments (up from 7 in 1961; Volcker Alliance, 2017) and 71 leadership layers.

DC’s 90% Democratic vote backed a party that dumped Keystone workers and soldiers without a second thought—now they’re shocked the axe swung their way?

For those of us in the real world, sympathy’s hard to muster. This bureaucracy’s been coddled too long—high pay, low accountability, selective media cheerleading. For decades, DC’s federal bureaucracy has sown a partisan storm, indifferent to people, industries, and the fallout of its policies. Reap the whirlwind.

Actual Solutions for Actual Achievers

For workers, business owners, and entrepreneurs facing real-world challenges like contract disputes, employee evaluations, intellectual property protection, and regulatory red tape—I get it.

You’re navigating a system that often feels stacked against you.

You need an attorney who understands your fight, works as hard as you do, and can deliver actual, practical legal solutions.

Reach out to jmoore@princelaw.com or info@moorelegalcounsel.com.

Let’s talk about how we can keep you moving forward.

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