You would think, given Elon Musk’s apparent disgust for government waste, that he would be thrilled to see staffers who have dedicated their careers to making things within the federal government work better. But, according to Wired, he and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency have opted instead to just fire them unceremoniously and abandon their projects to streamline how the government functions.
Per Wired, Musk’s chainsaw-style of cutting has effectively cost the General Services Administration (GSA) and United States Digital Service (USDS) about 200 technologists—including at least 90 at 18F, a digital services agency started during the Obama administration that has quietly helped update and improve systems throughout the government, who got let go via email on a Saturday morning.
What were those technologists working on that Musk and his crew of college-age edgelords found to be so wasteful or corrupt? Well, among those who lost their job last week were the staffers who built IRS Direct File program, which finally gave taxpayers a way to file their taxes directly to the government without paying a third-party to play middleman—a decision that’ll likely make it harder to roll that service out to more people.
Others were working at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs to build a system to more efficiently process passport applications. Another group of employees were helping the National Weather Service (NWS) update Weather.gov to make its API more stable and accessible for weather apps and other services. Technologists from other departments have also been pushed out, including ones working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who were upgrading the agency’s Disease Surveillance system that tracks pathogens and illness trends.
If Musk’s team took a look at the track record of 18F, they’d see one of the most effective and efficient offices around that has fudamentally changed the way citizens interact with the federal government. In addition to the IRS Direct File system, 18F built Login.gov, which unified access to multiple major government services through a single sign-in. It fixed Healthcare.gov, which had a disastrous rollout but is now an extremely navigable platform for accessing healthcare options. Plus, it’s made innumerable changes behind the scenes that have standardized and modernized government IT. It’s kinda really good at what it does, which is make the government more efficient.
Musk has, on multiple occasions, insisted that “Any given law will do the opposite of its name.” So it might be worth looking at his Department of Government Efficiency through that same lens. If it was really all that efficient, would it have to insist it was in the name? Just something to consider.
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