'Senior Trump Official' On Shutdown: 'We Do Not Want Most Employees To Return'

[highplainsdem]

Source: TPM

An unnamed “senior official in the Trump administration” wrote in an anonymous Daily Caller op-ed Monday that the record-breaking 24-day partial government shutdown “is an opportunity to strip wasteful government agencies for good.”

While it’s unclear how “senior” this administration official is — many senior Trump officials are still being paid, while the author claims to be “one of the senior officials working without a paycheck” — the op-ed could offer a window into another goal of this shutdown, in addition to using federal workers’ paychecks as leverage in an attempt to extract border wall funds from Congress: starving the government.

The op-ed’s author wrote that “many federal agencies are now operating more effectively from the top down on a fraction of their workforce” and that “we do not want most employees to return, because we are working better without them.”

-snip-

“Now that we are shut down, not only are we identifying and eliminating much of the sabotage and waste, but we are finally working on the president’s agenda,” the official wrote, adding in conclusion: “Wasteful government agencies are fighting for relevance but they will lose. Now is the time to deliver historic change by cutting them down forever.”

-snip-

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/senior-trump-official-anonymous-daily-caller-op-ed-shutdown-federal-workers

[Lindsay]

1. Getting the government

down to drowning-in-a-bathtub size, Part Deux.

[highplainsdem]

3. Yep. And Putin's loving it as much as the RWNJs.

[calimary]

65. Although I must say Grover Norquist has been mighty quiet lately.

HE is The Beast who first yowled about the need to shrink the government down so small that you could drown it in a bathtub. Well, I'm wondering if this shutdown - now pushing its FOURTH WEEK (ie: a month's worth) - is starting to illustrate the benefit of government that is NOT shrunk down that much, if, indeed, at all.

That government the CONS all hate so much provides SERVICES that millions of Americans NEED. Serious, legitimate, worthy, and in MANY cases life-sustaining. Many Americans NEED those services to help them pay bills, make ends meet, stay warm in the winter, keep a roof over their heads, cover health issues and emergencies, provide things as basic as FOOD for their kids, care for themselves if they're elderly, assist with their small businesses, help them through jobless times, AND MORE. Those aren't just pig troughs from which the so-called "lazy moochers" can greedily pig out. These are ESSENTIAL-TO-LIFE services for those who for one reason or other can't provide for themselves. We're now, already, seeing what the lack of those services actually DOES. The actual real-life real-time results of shutting down the government which means sheer simple survival for millions of our fellow Americans and honored immigrants.

We spend TONS more taxpayers' money propping up the radically-rich corporations and the sneaky-ass greedy, further enriching the already obscenely wealthy, and further comforting the already QUITE comfortable, for Pete's sake! Time for the haves and the have-mores to go to the end of the line for awhile. Heck, long PAST time! They have enough - indeed, WAY MORE than enough - to keep themselves propped up.

And... furthermooooorrrrrre... if they declare themselves Christians, they're sure as Hell AREN'T acting like it! Jesus never once favored the rich! In what He said and did and where and with whom He hung out. It was the poor and lower middle class and the sick and otherwise undesirable. Christ was underdog all the way. Have you ever heard a single one of these highfalutin' gas giants wrapping themselves around the Cross of Christ sharing discussion or speechifying about what you could call "The Lord's Quote": "it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich to get into the Kingdom of Heaven". Or how 'bout the story in three of the four Gospels, about Jesus and the rich young man?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_and_the_rich_young_man

Yep, I'd hit 'em right below the Bible belt: You're EITHER one OR the other. You can't be both. It simply doesn't work that way. But don't take my word for it. Just check your local Bible.

kkkarl rove liked to be known for attacking his opponent's strengths, not their weaknesses. It was an unusual political battle strategy at the time. But he tried it out on the presidential level and it worked - for bush2. If he can do it, why can't we?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Let's make this jackass the FIRST one to not return.

I am so disgusted.

[trueblue2007]

36. #FrenchRevolutionTrump

It could trend.

[C_U_L8R]

4. At last, some truth

The traitors admit that they’re purposely trying to take down the USA

[brush]

8. Yep, Putin's agenda and his puppet is attempting to carry it out.

Won't work though. People are finally on to him.

[BlueJac]

5. Doing Putin's work for him!

Thanks Traitor Trump!

[Girard442]

6. Somebody needs to air-drop this loser into Somalia.

Then he could experience a country where the government WAS drowned in a bathtub.

[Danmel]

35. Exactly!

Perfectly stated.

[mr_lebowski]

7. I said this weeks ago here and most told me I was crazy and that this won't work ...

Well, I hope all y'all are right ... I'll leave it at that.

[The Liberal Lion]

52. Don't let the distractors bring you down

I've been called a radical and a purveyor of violence here only because I tell the truth. You keep doing you. Those who criticize now will have no choice to listen later.

[SunSeeker]

9. Virtually every federal agency is already stripped to the bone.

And that was before Trump let positions go unfilled. Every federal employee I have ever dealt with has a monstrous work load...and gets it done on low pay. They're basically working for health and retirement benefits...and because they care about this country. I am sure Trump and Republicans can't relate.

[littlemissmartypants]

58. Excellent points. nt

[Me.]

10. Horror Vacui

The Cons are such a know-nothing bunch...nature abhors a vacuum as does bureaucracy. And, what goes around, comes around. They'll never learn...thank goodness.

[Freethinker65]

11. Disaster capitalism. Use/Create crises, sell off public resources and privatize as much as you can

for as long as you can.

[bullwinkle428]

32. Was about to post the very same sentiment.

[watoos]

12. The GDP that's supposed to pay for Trumo's tax scam,

is going to drop more than 0.05%

[watoos]

13. Only people who voted for Trump get to return.

Motherfucker!

[Mr.Bill]

49. There is no way of proving who someone voted for. n/t

[Lonestarblue]

14. No, we don't need air traffc controllers.

Instead of forcing air traffic controllers to work extra ling hours without pay, all US airports should just be shut down. After listening to the howls of outrage from their big business donors and lobbyists, not to mention all the private jets that would be grounded, I imagine Republicans might be willing to reopen the government post haste.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

28. The idea of privatizing the air traffic control system has been around for a long time.

I imagine it will show up again. In fact, I'll bet that there will be proposals to privatize or eliminate entire government agencies, which has been a conservative wet dream as far back as I can remember, and I'm 69 years old.

The argument is going to be made, "See, the shutdown has been going for six months and we're still functioning as a country. Why should we go back to the old, wasteful ways? We can put all the money we save into tax cuts for the rich." Or a wall, if you're Donnie Two Scoops.

Trump said he'd keep the government shut down for years as a way to negotiate. Now when he declares victory and lets the government resume functioning after five or six months, people will remark on how "reasonable" he's being.

As an aside, it is so painful to watch the stories about the effects the shutdown is having on real people.

[Freethinker65]

51. Yep. Privatizing public resources has always been the plan

[RobinA]

62. I've Been Saying This

since Day 1. We need a REAL shutdown. Everything...shutdown. Every airport in this country closed. The shutdown will be over in an hour.

[turbinetree]

15. Why do I feel the two Santa Claus theory is being played out

and Grover Norquist is sleeping over at the White House................

November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough......................

[Nevermypresident]

16. Bannonesque

[BumRushDaShow]

53. THIS

[Bengus81]

17. Trump will call it Fake News and then go ahead and do it.............

[DRoseDARs]

18. 'Senior Trump Official' 'We want tens if not hundreds of thousands of freshly enraged people...'

"...of whom, statistically, a percentage have up-to-now unrealized potential homicidal tendencies, out for blood because they have nothing left but their rage..." he did not add because he didn't pay attention in school.

Fucking hell these idiots are clueless and/or suicidal. History is replete with examples of how tyranny over a population ends up. And it impacts everyone at every level. Super. Don't know how much more our society can take before something snaps and all Hell breaks loose. We've been remarkably resilient, but history shows this doesn't last if poor or tyrannical conditions remain. Climate Change might solve the problem for us, collapsing technological civilization under it's own hubris and inability/unwillingness to adapt, but we might self-immolate before then. So yeah, super.

[durablend]

19. They're fine with that too.

Trump: "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS"

Martial law and shit is just *peachy* as far as the GOP crime family is concerned.

[DRoseDARs]

23. They should ask the French aristocracy how that line of thinking turned out for them...

Not well.

"Oh, the poors are rioting. Well OF COURSE they are. They're POOR, it's what the poor DO! Oh my, that contraption looks sharp..."

Every generation in every civilization in every era thinks they live in stable and safe times, except when it all falls apart. We keep not learning from that and make meaningful changes. The further we get from the lived memories of a collapse, the closer we get to the next.

[AllyCat]

20. The Nation is correct: this is a Republican coup aimed at services that help people

not those of the rich. They couldn't get done what they wanted in two years with full control of all levers of governmental and state power, so they decided this is how they would do it once the people had spoken out against them.

Libertarians are just more of the same ilk, but are definitely getting their way now.

[Cha]

21. He's Lying, of course.

[Phoenix61]

22. This is from a Daily Caller article.

Consider the source. Personally, sounds like Miller.

[mahina]

25. Oh man, I hear him too..

Unmistakeable and also sociopathic.

[Bettie]

50. Sounds like Miller to me too

and probably is....what a piece of work.

[littlemissmartypants]

59. I couldn't agree more. eom

[VMA131Marine]

24. The problem with this take

Is that it has a good chunk of the government workforce working for free. It's not like all the unpaid employees have been furloughed. And many key government functions (IRS) are not getting done.

[AlexSFCA]

26. abolish the IRS is one of the goals

ted cruz campaigned on it. Dominionist vision for the country.

[bobbieinok]

27. Read that Trump wants a mob lawyer as head of IRS. Bizarre!,

[underpants]

29. Who do the Feds historically go after? Polluters and Racists

At least since the Cuvil Rights and Environmental movements got going. It is no coincidence that Reagan planted the “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” line so concretely in the American psyche.

[Doodley]

30. We are witnessing the systematic destruction of America to benefit Putin.

[Thomas Hurt]

31. Need to stop calling this smaller gov't or shrinking or cutting.

This is totalitarian style centralization.

[littlemissmartypants]

60. +1000 nt

[jmowreader]

33. I can think of a few employees I don't want to return

Anyone currently employed by the Executive Office of the President, INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT, has proven him/herself totally expendable. Cut them all out and get some decent help in there.

[AJT]

34. I wrote this awhile back.....this shutdown is a means to GOP wet dream end.

Drown the government in the bathtub.....except the GOP pols of course, they'll just keep on draining the coffers.

[barbtries]

37. i'm nearly speechless.

but: let's see how that works out. what could go wrong?

I'm losing my job on 01Feb2019. Because I am getting severance pay for working up until that date, I can't do it yet - but anyone else thinking it's about time for a general strike?!

i guess a plane will have to be hijacked or crash before they do the right thing here. if ever.

Daily Caller?!

[JDC]

38. This sounds Q Anon-ish

Trump is too stupid to have some grand underlying plan. He is a loud mouthed, know-nothing fool that is once again screwing the pooch based on impulse.

This just provides more cover and is an excuse to his mindless base.

The truth is that he is just incompetent.

[KPN]

39. And of course Daily Caller would publish an

anonymous OP saying this crap. Fuck Daily Caller and fuck Ronald Reagan — he started this lie about government.

[KrazyinKS]

40. Now that I believe

Also what does that do to the federal courts, are they still functioning? That would certainly benefit Trump. No shit. Yep I believe it.

[AllaN01Bear]

41. nonsnense . he didnt get his wall so hes throwing a hissy fit. boo hoo like a 2 yearold .

[SpankMe]

42. So, negative 800,000 jobs created, yes?

These jobs must be deducted from the jobs reports. Unfortunately, the people who put out these reports have been furloughed.

[Mc Mike]

43. Who needs the intel agencies, for example?

Twitler can just ask Putin if he's up to anything bad, in person.

[Xipe Totec]

44. Ratfuckery nt

[CaptainTruth]

45. Read the quotes. They sound like Trump. I think he's the "senior official."

[LudwigPastorius]

46. "The author is a senior official in the Trump administration."

"one of the senior officials working without a paycheck"


Jared would be better served spending more time crafting his legal defense than writing anonymous op-eds.

[UpInArms]

47. They need to remember that the Secret Service is NOT GETTING PAID

nt

[ffr]

48. 100% proof positive that tRump is not one of us, has no empathy.

I'd like to strip him of his grifter wealth long enough for him to be a turncoat of his own inhumane government shutdown policies.

[FailureToCommunicate]

54. "Sabotage and waste" is an apt slogan for Trump and Republicans gutting of America.

"Good..GOOD!" - Emperor Putin-tine

[Kingofalldems]

55. I bet it's Mulvaney.

[forgotmylogin]

56. No amount of glitter paint he applies to the shutdown

justifies it in any way.

[idahoblue]

57. My husband works for the forest service

Over the years, his trail crew has gone from 15-20 to 8. That is 8 people to maintain or rebuild almost 800 mile of trails in Idaho’s most popular rec area. They once had 12 wilderness rangers, now there are 3.

My husband’s boss retired, his position was not replaced. His job was split between my husband and another person. She then took another job so he has done both jobs for years.

He spends the winter writing grants, if he did not do that there would be no trail maintenance at all. The economy of the area depends on hike, bike and motorized trails. That would be small businesses in rural communities.

This is a plan to defund until agencies are no longer viable. It is a ploy to sell public lands, privatize everything for maximum profit for a few oligarchs. Our country will not be recognizable in a few years if we cannot put a stop to this.

[SunSeeker]

61. Yup. It's a Republican wet dream: sell off our public lands to the highest bidder.

[workinclasszero]

63. I worked with many federal employees during the Obama administration

Almost all of them were right wing republicans that disliked Obama and democrats in general, to put it mildly.

I wonder how they like their GOP dictator now that he is destroying their formerly cushy upper middle class lives?

[Progressive Jones]

64. Find the identity of this "source". Out them. Humiliate then. Destroy their career. nt.

[Sapient Donkey]

66. Ahh so just call it Trump's Purge then.

The attitude of these people and their supporters is going be looked back in history books similar to Roman attitudes that lead to their ultimate demise. Just near sighted short-term idiotic thinking. That guy Dave Rubin tweeted that most Americans are not directly impacted by the shutdown and don't care about it. The effects are less right now because there are people working for free and because it will take a little bit of time before stuff that was working stops working because there is no one there to keep it going. I wonder how many of them simply fail to make that connection vs. how many of them are purposely being obtuse for whatever reasons they may have.