Elon Musk’s DOGE has gotten to work. Glenn and Stu discuss the “fork in the road” email that some US federal workers recently received, which is very similar to the memo that Elon sent Twitter employees after he bought it. The email offers employees a choice: either resign now and get paid until September, or probably get fired at some point. So, will this save the government billions of dollars a year?
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Okay. Where should we begin, Stu? Should we start with the golden parachutes?
STU: Ah. Yes, the email.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: I mean, this is DOGE entering the chat. Right? DOGE has turned -- I don't know if it's a fully powered battle station yet, but it's definitely powering up.
GLENN: Yeah. I mean, it's -- I think we're not far away from a million voices crying out and then suddenly being silenced.
STU: Right. It's kind of one of those things.
This is straight out of the Twitter playbook from Elon Musk.
GLENN: Oh, my.
It starts the same way.
In fact, do we have the fork in the road tweet.
Okay. Let me show you, the fork in the road is -- is an art piece, that Elon Musk, I guess financed in the -- looks like it's in the middle of nowhere.
STU: I didn't know --
GLENN: A giant fork sticking out of it.
STU: I had no idea this part of it.
GLENN: This is real.
STU: I know the phrase. He put a fork this a road.
GLENN: He put a giant. He had a road built, where it goes off. And there's a gigantic fork sitting in the middle of it.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: So this is the thing with him.
STU: Kind of the fork in the fork.
GLENN: Right.
STU: Because the road forks by itself when it turns into the Y, but it's a fork in the fork.
You don't have to believe that, Stations.
I'm just saying that. It feels close to it, but you don't have to.
GLENN: Yeah. You use the F-word a lot.
STU: I do.
GLENN: So when he went to Twitter, he put a fork in the road memo out that said, hey. You might want to get out now.
Because it's going to be a different place here, so I'm giving you the opportunity to bail right now.
Just let me know. And he said, at the very beginning, it's a fork in the road. They have issued a memo that is almost exactly like it, except it's got a bunch of subsections. You know, 1CB.
STU: A little more legalistic.
GLENN: A little more legalistic.
But Trump is offering the people, the money to not be hit with a giant fork.
STU: Yeah. It's -- it's sort of two approaches.
One is anybody who wants to leave right now, will pay you to September.
So we'll give you --
GLENN: That's very generous.
STU: A nice eight, nine month ramp to get a gig.
If you don't work here. Please go. Of course, this combines with the hiring freeze. The idea is five, ten, 25 percent of people accept this deal, and you shrink the government employment.
And then you don't rehire those people.
This is the way you cut. This is the way he did it at Twitter. And then secondarily, it's sort of a carrot and stick approach. The carrot is, hey, we'll pay you to September for no work. It's great for you.
And then the stick is, by the way, if you stick around, we'll probably fire you anyway.
That's kind of what the tone of it is. Like, look, I'm sorry. If you stick around, we will really be cutting. So it might be you.
GLENN: This is what it actually says: During the first week of his administration, President Trump issued a number of directives concerning the federal workforce. Among those directives, the president required that employees return to in-person work.
Do you know what that number is?
How many federal employees actually show up for work, since the beginning of COVID-19?
STU: You know, I don't know the number. What is it?
GLENN: Take a guess.
STU: We're now many, many years past COVID-19, Glenn.
GLENN: Yeah. What is the number of federal workers that are actually showing up for work?
STU: I really -- I have to guess, it's very low.
But if I were just to guess, without any preknowledge, I would have to say, it's like 60. Right?
I don't know. 40 percent of people not showing up seems significant.
GLENN: The number of people not showing up to work is 94 percent.
Only 6 percent of federal workers are showing up.
STU: What? With the knowledge that it was going to be a low number, I'm shocked by that. 6 percent.
GLENN: Six. Six. It is 6 percent.
STU: No way. Is there certain categories? You go to the Pentagon right now, 94 percent empty?
That can't be true.
GLENN: I don't know about the Pentagon.
STU: Okay. Certain areas of the government.
GLENN: Well, I do know this also, that the mayor of Washington, DC, said all of our businesses are dying. And said this to Biden. You have got to get people to go back to those buildings. Or let those buildings loose.
And let's bring other businesses into Washington, DC.
STU: Because we're holding them empty, essentially.
GLENN: We're holding them empty, so there's no business on the street. Because nobody is coming in.
So restaurants are going out. Shops that aren't for tourists, are all going out.
STU: Now, complete economic destruction happened to Washington, DC, would you be able to tell the difference, I guess is the question.
We were just there.
GLENN: No. I think if there was a raging wildfire, I'm not sure I could tell the difference.
Among those directives, the president required employees to return to work in person. Restored accountability for employees, who have policy-making authority.
Let me hang on. I think I hear the knives sharpening here. Restored accountability for senior career executives, and reformed the federal hiring process to focus on merit.
As a result of the above orders, the reform of the federal workforce will be significant. Want out?
STU: Yeah, take your out now.
And like, just a couple of things.
GLENN: I would.
STU: It's interesting. He sent it to everyone.
Basically said, none of you are essential. Any one of you can be replaced. Which is a message you send.
Important message.
You're not too important, essentially. I know you've worked here for a few decades. You're a career employee and all that. It doesn't mean anything anymore.
That's one message it sends. If you put yourself in a position of, you're someone on the left. Who got into government. Because you have left-leaning ideas.
GLENN: Why else would you get into government?
STU: That's true.
GLENN: I can't think of a reason on the right, why they get into government, except to stop the people on the left.
STU: To stop it. And that is a real problem we have. Because it's the same thing with universities.
GLENN: Yeah, it is.
STU: We don't go in there. We don't mix it up in those areas, and then they take them over.
GLENN: Yes.
STU: But let's say, you're someone who leans left. You get in there, you think, you support all these big taxes and big government programs. And you're working on administrating them. And you realize, Trump is coming in. He will try to cut them anyway.
Do I really want to be here, supporting -- like cutting people, and not distributing this money I think is so important? Maybe I do just take it.
Just because I'm opposed, and I don't want to go through this agenda. I don't want to be responsible for these evil cuts.
So maybe I just take the money and leave.
GLENN: I think if you're a career politician or career, you know, government worker, if you've put in your time and they're going to give you, you know, really good exit package.
I don't know if you're -- if you've been there for 25 years. Do I get -- do I get my pension?
STU: Yeah. You probably do.
GLENN: So, you know, I would definitely look at it.
If I had been there for a long time. I would be like, I'm getting out now.
Because you just don't know.
You know, Vivek Ramaswamy said, we should just say, everybody with an odd Social Security number. And ends in an odd number, you're fired.
STU: What helps him here.
Because there are dumb protections built into some of these places for civil service types.
That makes it sometimes difficult to fire them.
And this is like sort of like the self-deportation option when it comes to the border.
GLENN: It is.
STU: You go. You take it. It's optional for you.
And if they do that, you not only will likely get rid of more people that will thwart your efforts. Because they typically will be able to take that deal. But you also get a portion of your cuts done, without having to make the cuts.
There are some legal questions to this.
Of course, it will get challenged. There is a clause, I think it's in the Homeland Security Act.
That allows the government to offer employees $25,000 to resign, essentially if they want to make cuts.
So that much of it is pretty much straightforward protected.
The -- when you say all the way to September, some of those numbers will go above $25,000.
And there, they might get legal challenges.
GLENN: That's amazing -- that people will challenge you.
STU: You're giving me too much money. You're giving me too much --
GLENN: That will never happen.
STU: In reality, of course, the left does not want these employees to go away.
They don't want the size of government to shrink, so they will find any legal loophole they can to challenge what he's doing.
GLENN: It will be fascinating to see the conversations of people right now in Washington, DC. That are those die-hards.
I mean, because he's doing exactly what he's doing on the border, for the government.
He's -- he is --
STU: It's the --
GLENN: We're coming for the bad guys.
And we will cut.
There is in more fooling around. There's a new sheriff in town.
He hopes, just like on the border. He will get the bad guys. But a lot of people, just like you said, will self-deport.
I don't want any part of it.
STU: Yeah. I don't want any part of it.
Not to mention, in nine months of pay. Combine that if you happen to be an entrepreneur type. Of leaving a job. Getting paid for nine months. Then getting paid for another job.
It could be great for your finances.
GLENN: If you had another job. If you knew you could get another job, you would be stupid not to.
STU: Yeah. To get paid 9 months for doing nothing.
Of course, it's taking it out of our pockets, which I'm not exactly thrilled about. But long-term, it's great!
GLENN: Yeah, if he gets enough people. It's like 100 -- 150, or $150 million a year is what they're expecting to get out of this. That's a lot of savings.
STU: Hmm. Hmm.
I mean, it's a drop in the bucket, unfortunately.
GLENN: No, I know it is. I know it is.
STU: $150 a year is a pretty small acceptance.
GLENN: A million or billion.
As I said that, you don't pay attention. Million, billion. It doesn't matter anymore.
STU: Just wait until the quadrillions hit. Then you'll know. Then you'll know.
GLENN: And million will seem like.
You know, it's like -- it used to be like, they're a millionaire. And then it became, they're worth like 100 million dollars. And then it became, they're a billionaire.
It's going to be soon. They're a trillionaire.
STU: You knew we would cross that line, when Bernie Sanders needed to take millionaires out of his speeches. Because he used to say millionaires and billionaires.
Now he says billionaires because he's a millionaire.
And it's like hilarious that Mr. Socialist, with his multiple houses, can't even criticize millionaires anymore.
GLENN: Right!
Because he's most likely a millionaire.
STU: He is, 100 percent.
GLENN: I mean, how does a socialist get that?
STU: I mean, he's making a decent six figure salary and has been forever. He has multiple houses.
Just the equity in those homes, I'm sure, makes him a millionaire.
You know, I mean, he's pretty -- he wants to spend everyone else's money. If he spends like that in his own life.
He doesn't seem to be all that -- he doesn't seem to take advantage with fancy cars or anything like that, that we know of.
But he has a couple nice houses. He saves on hair products, that's for sure.