This org cost $0. They operated with full cost recovery from their consulting work with other agencies

The executive branch is not supposed to choose what to fund, and these irresponsible cuts show that there is no real plan to maintain a stable government.

It’s really about whether people buy into the inane take that the other guy is lazy.

Civil servants are easy targets, unless you wear a uniform, except if you’re a woman.

Let's just assume that there is bloat in the federal government. Assume that, OK? I think I do, actually.

But have you ever seen a new manager come in with a mandate to cut costs - a new manager who doesn't bother to listen, but who just starts cutting without knowing, learning, or listening? Have you ever seen that kind of a disaster? He (it's almost always a he) cuts the most expensive people, who turn out to be the most talented and the most knowledgeable, and you're left with the less talented and less experienced. He cuts the departments that have the most people, and those turn out to be critically related to revenue. And so on.

The issue isn't whether there need to be cuts. The issue is that Musk doesn't know enough to make the right cuts, and he isn't even trying to learn.

Even in weight loss surgery, I want an experienced surgeon, not the guy from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

There "is bloat in civil servants" "America has gotten fat" etc. sounds like an imprecise, weasly and inflammatory remark. It is a handy soundbite that saves people thinking through a complex situation and to keep voting against their own interests.

No one thinks that civil service doesn't have bloat and inefficiencies. This org (and many of the other cuts) wasn't bloat or inefficiency though, they were a good and cost effective service for the American people.