Deborah Daniels: Trump’s approach to cuts has not been constructive

I have been critical of many actions by the new Trump administration.

However, I agree with certain concepts promoted by the administration, and I think in fairness, I should say so.

I agree that the federal government is bloated. And I agree with the concept of a voluntary buyout, which is routinely used in corporate America to cull the ranks without having to randomly terminate dedicated employees. Even strategic reductions in force can be reasonable if carefully designed.

I agree with shifting more FBI resources to the field, where most of the real work is done, with the exception of much of the critically important work of preventing terrorist attacks.

I agree that the Biden administration made a shambles of immigration policy, effectively throwing open the gates to millions of non-citizens. We have long needed comprehensive immigration reform, improving our ability to protect our borders while allowing a legitimate path to citizenship for the millions of law-abiding, industrious prospective citizens.

USAID has admittedly made some questionable and possibly inappropriate grants. Those grants should be examined and some discontinued.

I agree that we as a country need to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse occurring in our sprawling government. (What administration has not agreed with this and pledged to curb it?) And some agencies, such as FEMA, are in need of significant overhaul to make them more effective.

I agree that there are valid concerns related to the lack of accountability of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created to protect consumers as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The agency not only is independent of the administration, it also is not accountable to Congress for funding.

Unfortunately, the way the administration has approached these legitimate concerns is far from constructive. The mass firings of employees and wholesale grant and contract terminations, accusing highly rated employees of subpar performance, and ignoring the need to preserve certain activities (e.g., nuclear protection, disaster avoidance and response, critical medical research, seamless service to Medicare and Medicaid recipients) has been cruel and clumsy.

In fact, the administration has been forced to reverse itself after firing mission-critical nuclear weapons workers, those who labor to stem the Ebola virus, and others indispensable to the core functions of government, the preservation of lives and our national security.

The firings and contract cancellations have been indiscriminate, grounded in mistruths, and in many cases, counterproductive. For example, if you want to detect fraud, you need to increase, not decrease, the staff of the IRS and maintain the independence of the inspectors general, most of whom have been fired.

USAID’s work is indispensable in stemming the spread of numerous life-threatening diseases and maintaining the primacy of the United States throughout the world as China seeks to undercut us. An audit and strategic paring of grants would make sense, but not the agency’s elimination. Similarly, CFPB exists to protect consumers from unfair financial practices. But rather than improving it, the administration seeks to eliminate it entirely.

The fraud that Elon Musk claims he has already discovered? The numbers and sources are suspect, and in many cases, have been proven inaccurate. The alleged cost savings have been wildly exaggerated, and even if they were accurate, they would constitute only a minuscule fraction of the federal budget.

So while the concepts might have merit, the execution has been abysmal. These purely performative measures have done more harm than good and will not make a dent in our astronomical federal deficit.•

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Daniels is a retired partner of Krieg DeVault LLP, a former U.S. Attorney and assistant U.S. attorney general and former president of the Sagamore Institute. Send comments to [email protected].

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