‘Hands off’ big government! Protesters demand more of your money
Whenever you see a demonstration, you need to ask two questions: Who is behind it, and what do they really want?
In the case of anti-DOGE protests – 1,300 in one weekend this month – the driving force is the spending interests: The Democratic Party, teachers unions and a variety of special interest groups promoting everything from abortion and transgender surgery. Their spend-ins are lovingly covered by the legacy media.
Protesters include useful idiots, geezers and grannies who miss the ’60s, and hard-core leftists. What they want, in a word, is more. Their slogan, “Hands off,” means hands off big government. They want more spending, debt and taxes. From their perspective, the government is meant to expand, never contract.
Don’t ask bureaucrats to defend their performance. Don’t worry about the national debt or the impact of the growing burden of debt and taxes on the economy and middle class.
Trust us, they seem to say even though we got you into this mess, it’s in our best interest to keep you there. So, grab a sign, scream obscenities about the “Trump dictatorship,” curse Elon Musk and burn a Tesla.
The goal of DOGE is to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, thus balancing it for the first time in 24 years. Despite the fearmongering, this will not be accomplished by throwing Social Security recipients in wheelchairs off a cliff.
One target for the ax is the federal workforce. The Supreme Court just allowed the president to fire 16,000 probationary workers.
Of the 3 million civilian federal employees, over 40% earn $90,000 or more annually. The average private-sector salary is $63,795. The average tenure of a federal worker is 11.8 years. Barring death, it’s surprising that any leave, although pensions provide an incentive.
After only five years on the job, a federal worker can retire with a pension at age 62.
The protesters think every dollar in the federal budget is well-spent. Reduce federal spending? Civilization will collapse!
In 2023, Washington spent $6.16 trillion. In real dollars, spending has grown 58% since 1983.
Your federal taxes pay for necessities such as $175 million for upkeep on buildings that have been vacant for years, $1.8 million for a neon light museum, $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam, $12 million for a complex of pickleball courts in Las Vegas, $300,000 to promote diversity among bird watchers and $765,828 to subsidize IHOP restaurants in “underserved” areas of the District of Columbia. Hands off our boondoggles!
All of it goes into making a national debt that stood at $36.22 trillion on April 8 and grows at the rate of $4.42 billion daily. As Sen. Everett Dirksen used to say, “A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon, you’re talking real money.”
Today, the national debt is almost as large as the entire U.S. economy.
Interest on the debt is the third-largest item in the federal budget, behind Social Security and Medicare. Borrowing to cover the debt raises interest rates on loans across the board. It’s also a mortgage on future generations of Americans.
The protesters don’t concern their empty noggins with such unimportant details. Messrs. Trump and Musk, who have run successful businesses, must. Instead of “hands off,” the protesters’ slogan should be “Let the good times roll.”
Mr. Musk, head of DOGE, had a grim warning from one of his predecessors. In March, David Stockman, President Reagan’s first director of the Office of Management and Budget, messaged him: “Hey Elon! Been there! Done that! The swamp is more devious and resilient than you think. Everything you are cutting will be reborn in another guise. I know! But keep at it anyway. America is sinking into a black hole of public debt, and the hour is late.” Past midnight.
Mr. Stockman is too pessimistic. Steely-eyed Trump is tougher than the amiable Gipper. He also has a majority in Congress, which Reagan lacked for most of his eight years in office.
Regrettably, the left is better organized than in the Reagan era. It should be. It has been building its activist army for 40 years – with our money.
So, the dummies at the demonstrations will wave their silly signs with fatuous slogans. In the meantime, we’re heading for the abyss at 90 miles an hour. But don’t apply the breaks. Nothing must impede the growth of government.
This column was first published at the Washington Times.