Trump's assault on federal jobs begins: freeze hiring, change pensions, reduce job protection

President-elect Donald Trump has just added federal employees to the list of endangered species. According to the Washington Post:

Hiring freezes, an end to automatic raises, a green light to fire poor performers, a ban on union business on the government’s dime and less generous pensions — these are the contours of the blueprint emerging under Republican control of Washington in January.

The engine and conductor behind this effort is likely to be Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman at the right-wing website Breitbart News who now serves as Trump’s chief White House strategist and senior counselor.

The project aligns with Bannon’s long-stated warnings about the corrupting influence of government and a capital city rampant with “crony capitalism.”

Breitbart headlines also provide a possible insight into his views, with federal employees described as overpaid, too numerous and a “privileged class.”

“Number of Government Employees Now Surpasses Manufacturing Jobs by 9,977,000,” the website proclaimed in November. There are 2.1 million federal civilian employees.

But Trump may have a little trouble with his own math. Even as he says he wants to freeze the federal workforce and reduce it by attrition, he is exempting certain areas (the military or those in health and safety roles), plus, wants to ADD federal employees.

But he also wants a military with more ships, planes and troops. He has said he wants to triple the number of immigration enforcement agents and beef up the Border Patrol by thousands.

Add jobs, freeze jobs, potato, po-ta-toe, let’s call the whole thing off. If only.