Elon Musk’s legacy on the federal workforce
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What is the main topic of this episode?
Good morning. It's Friday, May 30th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, some Senate Republicans aren't on board with the big budget bill. Why a cancer drug that costs a quarter to make is being sold for nearly $1,000 a pop. And the Scripps National Spelling Bee has a new champion in its 100th year. Can you get the winning word?
How did Elon Musk impact the federal workforce?
But first, the Elon Musk era of Doge is coming to a close. The White House said his off-boarding process started Wednesday night, and it caps a tumultuous few months of the tech mogul cutting his way through Washington by dramatically reducing the size of the workforce, canceling contracts, grants, and leases, and attempting to shut down several federal agencies altogether. Musk made no secret of his ambitions, as he spelled out to now Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick back in October.
How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget? Well, I think we can do at least $2 trillion. Yeah!
That target was never reached. Doge does claim to have saved $175 billion so far, which amounts to 2.5 percent of the federal budget. But that figure has been difficult for journalists to confirm, and many outlets have identified cases of double counting and other errors in Doge's accounting. As Musk returns to his usual day job, thinking about electric cars and getting to Mars, there are many people who were affected by his short tenure in D.C. and have no job to return to. Analysis from The New York Times puts the confirmed and planned job losses at around 280,000, largely achieved through buyouts, early retirements and firing threats. Many of these now ex-federal workers are struggling to figure out next steps. Washington Post reporter William One and his colleagues spoke with more than 30 former and current federal workers about the chaos of the last few months, the mass firings that left people feeling demoralized, devalued, and deeply anxious. And please be advised, this story mentions suicide.
What were the consequences of Musk's tenure?
You have people locked out of their offices suddenly, or in some cases, they are showing up to offices and having to line up. And the way they find out whether they still have a job or not is they swipe their badge. And if their badge doesn't work, then they're out of a paycheck.
One reports that the tactics the Doge team deployed to cut the federal workforce are unusual for both the public and private sector. Some people were fired, rehired, and then fired again. Others were locked out of their offices by police or fired for political, quote, disloyalty. At various points, President Trump or officials in his administration have called federal workers crooked, dishonest, or lazy.
What are the stories of affected federal workers?
One of the most heartbreaking cases was this woman, Caitlin Cross-Barnett. She was a health researcher.
She worked for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation in Baltimore, where she used data to show that birth centers could bring down costs and emergency room visits while also contributing to higher birth weights.
She had devoted her entire career to helping pregnant women. These are minority women, women addicted to opioids who are pregnant or from lower income, helping them not die in childbirth. In the first few weeks of Trump's administration, she started really fearing for her job. And she had struggled on and off with depression for years, but this was something she had never experienced before.
One says, as the threats to Cross-Barnett's job became more real, her mental health deteriorated. Her husband helped her check into a mental health facility, and while there, Cross-Barnett killed herself. Experts told the Post, suicide is complicated to explain, but research points to clear contributing factors—feelings of worthlessness, stress, lack of access to health care and insurance, and unemployment— Since publishing this story, one says many federal workers have reached out to offer their stories.
One person said, you know, I thought I'd been struggling with this on my own, not knowing what to do, wanting for it all to end. And they just said they were so grateful to know they're not alone.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic of this episode?
0:05–0:34
2
How did Elon Musk impact the federal workforce?
0:34–2:21
3
What were the consequences of Musk's tenure?
2:21–3:02
4
What are the stories of affected federal workers?
3:02–5:46
5
Why are Republican senators concerned about the budget bill?
5:46–6:03
6
What are the implications of cuts to Medicaid?
6:03–6:36
7
How do federal workers feel about job security?
6:36–7:05
8
What does the future hold for the Doge department?
7:05–14:06
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Apple News Today
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