Bureaucrat Defiance Of Simple Request Prove Case For DOGE Cuts

A sure sign of a problematic and difficult employee at any organization is one who receives direction from his supervisor and, rather than execute, he responds by imitating confusion or, more likely, by attempting to shift the responsibility to someone else, even back onto his superior.

That’s what’s happening right now as Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative asks federal employees to do the bare minimum and answer a simple email with a brief summary about their workload from last week. The missive sent from the Office of Personnel Management, which is working in conjunction with DOGE, went out Saturday asking government agency employees, “What did you do last week?” It requested around five “bullets of what you accomplished last week.”

There is no organization outside of Washington where such menial instruction would be considered difficult or complicated. But this is Washington, where government employees enjoy six-figure salaries, obscene benefits, and generous retirement benefits with essentially zero productivity oversight, all covered by taxpayers. Of course, this bothers them.

Some in the media tried scandalizing the unremarkable email by noting that some agencies like the Defense Department, State Department, and intelligence agencies (all of which handle sensitive and classified information) had advised their personnel to ignore the message. And as of Tuesday, CNN was assisting the federal bureaucracy in efforts to resist the new administration’s attempts to find additional cuts in wasteful spending.

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny produced a hysterical segment lamenting the “confusion for federal workers” and the “questions” they have about Musk’s request. All the while, an on-screen graphic characterized the “chaos” caused by Musk’s “email demand.”

Recipients of the email were given a response deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Monday evening, reports say, but Musk indicated on X that, “Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance.” However, “Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” he warned.

But the inept reaction to an innocuous message requesting an overview of federal employee productivity is an irrefutable justification for precisely what DOGE was created to do. If the question, “What did you do last week?” sparks “chaos,” “confusion” and “questions,” then none of these jobs merit existing. If any one employee can’t cite five incidents of substantial progress in their field of work, there is no argument that their jobs are crucial to the functioning of the government.

They’re overcomplicating and obfuscating with the intention of frustrating management to the point of dropping the matter altogether. Musk can’t give them that victory and I suspect he won’t.

This entire mind-numbing episode illustrates in blinding light the uncooperative, insubordinate nature of the permanent bureaucracy. It resists any attempt to reprioritize or restructure under new and democratically elected leadership.

It’s one of the most critical fights of Donald Trump’s second administration. He needs to win it.