Early on, Federal employees were charged with sending a weekly list of the 5 things accomplished the prior week. I’ve been unclear to the point of this exercise from day one. But even more so as we’ve learned that 80,000 hard working men and women in the VA will lose their jobs in the coming weeks. I suspect no one has looked at these emails to see who is ultimately productive and who is not. I suspect these RIF decisions will be solely based on the RIF procedures recently updated (March 2025) by OPM and not the task of writing 5 things every week.
What strikes me as odd, is when this exercise was first implemented, Trump said it was because people weren’t working. They were playing golf. I’ve not paid for a round of golf in many, many years, but an article in Sportbible.com, points out our great leader’s trips are costing me plenty:
“It was estimated that (in his first term) the Trump’s presidency totaled $151.5 million for spending 293 days on one of his courses but he could well be on course to beat that.
According to a Huffington Post study, which used information on a 2019 Government Accountability Office report which focused on his first four trips during his first presidency, the Trump golf bill comes at a whopping $26,127,531.
When the outlet posted the report, Trump had spent 18 of his first 69 days in office on one of his golf courses, with 14 coming at his West Palm Beach resort.
Going off 2017 costs, which are lower than todays with inflation factored in, it works out more than $1.4 million per day on the golf course.
Trump’s hefty bill comes while he has cut costs in a number of areas of government and appointed Tesla and X chief Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, as the key individual in charge of a new department in charge.
The huge costs involve various expenses such as Trump and his staff flying for around two hours on Air Force One, which is believed to cost $200,000 per hour, according to Pentagon data.
In addition, there is also the requirement for patrolling law enforcement and explosive-sniffing dogs to be present as part of strict security measures put in place.
In terms of security, it has been reported that the overtime bill is a massive $240,000. Though Palm Beach county sheriff Ric Bradshaw didn’t give a specific figure, he told The Guardian it is “expensive” but “we don’t really have a choice”.
According to the article, I think I found another place where I could save the government quite a bit; however, because I am a sheep like most of the United States, blindly walking into the slaughterhouse standing in line, awaiting my turn at the knife, I will give the 20-something DOGE staffers my list of 5 things I accomplished last week.
Of course, if you really cared, you’d ask for the 5 things I accomplished that help move the VA forward in its mission. You’d ask for ideas about ways to increase productivity. You’d seek input from the people who do the work concerning possible methods to streamline and guarantee efficiency.
Perhaps, most importantly, I believe in my heart you’ve accomplished exactly what you set out to do from the very beginning: Thanks to this trivial weekly activity, and everything else that is going on due to our great leader’s tomfoolery, I’ve never felt more demoralized than I do right now. You have effectively beaten me down to the point where I hope a RIF comes to me and comes quickly. Just put me out of my misery. Unfortunately, the reality is that those who are left behind to do the work of the 80,000 who are gone will suffer greatly under the burden of the remaining tasks. And more importantly, our Veterans will suffer the most, because the system that might not be the most efficient is still the best care anywhere. It’s not perfect, but after the actions of this administration, it will certainly be a total mess. Wait times will be longer. Procedures will be delayed. Services will no longer be available. I truly believe Veterans will die because of these decisions. But that’s not the point, is it? It’s simply about proving who is in power.
