MTG's Rant on the Bureaucracy

Mary Trump Nerd Avengers Thursday Feb 27 played a video clip of Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking in response to demonstrations protesting the firing of federal employees.

You can protest all you want outside of departments of this government. You can protest all you want, but the American people disagree with you. You’re protecting the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy is not a business. Those are not real jobs producing federal revenue, but by the way they are consuming taxpayer dollars. Those jobs are paid for by the American tax people who work real jobs, earn real income, pay federal taxes and then pay these federal employees. Federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees do not deserve their paychecks. And these are jobs that can be fired at will.

The ignorance demonstrated by this rant is appalling. Where to start.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, known as MTG, is a Republican Representative for Georgia with a well-earned reputation for making outrageous statements.

In this diatribe, she first refers to a strong mandate from the American people to carry out the mass firings by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). I addressed this mandate in my January 28 post. Yes, more voters voted for Trump than Harris but more voters voted for someone else than for Trump. And I am very sure that many if not most of those who did vote for Trump are not happy with what Musk is doing. Especially those who were fired or whose co-workers were fired. About half of the employees losing their jobs were Trump supporters – I suppose a few still are.

Next, she states the obvious fact that government is not a business. No, government is not a business, and it should not be run as a business. Government’s function is to provide services to the people, paid for by tax dollars. These services include

Then she argues that they are not real jobs because they don’t produce revenue for the Federal government. Well, some do and some don’t. An example of employees who provide a service that is at least partly paid by user fees are National Park campground staff. Examples of employees whose services are not paid by user fees include police, fire fighters, and yes most clerical staff which seems to be who MTG is referring to with the term “bureaucracy”.

She goes on to say that because they aren’t doing real jobs, like those whose taxes pay their salaries, they don’t deserve their jobs or their paychecks.

Are the police and firefighters not real jobs, doing real work, providing real services for the American people? Of course they are.

Greene is herself a federal employee. Her salary is paid out of the federal treasury with taxpayer money. Does she do real work? None that I have seen. Does she deserve her paycheck? Well, let’s just say I’m sure she thinks she does. I assume she has aides hired to work for her. Do they do real work? Do they deserve their paychecks? If they were fired and Greene did all the work herself that would be more efficient and save the taxpayers money.

The final jab that they can be fired at will is simply not true. There are labor laws that protect federal employees just like most other employees.

After the clip Mary Trump commented that MTG must be looking in a mirror because the only federal employees who are not doing their job are the Congressional Republicans. In the House of Representatives they have abdicated all responsibility to control the government and to create and manage all government agencies. In the Senate they abdicated all their obligations to advice and consent regarding the appointment of Trump’s cabinet members.

Wajahat Ali then points out that Donald Trump has spent a quarter of his presidency golfing, costing taxpayers more than $11 million to fly him back and forth to Florida. And Elon Musk has received $38 billion of taxpayer’s money in contracts.

Maybe these are the federal employees who should be fired.

 Source

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIkKZIEpAFQ starting at 23.0 minutes