SINGAPORE: During United States President Donald Trump’s first address to the Congress since reclaiming the presidency, he gave a big shout-out to Elon Musk, praising the tech mogul for his work at the new Department of Government Efficiency ( DOGE ).
” Bless you, Elon, you’re working really hard”, said Mr Trump. ” We appreciate it. Everyone below, even this part, appreciates it I believe. They just don’t want to say that”, he added, referring to the Democrats.
The leader then went on to list out the billions of dollars of useless saving that DOGE had apparently uncovered. On its site, Expand estimates it has saved US$ 105 billion from resource sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and poor repayment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, program changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.
Depends- which has been tasked with making strong spending cuts by downsizing the authorities and eliminating spend and inefficiency- has been likened by some to a “wrecking ball” in its approach to cutting US national spending and jobs.
Among the different steps taken to slice the federal labor is a “deferred departure” offer with the promise of some months’ paid leave for staff who deliberately retire. New from dismantling USAID, the presidency has set its sights on shuttering the Department of Education. Thousands of temporary employees across several sections have also been terminated.  ,  ,
The cuts to the federal labor have been extraordinary in size and scope, leading to pervasive anxiety and confusion. Just two weeks ago, national staff were instructed to report their contributions from the previous year, with Musk announcing on social media that failure to respond had been taken as departure.
With Singapore’s next general election due by November, some may wonder if such drastic action could conceivably happen here were there to be a change of government?  ,