Even some of President Donald Trump's most loyal supporters are reportedly worried he may get rid of their jobs as his administration slashes federal budgets across the board.
That's according to a West Virginia resident named Jeff who called into C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" on Friday. Jeff — who identified himself as a Democrat who is a diabetic on Medicare — initially called to talk about how the price of a 28-day supply of insulin increased from $6 to $80 between former President Joe Biden's administration and Trump's second term. But he also mentioned that some of his neighbors, who he described as "forever Trumpers," are "scared, crying [and] nervous" about the prospect of looming unemployment.
Host Mimi Geerges then asked the caller specifically what his neighbors were scared of. He responded that, outside of industries like coal mining and the DuPont chemical company, one of the biggest employers is the federal government. He noted that the Bureau of Public Debt (which is now the Bureau of the Fiscal Service) provides a "good paying job" to many of his neighbors, though that may now no longer be the case.
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"They're nervous that their jobs are going to be in jeopardy. That's what they're scared of. Younger people that are just first-time homebuyers, just closing on a home like the neighbor across the street," the caller said. "Her and her husband work at Public Debt. They don't know if they're going to have a job. They don't know if that's under the cuts or whatever. So that's what they're saying. They're nervous. They're scared. And they're forever Trumpers."
The Intelligencer – which is the primary newspaper for the Wheeling, West Virginia area – reported this week that the Bureau of the Fiscal Service in Parkersburg, which had been a fixture of the community since it was established as Public Debt the early 1950s, is indeed laying off some probationary-level workers, though the exact number has not yet been revealed. Eric Engle, who is the chief steward of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 190, disputed the Trump administration's claims that laying off workers will save money for taxpayers or improve service.
“The loss of these employees will make agency missions much harder if not impossible to achieve,” Engle said. “These layoffs are not saving taxpayers money or improving operational efficiency and are not in any way beneficial to the American public. Families and our local economy are suffering arbitrarily.”
Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.
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