'Very haphazard': Ex-federal prosecutor slams 'real failure of transparency' with DOGE’s mass layoffs
Since Donald Trump started his second presidency almost a month ago, his administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — led by SpaceX/Tesla/X.com CEO Elon Musk — have targeted a wide range of federal government agencies for mass layoffs. As many as 200,000 federal workers, according to the Washington Post, are in danger of losing their jobs.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance, during a Wednesday morning, February 19 appearance on MSNBC, argued that "transparency" is sorely lacking with Musk's activities at DOGE.
Vance told host Ana Cabrera and former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pennsylvania) — who was also featured as a guest — "You know, there's a big gap, Ana, between what they're saying and what they're doing. And the fact that they claim that there's no conflict, that they'll recuse, is just really put to the lie by what we're seeing in practice. As a federal employee, I wasn't able to participate in any sort of activity, even if I owned stock in a company. And as the congressman knows very well, federal employees report those conflicts — and especially if you're working at a high level, they're made public so that everyone can see them. There's a real failure of transparency here."
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While Vance focused on the "transparency" issues Musk's DOGE activities raise, Dent argued that the Trump Administration and DOGE are downsizing the federal workforce in a reckless way.
"Well, there's certainly an incoherence here," the former GOP congressman told Cabrera and Vance. "On the one hand, Elon Musk is saying we're going to cut spending by $1 trillion. Last I checked, that was the role of the Congress that has the power of the purse authority on both revenue and expenditure. They're the ones who should be doing this. In fact, I think DOGE is misnamed: Department of Government Efficiency ought to be called the Department of Governmental Downsizing, because that seems to be what they're doing."
Dent continued, "And by the way, I have no problem with a reduction-in-force exercise, but it should be done thoughtfully after review process — not arbitrarily and capriciously as it's been done here. And it's very haphazard. So I have all sorts of issues here."
Dent warned that the tax cuts Trump is pushing will come at the expense of major safety net programs.
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The Pennsylvania Republican told Cabrera and Vance, "On the one hand, we're talking about cutting the budget deficit by $1 trillion, but the president's budget obviously doesn't reflect that because he's going to have to find money in places like Medicare, Social Security, defense and Medicaid. I don't think he wants to put those on the table right now."
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Watch the full video below or at this link.
