OP-ED: Why we need the ‘deep state’
The rehabilitation of the misunderstood and often maligned “deep state” is long overdue. For years, right wing commentators and MAGA have used the term to describe the conspiracy theory that a hidden, organized network of career bureaucrats secretly manipulate and control national policy.
Lawfare and others have explained the true nature of the deep state. Rather than a malicious shadow government, it is comprised of dedicated, necessary federal civil servants best described as “a constitutional feature designed to provide stability and continuity across different administrations.”
The phrase, deep state, gained widespread prominence during the first presidential term of Donald Trump. Trump had little idea of the tasks performed by the federal workforce under his purview. He either ignored these federal agencies or attacked the employees for not being loyal to his worldview. Best-selling author Michael Lewis previously documented that Trump’s ignorance of the civil service in his first administration adversely affected important functions like food safety, climate change preparedness, and even nuclear energy safeguards.
Early in Trump’s second term, he was better prepared to shrink the federal government into a “Trump centric” bureaucracy that would accomplish his illiberal goals. Under the pretense of “national security,” “cost savings,” and in order to delegitimize the critics of the Trump presidency, Elon Musk was given control of a new agency called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk literally and figuratively picked up a chainsaw and began indiscriminately gutting the federal bureaucracy. It is now clear that the second Trump administration has demolished a generation of nonpartisan civil servants. These diligent workers were providing essential services across all aspects of American life and were simply doing their jobs to benefit the American people.
According to the conservative Cato Institute, “DOGE achieved a 9% to 12% reduction in the federal civil service rolls — translating to a net loss of over 260,000 to 270,000 employees. This marked the fastest peacetime workforce contraction in the federal government since the end of World War II.” Regarding savings, DOGE first set a goal to balance the budget by cutting $2 trillion in waste, fraud, and abuse. This goal was later reduced to $1 trillion and then again to just $150 billion. Elon Musk recently said that DOGE was only “a little bit successful.”
The Cato Institute concluded that federal spending increased after the cuts. Specifically, the New York Times reported that “Despite the cost-cutting measures implemented by DOGE, overall government spending rose 6% to $7.4 trillion, significantly outpacing a 3% growth in tax revenues ($5.4 trillion).”
If no budget savings were realized, what did the gutting of the federal bureaucracy accomplish? According to the National Federation of Federal Employees, nearly 100,000 veterans lost their jobs with the highest number of forced departures at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The rapid departure of federal personnel resulted in an unprecedented loss of institutional knowledge. Recruitment and retention across federal agencies have been permanently damaged.
The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) created an interactive tracking tool called the “DOGE Tracker” to document the damage caused by DOGE’s activities. Among the many findings were: 1) Overall, in the Center for Disease Control’s workforce, 2,400 federal layoffs or roughly 18% were let go; 2) In the Department of Health and Human Services, there were 50% cuts to the Office of Child Care and 50% cuts to Head Start offices; 3) The National Institute of Health experienced 1,200 layoffs; 4) The Social Security Administration lost 7,000 employees; 5) There were 3,500 terminations in the Food and Drug Administration; 6) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the Weather Service, lost 1,300 employees.
These statistics go on and on and are mind numbing. Thankfully, an author like Michael Lewis can add six human stories to this tragedy and make it personal. The title of his new book, “Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State,” comes from a derogatory label Elon Musk and DOGE used for career civil servants who resisted their attempts to dismantle or radically overhaul federal agencies.
Each of the highlighted “deep state rebels” believed they had a calling. They were sure they were doing something our nation couldn’t do without. Then they were told they were no longer wanted.
One worker, an IRS privacy officer, protected Americans’ most sensitive tax data. Another, at the Office of Personnel Management, upheld democratic accountability. One figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighborhoods. Another, at the National Institute of Health, helped uncover the mysteries of cystic fibrosis.
Each “rebel” explained to Lewis that they found purpose in improving public infrastructure or trying to “dramatically affect the quality of life for millions of people.”
The book contains a revealing anecdote about Musk. While screaming to fight “waste, fraud, and abuse” he added to the “swamp” by installing his old friend and business partner, Jared Isaacman, on top of NASA. This is the agency where his company SpaceX regularly competes for multibillion-dollar contracts.
Hopefully, Trump will be prevented from further eliminating the important functions filled by the federal civil service. Instead, efforts to control waste and corruption should be directed against Trump’s oligarchy of billionaires seeking to stack the deck for the wealthy.
Gary Stout is a Washington attorney.