Why Many Americans Are On Board With Federal Worker Firings - WSJ

While there is outcry over thousands of federal workers losing their jobs to Department of Government Efficiency cuts and the chaos that has unleashed, a cohort of Americans aren’t sorry to see them go. Politics, personal experiences filing taxes or time in interminable post office and DMV lines lead many people to take a dim view of government workers at all levels. 

Resentment also stems from a sense that federal workers enjoy perks, like guaranteed pensions, which are rare in the private sector. 

Government employees overall have long experienced a lower rate of layoffs than their private-sector counterparts, especially during shocks such as the early days of Covid-19, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis show. Federal employees also tend to spend less time unemployed because they are less likely to lose their jobs than workers in the private sector, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

“How many people get fired from a government position? Not many,” said Randy Johnson, 75, a retired math teacher in Tennessee who voted for Trump. He also said he doesn’t hear enough about how the cuts might be “a good thing to try to reduce the size of government.”

The idea that government workers are a problem, not a plus, has long been a talking point on the right. Former President Ronald Reagan famously quipped that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Trump has said he thinks the federal payroll is laden with people who aren’t doing their jobs. Polls show public trust in the federal government has plunged over the past seven decades.

Pew Research Center surveys in recent years show Americans roughly split on whether the government is too big or too small, but there is a stark partisan divide. A Pew poll this year found 38% of Republicans expressing confidence in federal career employees, compared with 72% of Democrats. 

“Democrats have tended to favor a government that does more to solve problems. Republicans have been more likely to say the government does too much,” said Jocelyn Kiley, the Pew Research Center’s director of politics research. The country cut more than 400,000 federal jobs during the eight-year Clinton administration.

Robert Shapiro, professor of government at Columbia University, said public support for federal workers varies widely, with agencies such as the military, Social Security, Medicare and national parks generally viewed more favorably. “There’s actually a lot more support there for specific aspects of a more expansive government,” he said.

Polling reveals a more muddled view of the Department of Government Efficiency’s workforce-slashing efforts. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this month showed 59% support for downsizing the government, and another poll this month, conducted by Quinnipiac University, found 60% disapproved of the way Elon Musk and DOGE are dealing with federal workers.

“We do need to sit down and say, ‘Where do we have bloated government?’” said Mary Dixson, a college professor in San Antonio. But Dixson, a self-described economic conservative who leans left on social issues, said workers and agencies are being cut without a rigorous assessment.

“If you just say you’re firing 2,000 people but can’t say what any of them do, that’s not data-driven,” said Dixson, 53, who declined to say how she voted in the 2024 presidential election. “It would be really nice if there was a lot of thought and conversation and transparency.”

By one measure, the public’s assessment of federal workers has been climbing. Citizen satisfaction with government services rose last year to the highest level since 2017, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. And while complaints filed with the federal government increased from 2021 to 2024, the government’s handling of complaints also improved during that span in the eyes of the public, the company said in a report released last fall.

Two judges recently blocked the firings of probationary workers who were hired or promoted in the past year or two, though their ability to keep the jobs is uncertain. Government agencies have also granted voluntary buyouts to tens of thousands of employees.  

Recently laid-off contractor Meredith Lopez said the “general callousness” toward federal workers is disheartening.

“I think people forget that working in public service is not just a job, it can be a calling for many people,” said Lopez, 38, who worked for about a year as a Dallas-based communications specialist for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes medicine, food and often lifesaving aid to impoverished nations. 

“For me, it is really about the ability to help people and communities on a personal level,” said Lopez, who most recently worked on programs in nearly 60 countries including a recycling program to help clean up rivers in Honduras.

Judy Cameron felt public scorn before losing her Internal Revenue Service job in February. “People would look at me, ‘Oh, you work for the IRS? Oh, my God,’” she said in an interview on March 14. This was before she and many other workers were reinstated by court order and put on indefinite administrative leave. “Like, yeah, and I love it, this is the best job I’ve ever had. And then they just gave me a dirty look and walked away from me like I had the plague.”

Cameron, 45, made $19 an hour as a tax examining clerk at the Kansas City, Mo., office. A registered Republican who voted for Trump, Cameron said people responding to her social-media posts have said the president is “just doing America good.” 

“All I know is I did not appreciate being fired,” she said. “Let me do something wrong to fire me…It was just ‘Oh here, let’s kick you out like trash.’”

Darien Rizo, a 35-year-old banker in Tennessee who also voted for Trump, said the lightning pace of the reductions means “some good people” have lost their jobs, and he thinks some federal services will probably take a hit in the short run. “But I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to adapt to the environment and make adjustments, if they have to dial back and hire more people,” he said.

Mainly, he believes the DOGE effort is uncovering corruption and saving taxpayers money. “I think what’s happening is revolutionary,” he said.

Republican Trump voter Raymond Reed is another DOGE fan. “Support it? I’m telling them to do more of it,” the 70-year-old California rental-property owner said. “Let ’em go; get rid of them.”