It was only a matter of time, really. It’s just a shame that it took so long; but the folks in the White House have been busy with more urgent matters, like breaking up immigrant families, building a new $200 million ballroom, alienating our staunchest allies, and retrofitting that Qatari jet.

But the party seems to be winding down for all those pre-pubescent, chainsaw-wielding, power-crazed idiots brought to Washington by Elon Musk to carry out his extermination of the U.S. government’s operating workforce. In fact, I haven’t heard anything about the DOGE gang since Musk himself stormed out of the White House following the bromance breakup of the century.

Now word has leaked out — rather more quietly than the initial DOGE invasion — that hundreds of those federal employees who were given the axe by DOGE are being asked to return to work. [The Associated Press, September 24, 2025.]

The General Services Administration (GSA) was established in the 1940s for the purpose of centralizing the acquisition and management of thousands of federal workplaces. According to Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official, since DOGE’s slashing of GSA’s staff, “the agency was left broken and understaffed. They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.” Describing the agency as having been in “triage mode” for months, he said the downsizing is a clear indication of how Musk and DOGE had gone too far, too fast. {Id.]

Now, there’s a fine example of understatement!

But the GSA has now given the employees who have been invited back until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, and until October 6th to return to work. In essence, those who had accepted buyouts would now become the beneficiaries of a seven-month paid vacation. The IRS, Labor Department and National Park Service have reportedly already reinstated a number of terminated employees.

The GSA has also been incurring huge costs for the continued leasing of properties that have remained unused for the past several months. [Id.]

While the agency has declined to provide information about the return-to-work notice, staffing decisions or potential cost overruns, a GSA spokesman said in an email:

“GSA’s leadership team has reviewed workforce actions and is making adjustments in the best interest of the customer agencies we serve and the American taxpayers.” [Id.]

In the best interest of American taxpayers? Really?

Meanwhile, Congressman Greg Stanton, the top Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees the GSA, said there is no evidence that DOGE’s initial reductions “delivered any savings. . . . It’s created costly confusion while undermining the very services taxpayers depend on.” [Id.]

In the aftermath of the hugely-publicized unleashing of DOGE’s forces in January, this partial retreat is being handled in an uncharacteristically low-key manner. But it’s not surprising that the Trump administration would choose to downplay one of its most ludicrous, destructive, and expensive mistakes. Eating crow isn’t easy.

The term “government efficiency” has long been considered an oxymoron; it took a couple of real-life morons to finally prove the point.

They’re both supposed to be businessmen, right? Did they ever ask themselves how they would operate a restaurant without a chef and cooks, an auto repair shop without qualified mechanics, or a hospital without doctors and nurses? Or that a government was no different . . . just bigger?

Did it ever occur to either of them that cost-cutting can be accomplished without demolishing the very underpinnings of an organization? Or that it might be a good idea to do an in-depth study of an agency’s operations before decimating it?

I wonder if there’s a Nobel Prize for stupidity.

But here’s an idea. If I went into a shop and clumsily broke a merchandise display, I would be expected to pay for it — and I would do so without question. So why shouldn’t Elon Musk . . . ?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/25/25