The Federal Governmet is NOT Twitter…
Things do NOT operate the same way…
“The president has no authority to make that offer. If you accept that offer and resign, he’ll stiff you.”
— Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), quoted by CBS News, on President Trump offering a buyout to federal workers.
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The subject line of the email offering a buyout to federal employees was “Fork in the Road,” the same subject line of an ultimatum message Elon Musk sent to his employees at Twitter in 2022, CNN reports.
“On the campaign trail, Musk frequently talked about downsizing the federal government. He has played an integral part in the rollout of the federal government buyout, an official told CNN, through his position leading the Department of Government Efficiency in the Trump administration.”
Wired: Elon Musk is running the Twitter playbook on the federal government.
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PLEASE READ THIS….
Is the offer legal?
Much about the plan remained unclear, including whether the administration can legally offer such a sweeping buyout package without budget authorization from Congress. On the Senate floor Tuesday night, Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, urged federal workers not to resign, and warned that the administration was not legally bound to pay them after they stopped working.
“The president has no authority to make that offer. There’s no budget line item to pay people who are not showing up for work,” Mr. Kaine said. “If you accept that offer and resign, he’ll stiff you.”
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 800,000 federal workers and is the largest union of federal employees, condemned the offer, which its president saidwould “cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government.”
The White House is already facing mounting legal challenges to the flood of executive orders Mr. Trump has issued in the nine days since he was inaugurated….
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Don Moynihan points out that federal employees are not actually being offered a buyout or severance package.
“They would be offering to resign in September, and until them enjoy an exemption from in-person work and an uncertain possibility of less work for the last few months of their job.”
Update….
Mike Johnson on the leash….Stay tuned…This ain’t over
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday backed the Trump administration’s decision to offer buyouts to federal workers who do not plan to return to the office, telling reporters that “drastic times call for drastic measures.”
The move comes as President Trump has looked to drastically scale back remote work for federal employees. Asked about the buyouts during a press conference at the House GOP’s retreat in south Florida — and if taxpayers are comfortable with scores of federal employees not working but receiving pay through the buyout — Johnson argued that federal employees have been receiving pay but not working for some time….
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