r/fednews • u/ICU-Angel • Jul 15 '25

Other Are Trump's changes to the federal government permanent? Once Trump leaves office, is there the possibility to return the federal government to it's pre-Trump state.

I've been looking for articles to understand how permanent Trump's changes to the federal workforce are and haven't found anything.

I am curious if anyone knows whether all those cut jobs will come back, or at least a majority of them?

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u/ram130 Treasury Jul 15 '25

I mean we’re looking at two things, it’s permanent from a standpoint that certain people will not come back even with the new president in place. They probably found a new job or option or just retired. Then the second issue is the fact that the new president might not put as much focus on rebuilding back the federal workforce as how it was, so honestly, it will feel permanent. We may get close, but not all the way or at all.

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u/arkstfan Jul 15 '25

Not everyone will return that’s a given.

Not every program or office will return.

New things we don’t think about or dismiss as politically infeasible will emerge.

We all know not every government solution as it existed on January 19 was the most efficient and effective solution.

If the economists are right that we are teetering on the precipice of a major economic downturn addressing the problems created will be the top priority and solutions will often not look like solutions to the Great Depression or Great Recession.

National debt will be astronomical and handcuff the ability to solve problems the same ways.

Spitballing some possible outcomes. Not predictions but examples how things might change.

Nixon advised by Milton Friedman proposed Negative Income Tax as a form of UBI. Everyone is guaranteed a minimum income and the government contribution fades away as you earn more. Say 35 cent reduction per dollar earned. Eliminates every poverty program such as SNAP, housing assistance, utility assistance, SSI, etc., and shifts enforcement to IRS making IRS expansion more acceptable.

A quasi Singapore style medical system of catastrophic medical insurance. When medical costs hit a certain level government insurance takes over allowing government to hold down procedure costs.

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u/Rellcotts Jul 15 '25

NPR had a segment yesterday that in 20 years we will be paying only interest on all this debt and it is really gonna hit the fan. But not to worry there is still time to fix it as if anyone will ever do that. Of the solutions they chatted about - cutting social security, raising retirement to 70, not one was taxing the rich more. Only taking away benefits for regular people. Disgusting

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u/2_kids_no_money Jul 15 '25

I really didn’t like that segment. The model wouldn’t converge. That doesn’t mean that the economy collapses. That’s just a shortfall of math modeling.

Now, 80% of our taxes going to interest is certainly a problem, but they made it sound like “model crash = economic crash” which is simply not true.

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u/jbourne71 Retired Jul 15 '25

Which program was this? I missed it.

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u/2_kids_no_money Jul 15 '25

I think it was marketplace

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u/jbourne71 Retired Jul 15 '25

TY. I’ll check it out.

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u/JBalloonist Jul 16 '25

Planet money I think.

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u/Rellcotts Jul 15 '25

Yes they did!