| Two days ago, voters handed Democrats control of both the House and the Senate. And one of the very first things the incoming majority wants to do... is rehire the federal workforce that just got cut. |
| Between January 2025 and early 2026, roughly 280,000 federal positions were eliminated. USAID lost 95% of its people. The Department of Education lost 46%. HHS, HUD, Treasury, the EPA... every major agency except Homeland Security took double-digit cuts. It was the largest peacetime reduction in federal headcount in American history. |
| Now here is the number that puts it in perspective. The federal civilian workforce fell to about 2 million... the lowest level since 1966. Back then, the country had 196 million people. Today it has 343 million. On a per-capita basis, the federal government is the smallest it has been in your lifetime. |
| That was DOGE’s doing. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency ran from January 2025 until it disbanded in early November 2025. Love it or hate it, the cuts were real. The GAO confirmed every number. And now, two days after the midterms, Senate Democrats have already said reversing those cuts is a top priority when the new Congress convenes in January. |
| Whether those workers come back matters more than most people realize. The IRS lost a third of its auditors. Veterans’ claims processing slowed. Passport wait times stretched. The question isn’t whether the government got smaller. It did. The question is whether it stays that way. |
