How Musk and Ramaswamy could cut federal government jobs in Des Moines
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Cities across the country, including Des Moines, could soon see job cuts by a key employer — the federal government.
Why it matters: Tapped by President-elect Trump to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have vowed to cut what they deem wasteful spending.
- "We expect mass reductions," Ramaswamy told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" on Nov. 17. "We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. … We expect massive cuts among federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government."
By the numbers: About 1.8% of workers in the Des Moines metro were federal employees in 2022 — or nearly 7,000 workers out of 390,000 employed people, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data available.
- That includes IRS workers, especially at the taxpayer assistance center downtown, plus air traffic controllers, Social Security employees, postal workers, and federal judges and other court staff.
- The nearby Omaha-Council Bluffs area employs 14,000 federal employees, about 2.8% of its total workforce.
Follow the money: The average annual pay for a federal employee is about $106,000, per ZipRecruiter.
- The U.S. has about 2 million federal civilian employees working across its states and territories, a 2024 Congressional Research Service report states.
- So cutting half the employees, as Ramaswamy pledged last year while he was running for president, could save the government about $100 billion annually in salaries.
How it works: Sources tell Axios Musk wants to use AI and crowdsourcing to hunt for waste, fraud and abuse. But DOGE isn't a government department: Musk and Ramaswamy plan to set up a nongovernmental entity to try to pull off the entrepreneurial approach to government that Trump envisions.
Reality check: With federal employees throughout the country — think of your neighborhood letter carrier — it'll be hard for the Trump administration to make real cuts.
- Members of Congress generally are allergic to cutting hometown jobs and government services.
The other side: "Millions of Americans should brace for massive cuts to benefits and services they rely on for their survival under plans to target government spending and operations," American Federation of Government Employees national president Everett Kelley said in a Nov. 13 statement.