Current Events: And you wonder why our governor & legislators in Annapolis are tearing their hair out — DOGE Impact on Maryland

 

There are about 325K federal civilian employees and 225K federal contractors in Maryland.  That’s 550K jobs.

 

There are about 3.2M people in Maryland’s civilian labor force (government and non-government).

 

Let’s say DOGE cuts 10% of the federal civilians and federal contractors.  That’s 10% times 550K = 55K. 

 

As of Dec 2024, out of Maryland’s 3.2M civilian labor force, 100K people were unemployed which is 3.1% unemployment.  Add 55K and Maryland’s unemployment goes up 4.8%. Maryland would go from one of the 10 states with the lowest unemployment to one of the 10 states with the highest unemployment.

 

I’m very pro DOGE, with a twist.  1.) Congress cuts $500B annually based on opportunities identified by DOGE.  2.) Agency and department leaders improve efficiency by $500B annually using opportunities identified by DOGE.  (Remember efficiency improvement means same quantity and quality of output at a lower cost. NO, NO, NO impact on the services we taxpayers receive.)  3.) Some kind of a “billionaires’ tax” to the tune of $1,000B annually.

 

These are just the numbers.  The numbers don’t show the human tragedy inherent in layoffs.  Behind those numbers are real people with real families, real mortgages, real college costs for their kids, etc., etc.  It is perhaps helpful for all Americans to see this tragedy unfold.  The same tragedy that unfortunately has been a way of life in private industry for decades:  auto manufacturing, steel, telecom, shoes, textiles, etc., etc. 

 

Painful but necessary? I think so but many will disagree.

 

Ever the Pollyanna, I’d be remiss to not also highlight how many people … thanks to their resilience and untapped potential … rebound from that tragedy.  Certainly, not everyone.  But a lot.