President Donald Trump’s effort to cut federal government waste is already bearing fruit.
Friday’s jobs report reveals 10,000 wasteful federal government positions were eliminated last month. It’s the first time in years federal employment has fallen after the Biden administration significantly expanded the federal workforce.
At best, government jobs are unproductive. At worst, they actively work against the interests of small businesses and the broader economy by creating regulations and inefficiency. For example, the Biden administration and its government workforce enacted nearly $2 trillion in burdensome regulations that ground the economy to a standstill.
By eliminating federal government jobs, the Trump administration is freeing up capacity for the real economy while reducing inflationary government spending via savings on bureaucrat paychecks and benefits.
And the best is yet to come. Since the jobs report survey period occurs around the 12th of the month, the February numbers didn’t capture the additional federal workforce reductions since then. A Thursday report from the consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates 62,000 federal job cuts. Then there are roughly 75,000 federal government employees who have accepted buyouts.
The jobs report also showed a significant moderation in unproductive quasi-government jobs in social assistance. Only 11,000 of these jobs were created last month — half as many as under the Biden administration. These positions, often funded through government contracts, do not contribute to economic growth.
Ignoring these unproductive government and quasi-government jobs, the private-sector economy, led by small businesses, showed another solid month of hiring. Real wages increased significantly.
As Trump articulated in his address to Congress on Tuesday, his policies of deregulation and unleashing American energy are encouraging businesses to hire and expand. Nearly $2 trillion of productive business investment has been announced under Trump.
According to JCN’s latest poll, small business sentiment has taken a record jump with Trump’s return to the White House. Reports from Vistage and HRDive also point to an enthusiasm spike among CEOs, leading to hiring and expansion in the months ahead.
When Trump highlighted the surge in small business optimism in his Tuesday remarks, Democrats sneered and jeered. Small businesses are the most trusted institution in the country, and Democrats disrespect them at their peril.
While Trump is succeeding at cutting unproductive jobs, he needs help from Congress to create more productive jobs. That means making the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent to give small businesses the tax certainty they need to plan ahead.
Nearly 20 million small businesses benefit from the TCJA small business deduction every year, yet if Congress doesn’t act, the tax cuts expire at the end of the year.
“Armed with savings from the tax cuts, we were able to build a new laboratory, invest in new chemical compounding equipment, and purchase updated packaging lines,” explains Guy Berkebile, a chemical manufacturer in rural Pennsylvania. “On the human capital front, employees enjoyed higher bonuses, a new 401(k) program, and dozens of new colleagues.”
Extending the TCJA can lock in and create many more of these business success stories. Expanding them with provisions like annual 100% immediate expensing and a 25% small business tax deduction can do even more good for the economy and labor market.
Working together, Republicans can reduce economic deadweight and turbocharge the real economy, creating an economic Golden Age.
Alfredo Ortiz is CEO of Job Creators Network, author of “The Real Race Revolutionaries,” and co-host of the Main Street Matters podcast.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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