Why Donald Trump Is SpongeBob SquarePants

Though we can laugh at SpongeBob and Patrick as they claim victory while their city burns, what is happening in America today is real life, and it is deadly serious.

By Max Stier

In an iconic episode of SpongeBob SquarePants with the city burning in the background, SpongeBob tells his friend, “We did it, Patrick! We saved the city!” President Donald Trump and his billionaire sidekick, Elon Musk, claim to be saving our government by reducing wasteful spending and eliminating inefficiencies when, in fact, they are a waste-making machine, and, like SpongeBob and Patrick, burning it all down.

There is no doubt our government could be more effective, but Trump and Musk’s ill-named Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE) is taking us in the wrong direction.

Though the administration’s list of counterproductive actions putatively designed to save money is quite long, three stand out: the firing of independent inspectors general whose actual job it is to address government waste, fraud, and abuse; the decimation of the IRS, the primary means of bringing revenue into the government; and the purging of the government’s most vital resource, our nonpartisan civil servants.

The IGs

Trump so far has fired nearly 20 inspectors general without cause, which the IGs have correctly argued in a lawsuit is “antithetical to good government, undermines the proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and degrades the federal government’s ability to function effectively and efficiently.”

A recent report by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency found that the work of the government’s IGs collectively saved taxpayers $93.1 billion in fiscal 2023.

Why fire the watchdogs? One can only assume the president does not want independent oversight or any possible critique of what he and Musk are doing that undermines the work of federal agencies and the critical services they provide.

The firings also sent a signal that negative reports about the administration would be viewed as disloyal. In February, the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development was fired after releasing a report that raised questions about the freeze of foreign aid and the drastic reductions to the workforce. About two weeks later, the Washington Post reported his successor had been accused of withholding two critical reports on Trump’s funding freeze of crucial services in Africa and the Middle East due to concerns of retaliation.

The IRS

Two years ago, the IRS initiated a major overhaul made possible by funding from the Inflation Reduction Act designed, in part, to close the country’s roughly $600 billion tax gap – the money tax cheats aren’t paying -- by improving the agency’s tax administration. Recent IRS layoffs have already paused audits of large corporations and high-value taxpayers, sabotaging that effort. Now there are reports that the administration plans to cut as many as 20,000 IRS staffers — up to 25% of the workforce.

IRS officials said the result would be a more than 10% drop in tax receipts by the April 15 filing deadline — or more than $500 billion in lost revenue. Put in plain terms, the $500 billion is nearly twice the cost of the federal civilian workforce, meaning you would have to fire the entire workforce nearly twice over to make up for the money it will lose by gutting the IRS. These anticipated losses do not yet take into account the much larger staff cuts to come.

The IRS collects about 95% of all federal revenue every year. The arbitrary firing of IRS employees who ensure those funds are fully and fairly collected is a senseless waste of taxpayer dollars, betrays the very purpose of government and degrades rather than improves its financial bottom line.

The Civil Service

The IRS workforce reductions are just part of a much larger, aggressive, and senseless attack on federal employees, with the administration sidestepping civil service protections and the law to indiscriminately purge tens of thousands of apolitical, merit-based federal employees under the pretext of increased efficiency and cost savings.

Dedicated civil servants have been arbitrarily shoved out the door and subjected to a campaign of harassment. In the meantime, critical services and work centering on veterans, seniors, farmers, the poor, the environment, public health and scientific research have been curtailed and will be less effective while federal organizations and their missions from the USAID and the Voice of America to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services have been eviscerated without rhyme or reason.

Destroying the workforce and gutting agencies in this irrational and arbitrary way is dealing with waste just like someone who refuses to pay their electric and utility bills to save money and then has to sit around in the dark with no water, no heat, or means to cook a meal. Given the gargantuan loss of expertise, experience, and public dedication, restarting the many critical government services will be expensive, difficult and take many years.

Though we can laugh at SpongeBob and Patrick as they claim victory while their city burns around them, what is happening in America today is real life, and it is deadly serious. This is no time for complacency or silence for anyone. Congress has the duty of reasserting its prerogatives and putting the flames out. The courts need to stand firm against executive overreach that violates the rule of law and our constitution. And ultimately it is the public that needs to engage and hold to account leaders who are violating their responsibilities to the public good.

Max Stier is the founding president and CEO of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, an organization focused on building a better government and a stronger democracy.

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