About Our Broken Politics, Broken Media, Broken Republic

Up to 50,000+ experienced career federal employees—scientists, economists, policy experts—could be fired and replaced with political loyalists lacking expertise.

AFGE v. Trump

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 was passed to change the disruptive "spoils system" of political patronage into a professional, merit-based civil service. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 created the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which further refined the system.

The President has fired civil service employees, which has resulted in the AFGE v. Trump lawsuit and others pending in lower courts. If ruled in Trump's favor, the President would be granted full executive power over the Civil Service with devastating effects.

[About the case]

Who Are These Civil Servants?

It is our Civil Service that generates government information that we Americans, and indeed the world, depend upon. These people are civil servants, NOT politicians. They are the scientists, economists, health specialists, and other experts in their fields, and they are regular citizens serving their country. This is now at risk.

Professionals in our agencies would be subject to job loss for presenting data and evidence that may run counter to the political desires of the President. We could easily be blinded to critical information. This has already been attempted by this administration by removing or obscuring scientific data about climate and various health issues.

The IRS is Dysfunctional

In 2023 Congress appropriated $78.9 billion in additional mandatory funding to the IRS with approximately $45.6 billion designated for enforcement specifically. These targeted tax filings involve complicated shell companies, off-shore investments, and other financial instruments that require intense investigation to clarify and act upon. Approximately $40+ billion (92% of the enforcement account) has been slashed.

These funds have been cut, allowing fraudulent filings to continue, delighting our wealthy and powerful overlords. This was done under the rubric of "protecting the US taxpayer from IRS abuse," which is patently false.

Nearly 7,000 IRS employees have been fired, and plans are in the works to close more than 110 Taxpayer Assistance Centers.

The CBO estimates that the cuts will result in $65.8 billion in lost revenue over ten years and the tax gap (owed but unpaid) will explode to about $7 trillion over the next ten years. The CBO estimates that 70% of the tax gap is from the top 1% of earners.

There are valid debates about the size and scope of IRS enforcement. However, the Congressional Budget Office, using standard nonpartisan methods, shows that these cuts will increase the deficit while primarily benefiting the wealthiest Americans who engage in sophisticated tax avoidance.

The CDC is No Longer Science-Based

By law, primarily the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) of 1944, the CDC's mandate is to protect public health by controlling the spread of infectious diseases, detecting threats, preventing illness, and promoting health, with authority to make and enforce regulations for quarantines, inspections, and sanitation to prevent diseases from entering or spreading within the U.S.

The budget of the CDC is debatable and may indeed have become bloated over the years, but its core function is necessary for the health of the nation.

Going back to the 1960s, the Directors of the CDC held MD, PhD, and MPH (Master of Public Health) degrees. These were top people in their fields. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. holds none of these degrees.

Loss of Professional Advisory Boards

CDC has many advisory boards, such as:

- The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which recommends vaccine policies
- Several Boards of Scientific Counselors for specific centers like Infectious Diseases and Injury Prevention and Control
- The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health
- The CDC/HRSA Advisory Committee on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and STD Prevention and Treatment

In the past, these advisory boards were staffed with persons of expertise from various disciplines such as epidemiology, pediatrics, and public health. The qualifications for hiring were required by the charters of the various committees. This is no longer the case.

For example, the entire staff of the ACIP was fired in June 2025. Subsequent appointments are concerning.

Examples of Problematic Appointments

Dr. Robert W. Malone, MD - MD from Northwestern University, physician-scientist and biochemist, early researcher in mRNA technology (late 1980s).

The problem with Dr. Malone is his penchant to make bombastic claims without evidence or counter to evidence. His promotion of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as COVID-19 treatments are unsupported by any rigorous investigations. He has also claimed that spike proteins from vaccines are toxic and cause cancer. Dr. Malone is not board-certified in any specialty. He has no recent peer-reviewed publications on vaccine development since 1990.

Vicky Pebsworth, PhD, RN - PhD in Public Health and Nursing, University of Michigan (1999), Registered Nurse (ICU background).

Ms. Pebsworth is a sad but very human case. Her son has severe autism, which she has continued to blame on thimerosal (containing mercury) in childhood vaccines. In 2001, thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines with no change in autism rate. There is no credible science to back up this claim. Her bias on this issue should disqualify her.

Others appointed to this agency have similar disqualifying issues. We want all drugs and medical procedures to be robustly demonstrated to be safe and effective, before and after widespread use.

The Importance of Evidence-Based Recommendations

Considering that big Pharma spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year lobbying Congress and its agencies, it is wise to be aware of this confounding influence. Scientists have an expression: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." The anti-vaccine movement is untethered to this axiom. All drugs have risks and benefits.

Recommendations to the public by the CDC must be evidence-based and without bias or outside influence.

Other problems with the CDC under RFK include the disengagement from world health bodies. This blinds us to impending threats of pandemics and other threats to our health.

The rhetoric from the CDC about vaccines is a good example of the danger we face, and is ironically countered by Trump himself, who has often bragged that "We saved 2 million people." Trump frequently used this figure, referencing early projections from doctors that 1.6 to 2.2 million people were saved by the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit.

Cancelled Research

Since January 2025, the Trump administration has canceled nearly $500 million in research grants. Some of these cancellations are justifiable, but many are not.

Research on mental health, addiction, climate change, aspects of HIV/AIDS research, mRNA vaccine technologies, and $800 million worth of research into cancers and viruses have all been canceled. Many of these grants funded long-term studies that will now be useless because of data gaps.

Many of these cuts were made by DOGE staff who have no medical or epidemiological qualifications. Many of these cuts were made under the rubric of a DEI purge. Do we really want a monolithic culture with inequity and exclusion?

Summary: The Destruction of Expertise

The systematic replacement of career professionals with political loyalists represents a fundamental threat to our government's ability to function effectively. When expertise is replaced with ideology, when scientists are replaced with political appointees, and when evidence-based decision-making is replaced with political expediency, we all suffer the consequences.

The civil service was designed to provide continuity, expertise, and nonpartisan service to the American people. Destroying this system doesn't make government more efficient—it makes it more vulnerable to corruption, incompetence, and political manipulation.