Influencer: “Someone qualifies as an influencer if they have a significant and engaged online following, allowing them to influence the opinions, behaviors, and purchasing decisions of their audience, often within a specific niche or industry.” Definition taken from Google.
The influencers at the White House may not be influencers by a legal definition or by a typical definition. Influencers President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are, shall I say, special influencers. Their social media information and misinformation is generated by little thought or actual data. For example, neither thought or data of actual governmental waste/cost was given to justify firing federal employees by tens of thousands only to have to hire many of them back.
Does hap-hazardly firing tens of thousands of federal employees save governmental waste? The General Accountability Office investigates and reports data regarding governmental waste, abuse and fraud to the Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Republican Susan Collins from Maine. According to the GAO report, ”federal agencies spend about $1.7 billion annually to operate a fleet of about 387,0000 vehicles.” Among government agencies, excess, unused/ barely used vehicles which does not include mail carrier vehicles or military combat vehicles, cost taxpayers $300 million/year. Based on data, the Committee writes bills for legislation to stop waste and hold agencies more accountable.
Researching, investigating mismanagement of funds, writing a report and authoring legislation requires a lot of critical thinking skills. What a thought provoking process unlike the impulsive actions exhibited by special White House influencers who ruin lives.
Glenda Luebke,
Chilton
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This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: LETTERS: No data given on waste to justify firing federal workers