Texas must take advantage of this moment to rein in its bloated government workforce and put taxpayers first. The resignation of 77,000 federal employees out of 2.2 million—and nearly 3 million including contractors—proves what we already knew: government is too big, inefficient, and expensive. And Texas isn’t immune.
Texas’s state and local governments employ 1.9 million people, draining resources from the private sector and creating a permanent class of taxpayer-funded jobs that often add little value. The government should serve the people, not exist as a jobs program.
The Texas House Delivery of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Committee has a rare opportunity to make lasting reforms. The Texas DOGE Committee will meet for the first time next week. This Committee should expose fraud, waste, abuse, and other excessive expenditures and regulations, often like what the federal DOGE does on X.com and elsewhere. This exposure improves transparency of how taxpayer dollars and resources are being wasted.
If government workers resigned because their positions weren’t necessary, why were taxpayers ever footing the bill? The federal government is finally facing some accountability, and Texas must follow suit. Temporary cuts aren’t enough—this must be a permanent shift toward a smaller, more efficient government that allows the free market to drive growth instead of bureaucratic expansion.
Government jobs don’t create wealth. They exist because tax dollars are taken from the productive sector—businesses, entrepreneurs, and workers who generate real economic value.
Local governments are just as guilty of overspending. Property taxes continue to rise, not due to a lack of funding but because local officials refuse to restrain spending. More government employees mean more salaries, pensions, and long-term liabilities that taxpayers are forced to cover.
This cycle is unsustainable. The DOGE committee must push for strict efficiency audits and ensure that voluntary resignations from unnecessary positions lead to real reductions, not just rehires down the road.
Trump and Congress now have the opportunity to make workforce reductions at the federal level permanent, and Texas should do the same.
If government jobs were unnecessary yesterday, they don’t suddenly become essential tomorrow. The exposure of fraud, waste, and abuse must be a turning point, not a passing Every unnecessary government job is a hidden tax on the economy, diverting capital from investment, job creation, and innovation. Instead of growing government payrolls, Texas should streamline agencies, eliminate redundant positions, and focus resources where they are needed.headline. The government must shrink, budgets must be cut, and taxpayers must see real relief.
This is the moment to restore fiscal sanity and let the private sector drive Texas forward.
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