Columnist David Marcus ventures to Parkersburg, W. Va., home of the federal Bureau of Fiscal Service, where some locals fear for their jobs.
Democrats here have managed to scare many of the local folks into thinking that a visit from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency means that the federal Bureau of Fiscal Service, a big employer in town, is in danger of closing.
Jeff Fox, the Wood County Democratic Party Chair said early this week, that “the prospect of DOGE’s intervention raises serious concerns about job security for our residents who dedicated their lives to public service.”
TRUMP SIGNS ORDER INSTRUCTING DOGE TO MASSIVELY CUT FEDERAL WORKFORCE
Having spent a few days in town, I did talk to locals who were worried about this, so I thought, why not ask West Virginia’s extremely popular new senator and former governor about it? Here is what Jim Justice had to say:
“I am aware of the government efficiency team coming to Parkersburg, and I’m supportive of their effort to locate wasteful spending,” Justice said. “This building is the accounting for dollars flowing in and out of our Treasury. It makes sense why President Trump would look there to locate reckless spending. For what we know at this time, this is an effort to find waste, not to layoff folks working in Parkersburg.”
The fact that layoffs are not in the offing here did not stop about a hundred protesters from marching around the Bureau of Fiscal Service on Tuesday screaming bloody murder about Elon Musk.
I suspected this might happen, which was why I came here. But I wasn’t sure until Tuesday morning. Having breakfast at my hotel and across from me was a woman wearing a West Virginia ACLU t-shirt and jacket. One or the other could have been a coincidence. Both were a tell.
I walked around the corner to “A Man’s Place,” a barber shop where Rich, who has been there since 1973, gave me a great straight razor haircut, and where I chatted with an older retired gentleman who got there just before me.
He was legitimately concerned about local jobs at the BFS, but he also told me, “We voted for Trump to cut waste. We’ve gotta give him a chance.” At the time I had not yet spoken to Sen. Justice’s office. I wish I could have dispelled that fear, but maybe he’ll read this.
After the short walk back to Government Square, the crowd had assembled, and I bumped into Walt, an attorney who I had met the night before. He carried a sign imploring that we need a Lincoln, not a DOGE.
He was kind enough to introduce me around, and I will say everyone was very nice, even when they found out where I worked.
I talked to Kyle, who said he is an “investigative reporter” for the ACLU, and I asked him what specifically they were protesting.
“None of this is transparent,” he told me of DOGE. “We don’t know who these people are or what they are doing.” The ACLU wasn’t protesting potential job losses, they were protesting over data privacy, but that nuance was not clear to the rest of the town.
The lack of clarity over exactly what DOGE is doing is real. Even I had to talk to a Senate office to find out what was going on. And Musk’s odd performance in the Oval Office later on Tuesday, with his son climbing all over him, was more distracting than clarifying.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
But, that having been said, fear-mongering by Democrats is scaring people, and they have a responsibility to be clear, honest, and transparent about what dangers they think DOGE holds.
One thing that jumped out at me in the midst of the protest was that the name “Donald Trump” was barely uttered, nor was it written on signs. All of the ire and anger of this protest was directed straight at Elon Musk.
Expect this to continue. After all, Trump is the president, and there is nothing Democrats can do about that. He is also, by modern standards, very popular right now, so the goal now is not to paint the GOP as the party of Trump, but as the party of Musk.
For now, it seems that the solid government jobs that undergird this sleepy, picturesque hamlet are safe, and shame on Democrats for baselessly suggesting otherwise. But the Trump administartion and Musk should know that people really are nervous about this breakneck change that is happening.
The federal government is not an unmanned rocket ship that we can blow up and learn lessons from. It impacts the daily lives of millions of Americans, and as unacceptable as the Democrats’ lies are, the American people could use a little more clarity.
