Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Jen Bendery, senior politics reporter for HuffPost.

Bendery discussed the significant reduction in the federal workforce, noting that 199,000 jobs have been cut since January, decimating the 2.3 million-strong workforce. She highlighted the role of Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought in driving the cuts. 

Bendery also criticized the Trump administration's disregard for the negative impact the cuts are having on good governance and public health. 

"They just want to pull every lever possible to impose as many cuts to areas that they want as possible, period," she told WCPT. "If they break laws doing it or if they do take unlawful actions, they'll find that out in court later. That's their whole M.O.

"So when you think about that as the driving factor here, then all of these other, much more thoughtful, holistic questions you have about, well, won't that hurt people, won't that force a lot of people out of their jobs and leave them unemployed, won't that mean people will die through what [the Department of Health and Human Services] is doing, or we cut foreign aid by billions -- won't that hurt people overseas? Yeah, of course it will. But that's not what they're thinking about. They're only thinking about cutting headcount and cutting federal spending with large numbers."

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.

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