Episode
An $11 billion price tag gets attention. Understanding what government lost in the process may take a lot longer
- Published
- Jul 29, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 889
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Summary
Public Citizen has released a new analysis estimating that the deferred resignation program will cost taxpayers at least $11 billion. The report examines where that money went and what agencies may have lost as experienced employees left government service. That degraded mission performance is something much harder to put a price tag on. Here to walk through the analysis is Doug Pasternak, research director of Public Citizen’s Trump Accountability Project. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .