San Francisco Chronicle: The $1,000-a-month worker targeted by DOGE

By Joe Garofoli, Senior Political Writer – May 6, 2025

The scattershot, shortsighted and poorly conceived cuts by the President Trump and the Elon Musk-directed Department of Government Efficiency aren’t just hitting the unelected government bureaucrats hated by MAGA world. They are also affecting people like Alfanzo Rodriguez, a $1,000-a-month worker who helps kids struggling to get by in East Oakland. 

Last week DOGE cut $400 million from AmeriCorps, the national volunteer program that connects young adults to volunteer opportunities in poor neighborhoods. That reduction will include $60 million in federal funds for California’s nationally emulated volunteer programs, California Service Corps. They are people who are helping out in classrooms and food banks, planting trees, and distributing relief supplies to state wildfire victims — the largely unseen work that is integral to communities across the state.