I looked for a satire indication too, but I think this is real. He’s “reasoning” that if someone is on paid leave, someone has to hire someone else to do the work. It never occurs to him that if paid leave is a cost of hiring within the USA, employers are going to create fewer jobs here.
That’s the way gov’t agencies operate, but they have taxpayers that are forced to pay for it. They don’t have to worry about profit.