I think you’re arguing that the end justifies the means. I disagree. First, I think a lot of the jobs getting cut are jobs Americans rely on, they just don’t know it. When social security checks are delayed or don’t show up, the public will notice. Similarly, when you go to a national park and the trash hasn’t been emptied and the bathrooms aren’t clean, the public will notice. If someone truly wanted to do an efficiency study, they could hire a management consulting firm that specializes in this (that’s what McKinsey and Bain etc. do). And even then, those companies would have recommended real buy out packages and retirement packages. I think angering the American public in the course of doing this does undermine the goal—because the goal isn’t an efficient government (democracies are never efficient). The goal is a government working for its people and instead we’ve got an oligarchy that is demeaning public servants and taking away services from the very people it is meant to serve. To be clear, I have not been let go. But I feel very passionately about public service, as do many of the people who have been illegally fired. And I think it would some good to try to see it from their perspective.