Below is a slightly modified version of my column in USA Today on the apoplectic response of Washington to the efforts of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to reduce the size of government. Democrats have declared the effort to be pure “evil” and responded with rage rhetoric and profanity in public demonstrations. In a town with only one industry, reducing government is a sacrilegious act. It is one thing to run on reducing government and quite another thing to actually mean it. However, the deferred buyout shows how both members and unions are working against not only constitutional powers, but the desire of the employees themselves.

Here is the column:

Thomas Paine once remarked, “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” With the approaching 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, much has clearly changed.

President Donald Trump’s move to reduce government is now portrayed as evil in its own right. Elon Musk’s move to draw down various agencies was presented as a virtual return to the state of nature.

Democratic members staged protests in front of various agencies to declare “war” and to accuse Trump of “destroying the government” by shrinking it. Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D., Md.) declared “Every time you hear DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, you just remember it is the department of government evil.”