They’re going to have to start laying some people off, and for much of Washington, DC, that’s a completely foreign concept.

On the one hand it’s rather tough to have too much sympathy for them. They’ve been getting warnings about this since the day President Trump was sworn in. (Did they think he was kidding?) Orders went out to begin planning for consolidation of redundancies and generally shrinking the federal behemoth. At first there was a lot of dancing around and alternative options being explored. Early retirement packages and generous golden parachutes were in the works. Some people were finagling for transfers to other departments before their positions were eliminated.

But the cuts are coming and eventually the harsh light of inspection falls on everyone. The stated goals will not be reached by simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. A smaller federal government means fewer workers. And that means some people will have to go.

The remarkable thing about the article linked above is the seeming shock which the managers are experiencing. Lay somebody off? What does that even mean? We don’t lay people off. They come here and stay until they retire or die. That’s how it works.