And that puts the federal government workforce at at 2015 levels when Obama was president. (It was bloated then, too.)

Of course, reducing the government workforce without eliminating unnecessary functions or privatizing needed functions could result in inefficiencies. That will need to be considered, but the reduction is a step in the right direction.

When the Democrats shut down the government recently, some federal employees simply retired, which I’m sure many Democrats consider an “unintended consequence.”

Private sector job growth is lacking. Tariffs are likely a major culprit, particularly for smaller businesses that have a harder time absorbing the added costs from those taxes, and for manufacturing firms, which have lost 81,000 jobs in the past year.

Hopefully many of the unemployed federal workers are finding more productive jobs in the private sector. That will require Trump abandoning his market interference policies like tariffs, seizing control of private businesses, and ignoring unnecessary regulations which do nothing but stifle economic growth.