...but we are Drain The Swamp lovers.
It is something he HAS to do.
That federal bureaucracy is as dug in as the Vietcong were in their tunnels. The mantra of the agencies is that they are all politics-proof and will outlast elected officials and appointees.
I’ll never forget the day that Dick Cheney, the SecDef, presented the first post-Cold War DOD budget that sought the so-called “peace dividend” and slashed the Pentagon request.
The caterwauling came from both sides of the aisle and from far and near. When they saw their nearby military installation suddenly targeted for shut-down, or sub-agencies rife with bureaucrat jobs put on the chopping block, well, even the biggest doves in Congress became wild-ass hawks.
The bureaucracy is well-versed in how to sustain itself. It is its ONLY area of true expertise.
I was stationed at the Pentagon the summer of 1990. I can tell you, we knew, and by the end of July, there were some exceedlingly long faces, especially in the higher-ups. Generals and Admirals, Colonels and Captains almost too glum to even snap a salute on the way to and from the parking lots. Like a bunch of people going to a funeral...
I wasn’t too worried, I was a Master Sergeant and wasn’t worried about my career opportunities!
Anyway, then Saddam invaded Kuwait on August 2nd.
I’ve never seen such a transformation in such short a time. By the next day, a Friday, the place was hopping like a toad on a Texas sidewalk in July!
I jokingly referred to this early period before Desert Shield as “Operation Save My Job”.