I would counter that impression with my personal experience of working with many different types of government employees at local, state and federal levels. Most are very good and committed to what they do. Are there bad apples that could be tossed out of the barrel? You bet! Making it easier to terminate the poor employees would be a good thing in my mind.
But let's get serious about what has happened in government for several decades. Instead of hiring full-time equivalent (FTE) positions, federal departments have resorted to contracting for people to work in their departments. It has gotten to the point that I now generally ask when I meet someone if they are a "contractor" or an "employee." This is where the majority of bloating has occurred and not without economic impact to the cost of having a contractor instead of an employee.
So then, there is this story yesterday from The Washington Post, Trump has a plan for government workers. They’re not going to like it and I say, start with eliminating contractors to reduce the size of the workforce and then, yes — some improvements are needed to the civil service system. But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater because it sounds good to do so. You will end up with "sick" organizations that perform poorly and you have not reduced government or improved services one iota.
