The progressive chattering classes are all in a tizzy because many of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees are long-time opponents of the departments they’ve been chosen to lead:
- Rick Perry at Energy – who has advocated disbanding the entire department and reducing a cabinet seat
- Ben Carson at HUD, who has criticized federal housing
- Betsy DeVos at Education – a major proponent of school choice and degrading the government monopoly on education
- Scott Pruitt at the EPA, an agency against whom he’s spent years litigating
- Andy Puzder at Labor, who would oppose most “progressive” labor regulations
- Tom Price at HHS, who advocates rolling back Obamacare.
The chattering classes are all aflutter. Perhaps because most of these departments are nothing but make-work programs for worthless Ivy Leaguer poli sci grads like, well, themselves.
Or perhaps because the American people might just support it:
And that leads us to the really burning question: Will anyone miss those departments if they go away?
We could try to answer that question by diving into the bitterly partisan political and economic debate over the size of government that’s been dividing people in this country since the days of Jefferson and Hamilton. Or we could wisely dump that academic argument and realize that the answer lies in how well the Trump team manages to make sure the changes get noticed by normal voters in a positive way. In politics, perception truly is reality.
And Trump, for all his faults, gets that better than most other Republicans. For worse or, when it comes to slashing the size and power of the Federal Government ,much much better.
