James Freeman asked this question in his Tuesday Wall Street Journal op-ed, regarding the bureaucrats in the Federal government.
The government, and I [ahem], answered this question during an earlier Progressive-Democrat-led Federal government shutdown, and we’re about to get an empirical demonstration with the current Schumer Shutdown which began Wednesday morning. Here’s what that earlier shutdown demonstrated about the number of bureaucrats actually needed:
| Office | Per Cent Nonessential |
| White House | 74 |
| Treasury | 82 |
| Labor | 82 |
| Interior | 81 |
| EPA | 94 |
| NASA | 97 |
| Housing and Urban Development | 96 |
| Education | 94 |
| Commerce | 87 |
| Smithsonian | 84 |
There are others, also, with a different per centage of nonessentials:
| Office | Per Cent Nonessential |
| U.S. Commission of Fine Arts | 100 |
| U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness | 100 |
| USDA Risk Management Agency | 100 |
| Federal Maritime Commission | 100 |
| Economic Development Administration | 100 |
| Minority Business Development Agency | 100 |
There’s a more complete list over at Slate.
The short answer is: not many of the bureaucrats on the payroll are actually needed. The longer answer will be begun to be delivered with the RIF that the OMB has instructed Executive Branch Departments and Agencies to prepare lists for, with those lists beginning with programs and projects currently unfunded and that do not align with Presidential policy. The answer will be expanded on by all the Leftist and Civil Service union lawsuits objecting to the RIF, even to preparing for a RIF. Those lawsuits will prove the lack of need for those bureaucrats.