Originally posted October 1, 2025.

Deadline: 12:01 am, 1 October

What is essential? Some might say, not the governing body that, as of today, allows the government’s debt held by the public this month to surpass $30 trillion. Total debt, not counting the much larger entitlement promises made by politicians into the indefinite future, is headed toward $38 trillion. Next, suggests the WSJ, try also to compute the much larger entitlement promises politicians pledge into the indefinite future.

Essential or Excepted

Is today a good time to start eliminating nonessential federal jobs? Well, start here: of the roughly 2.4 million civilian federal employees, how many are looking at “Help Wanted” ads?

A letter to Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) finds some interesting possibilities in describing government operations in the event of a shutdown, reports James Freeman.

The Antideficiency Act

(This Act) requires most federal employees to stop working during a lapse in appropriations unless they are considered “excepted” and thus are required to perform specific tasks other than the regular functions of government… An Administration is required… to determine which executive branch employees are excepted and which to furlough. 

Who Remains Working?

Excepted employees carry out activities for the protection of life or property or other activities defined in a federal agency’s contingency plan in accordance with guidance from [the WH House Office of Management and Budget] and the Department of Justice.

How about those other souls not protecting life and limb, or even property? The CBO explains:

… under a lapse in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2026 about 750,000 employees could be furloughed each day; the total daily cost of their compensation would be roughly $400 million. 

Which leads us to the natural question: which employees are really needed in the normal course (like when politicians are not staging a shutdown drama)? DC’s fiscal mismanagement is legendary. Many readers will view the 750,000 essential figure as a lowball estimate.

With Washington’s fiscal mismanagement, the 750,000 figure may strike some readers as a really bad pitch for a serious government downsizing. As James Freeman notes, “If Washington could save $400 million a day on compensation, pretty soon we’d be talking about real money.”