Letters to the editor Nov. 19

The right direction

President-elect Donald Trump has already demonstrated that he has learned from his first term appointment mistakes by selecting mainly non-Washington people for important jobs. The most exciting is his nomination of Pete Hegseth, a decorated soldier, for secretary of Defense. Perhaps we will finally get rid of the woke culture that has decimated our fighting forces both in numbers and readiness.

I am equally excited by the appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the new Department of Government Efficiency aimed at reducing the glutted 2.9 million people comprising the federal workforce. The spurious narrative that these people sacrifice private sector salary and benefits to serve in the government is hogwash. With the exception of those with advanced degrees (and even they are not much higher) federal employee combined wage and benefits exceed the private sector. Not to mention that it is virtually impossible for them to be fired.