. . . we could probably just plain eliminate 20% of the federal government and few people would even notice, except those whose pay checks stopped.
More than that, I'll wager.
Some years ago, when I was living in the People's Republic of Minnesota, virtually all the state's public employees went on strike.
Ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars kept rolling.
The lights stayed on, water kept running, banks remained open, the airports kept operating.
Street repairs continued, supermarkets kept being restocked, hospitals and doctor's offices stayed open.
Aside from students at U of M who had longer lines to stand in during registration,
virtually nobody noticed the strike. And after a couple of weeks, when THAT little tidbit began to be reported on the news and local talk radio, the strike was settled.
(Do
YOU personally remember missing anything when Clinton "shut down" the Federal government when he vetoed the GOP budget a couple of times?)