The Trump administration is threatening to use the government shutdown to permanently reduce the size of the civil service. Its ambitions for these cuts are many, including punishing Democrats by harming their pet projects and curbing “agencies that don’t align with the administration’s values” and are a “waste of the taxpayer dollar,” as Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned last week. Yet as a tool to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the federal government, these cuts are risible.