As cynical as that rhetoric is, it's not the problem. The article answers the question quite convincingly, though it takes eight paragraphs to get there: gover

As cynical as that rhetoric is, it's not the problem. The article answers the question quite convincingly, though it takes eight paragraphs to get there: government jobs don't pay well and governments[1] are very slow to adjust worker pay to market conditions. So no one wants to work these jobs because they're working better jobs elsewhere. [1] Across the ideological spectrum. Sure, republicans might have a cynical reason to want to torpedo the government, but no bureaucrat wants to raise pay scales. It's all downsides from the perspective of middle management.