The political class in Washington wants you to believe the sky is falling. Every time the government nears a shutdown, Democrats screech that America is about to collapse. Yet the last few weeks have proven the exact opposite. Public opinion is not with them, and they know it.

Why? Because ordinary Americans aren’t stupid. They see what Democrats are fighting for, and it isn’t safer streets, secure borders, or more freedom. It’s more “free stuff.” The Democrats have gone to the wall to preserve and expand subsidies for the Affordable Care Act—a program that feels “free” only because taxpayers are forced to underwrite it. When politicians scream that a shutdown will “harm” Americans, what they mean is it will interrupt the handouts that keep their coalition addicted to government dependence.

Meanwhile, President Trump is making noises about doing what no president has had the courage to do—actually eliminating entire swaths of government that serve no useful purpose to the American people. Agencies that have long been bloated bureaucracies, producing red tape instead of results, could face the budget axe. That isn’t a threat to the American way of life; it’s a return to it.

And here’s the kicker: most Americans agree. A majority—certainly the majority that voted Trump into office—want a smaller government, not a larger one. They are tired of working........

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