The bad news: death and taxes are still inevitable. The good news: an ever-expanding federal government is not.

That statement would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago, when President Joe Biden was hiring tens of thousands of new IRS employees (speaking of taxes) and increasing State Department staff by 22%. Biden came into office complaining that the first Trump administration had “hollowed” the federal workforce and was determined to create a “strong, healthy” federal civil service. He grew it by 6% during his term.