The US federal government had a lot of money going into people and activities that were contrary to Republican political values. Finding new structures through which government money can flow is just as much of a goal as removing the unwanted ones. The result should be a government that does valuable things for the American people. For USAID, the Department of Education, and others, their value proposition has been weakened by outsize expenditures that both increased bureaucracy and pushed socio-political agendas.

To your last point, the difference between private sector debt and federal government debt is the former has to pay it off or face consequences, while the latter never has to pay it and can simply print more money. Rather than taxing the rich, such a nation can simply expand the market for its own currency via decades of imperialist strategy. It is what it is. Anyway, exactly how much money you or I think the government should be printing per day doesn't change the fact that easy money leads to frivolous spending.

"Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times"

Who exactly would need 1.5x the $ to absorb these federal workers into the private sector? I think you have it backwards. With less competition from the federal government in the labor market, the private sector can now scoop up ex-federal talent for 2/3 of what they'd normally pay.

Wasteful spending in the private sector looks like yachts, lavish events, and mansions. In the government, wasteful spending often looks like perfection. Taking information security as an example, the private industry pushed for the NIST CSF because it was more efficient than the government's NIST RMF / SP 800-53. While the latter is more comprehensive, you end up with wasteful excesses like network printers needing FIPS 199 moderate risk control baselines.

Cuts to the managerial class, as has been advocated by Republicans, will reduce these excesses and push people into career paths that produce actual value. If it backfires and leads to an economic downturn, then fine, because I'm OK with property prices going down in one of the most expensive areas in the whole country.