We live in an age when it is increasingly difficult to terminate employees. Some companies go through an abundance of caution before terminating an employee unless they’re caught doing some egregious. Firing an employee for poor work performance is more difficult. It is nearly impossible when the person works for the federal government.

The protections for federal workers often come as the result of federal unions negotiating with friendly Democrats in Congress to gain those protections. The unions repay the favor by endorsing Democrats and donating to their campaigns. It is quite a racket. And it is one that is a drain on taxpayer dollars as well as efficiencies within government agencies. If there is no fear of being terminated, what point is there in working hard?

It used to be that people worked government jobs for the exchange of lower pay than the private sector in return for lucrative benefits and well-paid pensions. That is no longer the case. The Cato Institute did a study showing federal employees make more than their private-sector counterparts. And they still get the generous benefits and pension.

Hopefully, that time has come to an end:

President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are drawing up plans to take on the government bureaucracy they have long railed against, by eroding job protections and grinding down benefits that federal workers have received for a generation.

Hiring freezes, an end to automatic raises, a green light to fire poor performers, a ban on union business on the government’s dime and less generous pensions — these are the contours of the blueprint emerging under Republican control of Washington in January.

These changes were once unthinkable to federal employees, their unions and their supporters in Congress. But Trump’s election as an outsider promising to shake up a system he told voters is awash in “waste, fraud and abuse” has conservatives optimistic that they could do now what Republicans have been unable to do in the 133 years since the civil service was created.

The free ride is over. The pension is a relic of the past, and it should go the way of the dinosaur in the federal government. Federal employees get paid handsomely for their work, and it is the time they started contributing more to their health care benefits and shift from a pension system to a free market 401K based system.

Also, when a federal employee spends the bulk of his day looking at pornography instead of working, he should be fired on the spot, not put on “administration leave” for 30 days before a decision is made.