Day Seven of the Schumer Shutdown and President Trump has started to put some serious heat on the Democrats.

Here’s what he said today in the White House: “We have a lot of things that we’re going to eliminate and permanently eliminate.”  

He added: “We’re able to take out billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse. And they’ve handed, you know, two on a silver platter. And, you know, Russell Vought is a serious person, very serious person. And he’s sitting there and he’s getting ready to cut things.”

The president was speaking of his Office of Management and Budget director, Mr. Vought, who stands ready to basically go to DOGE 2.0. DOGE 1.0, by the way, already ended nearly 300,000 federal employees.

For the life of me, though, I don’t understand why the White House messaging doesn’t focus on the difference between essential and nonessential jobs and programs.

If nonessential personnel are being furloughed, why are they being brought back if they’re not essential?

It may be that the government can take care of these people with handsome severance pay when they are released. Again, if they’re not essential — why are they being brought back?

This should be a key administration message.

The president and the Senate leader, John Thune, and Speaker Mike Johnson have all agreed there can be no policy discussions until a continuing resolution is passed.

And the highly respected Harvard/Harris poll shows 65 percent of voters want the Democrats to vote for the clean continuing resolution. 

So the GOP is playing its cards right — and must play hardball on all the Democrats’ wannabe healthcare spending.

But that’s for a later date.

My key point is: a smaller government that prunes waste, fraud, and abuse — just as Elon Musk told us months ago — will reprivatize the economy and promote economic growth.

Which, after all, is the core mission and the real name of the game.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.