I've never heard the "news" ask "if they're non-essential, what are we paying them for anyway?" They dont want to ask that question, because in long ago and far away land, they were known as the civil service, jobs people took when they were unqualified for anything of value or use to society at large and so they pushed paper at the BMV, or collected trash, but first they had to get rid of the word "service", because that implies they are there to serve people, then they had to unionize, then they had to get smug and unfireable, as far as I know about 99% of government employees vote democrat, they call it job security.