Federal workers are America’s new favorite target. Last week, President Obama proposed freezing their pay for two years. “Getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifices,” he said, “and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government.” Meanwhile, the president’s bipartisan deficit commission endorsed a three-year pay freeze and a 200,000-person reduction of the federal workforce. But are federal workers really the problem behind the struggling economy and the bloated budget? To answer, let’s first dispense with some widespread misunderstandings about our federal workforce.