It’s a shame that every American doesn’t have the same retirement package as the man arguably most responsible for wrecking their retirement savings. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, announced he will retire in December. And the current highest-paid federal official will do so while earning an annual pension of at least $350,000.

Retiring doesn’t mean retiring, however. “While I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring,” insisted the 81-year-old Fauci. “After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field.” That no doubt means the nation’s foremost celebrity doctor will cash in on the speaking circuit and a lucrative book deal or two.

Life’s hard for Science Himself.

“Whether you’ve met him personally or not,” gushed Joe Biden, “he has touched all Americans’ lives with his work.”

That’s one way to put it. Fauci, Deborah Birx, and other elite scientists gave power-hungry politicians all the excuse they needed to shut down the economy over the coronavirus in March 2020. Millions of people lost their jobs and/or their retirement savings, schoolchildren were robbed of critical years of education, and the economy is still in upheaval with worker shortages, supply chain disruption, and rampant inflation. Trillions upon trillions of dollars has been added to the national debt to pay for this government-caused economic wreckage. Americans of all ages struggle with mental health repercussions from the lockdowns, and free speech has perhaps never been more endangered thanks to the jackbooted thugs who “fact-check” everything that contradicts Fauci’s latest pronouncement.

So, yeah, you could say that Fauci “touched all Americans’ lives.” Better, you could echo Senator Ted Cruz, who said, “Never in our nation’s history has one arrogant bureaucrat destroyed more people’s lives.”

As our Mark Alexander put it, “From the time Donald Trump brought Anthony Fauci to a White House podium, 26 February 2020, his pandemic prescription did more damage to the country than the ChiCom virus could ever do. Obviously, he is getting out of town before Republicans can retake the House.”

That won’t stop congressional Republicans from aiming to hold him to account.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy noted, “Dr. Fauci lost the trust of the American people when his guidance unnecessarily kept schools closed and businesses shut while obscuring questions about his knowledge on the origins of COVID. He owes the American people answers. A @HouseGOP majority will hold him accountable.”

Senator Rand Paul, who’s been dogged in his pursuit of the truth regarding Fauci’s role in the gain-of-function research that likely led to the release of the plague upon the world, issued a similar warning: “Fauci’s resignation will not prevent a full-throated investigation into the origins of the pandemic. He will be asked to testify under oath regarding any discussions he participated in concerning the lab leak.”

Fauci has repeatedly lied about gain-of-function research, as well as stubbornly refusing even to consider that COVID came from a biolab studying coronaviruses in Wuhan, China, the city where everyone knows it originated. But he now smugly insists he’s not worried about Paul or anyone else because “there is nothing that I cannot defend.”

In March 2020, Fauci infamously promised “15 days to slow the spread.” That same month, he asserted without equivocation, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.” He reversed himself on both positions, of course, becoming a mask and lockdown Nazi because, he argued, it was the “evolution of the science.” Many Americans couldn’t shake the sense that it was just Fauci who’d changed. He practically admitted as much to The New York Times in December 2020.

Asked recently about any mistakes he thought he’d made, he answered that he’d have made sure lockdowns and mask mandates were “much, much more stringent.”

The fact that the retirement of a swamp bureaucrat is big national news should be the first clue that something was very, very wrong with his work. In fact, as the editors of The Wall Street Journal aptly note, “His legacy will be that millions of Americans will never trust government health experts in the same way again.” So, Dr. Fauci, as the saying goes, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

(Updated)