Responding to a question from a federal worker about federal pay freezes, sequestration and furloughs, President Barack Obama pivoted to broadly defending the federal government during a town hall event in Minneapolis, Minn on Thursday.

“Folks in the federal government, the overwhelming majority, they work really hard doing really important stuff,” Obama said. “I don’t know when it was that somehow working for government, whether the state or local or federal level, somehow became not a real job. This whole idea that somehow government’s the enemy, or the problem, is just not true.”