Trump started right in with the agencies that have been taking it on the chin ever since Rick “Oops” Perry came after them in the last election: the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Fox was ready with a graphic showing the deficit at $544 billion, while the entire Department of Education only costs $78 billion and the EPA is $8 billion. Trump also promised to squeeze more money out of Medicare drug costs than Medicare spends on drugs.

Cruz was asked what agency would do the necessary stuff the IRS currently does. Without even a feint toward the question, Cruz replied by accusing the agency of becoming “politicized” by Obama.

Later, Cruz accused Trump of hiring aliens at a Florida hotel, insinuating that the aliens were illegal.

Trump responded that he only did that in “the season” when he could not hire Americans because it was so hot that they did not want the temporary jobs.

Kelly hit Trump with video clips of The Donald giving inconsistent answers on three issues.

As to whether the U.S. should have attacked Afghanistan, he claimed he misunderstood the question and was answering about Iraq.

As to whether Syrian refugees ought to be admitted to the U.S., he said he changed his mind in light of the number of refugees jumping dramatically.

As to whether Bush lied us into Iraq, he went wishy-washy about the distinction between a lie and being wrong.

When Trump claimed Trump University has an A rating from the Better Business Bureau, Kelly was ready with the report that the last rating was D-.

Rubio caught the only question about the lead poisoning of Flint, Michigan’s water supply. He orated at such length about poison in drinking water not being a partisan issue that it was almost possible to forget which party wants to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency.

Kasich was asked a philosophically related question. Should the feds bail out the Detroit schools? This was a major issue in the 1960 race between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy, but the debate then was on a much higher level.

Kasich did not actually answer the question, but he did channel Richard Nixon to say that schools are a state and local responsibility. This begs the question of what should be done when the state and local governments fail to educate the young.

Kasich was attacked for an answer in the last debate, when he demonstrated that he’s OK with public accommodations law applied to gay people. Kasich took the opportunity to filibuster about “common sense.”

With the predicate that even Justice Scalia said in his opinion that the Second Amendment protects an individual right that is not absolute, all the candidates were asked what kind of gun regulations they were prepared to support?

Short answer, from all candidates, “None.”

At the end of the questioning and all the peeing on each other’s shoes, the not-Trump candidates came to unanimous agreement on one other thing. If Trump is nominated, they will support him.

Having thus rendered the entire not-Trump argument moot, the would-be Trump thumpers had an opportunity to close.

Kasich started out “I have a record.” This year, he might as well have said, “I have a rap sheet.”

Rubio proved himself master of the obvious when he began, “This has been an unusual election cycle.”

Cruz gave a shout-out to the military and first responders and promised, “I will have your back.”

Trump said he would bring jobs back to the U.S., like nobody else can.

As in the last debate, Kasich refused to mud wrestle and turned every nonsense question back to some real issue. It will be interesting to see if acting like a grownup has any political advantage.

Trump and Rubio engaged in the most aggression, and my guess is that neither helped themselves.

Cruz probably improved his standing a bit (at the expense of Rubio for sure, and maybe Trump) without making any effort to answer the questions he was posed.

Romney’s attack probably produced a bump in Trump’s poll numbers to offset any losses from being the designated target of the evening, and so the candidates not named Trump traded a few points among themselves without making progress toward the declared goal of thumping Trump. Time’s Mark Halperin remarked on Morning Joe the next day that phallic Friday “lent a whole new meaning to The Donald.”

Here’s hoping the American people were greatly entertained by all this, since they are the ones in line to get the shaft.