The era of big government has returned with a vengeance, in the form of the largest federal work force in modern history.
The Obama administration says the government will grow to 2.15 million employees this year, topping 2 million for the first time since President Clinton declared that “the era of big government is over” and joined forces with a Republican-led Congress in the 1990s to pare back the federal work force.
Most of the increases are on the civilian side, which will grow by 153,000 workers, to 1.43 million people, in fiscal 2010.
The expansion could provide more ammunition to those arguing that the government is trying to do too much under President Obama.
The new figures are contained in the budget that Mr. Obama sent Monday to Congress.
Mr. Obama says the civilian work force will drop by 80,000 next year, mostly because of a reduction in U.S. census workers added in 2010 but then dropped in 2011 after the national population count is finished. That still leaves 1.35 million civilian federal employees on the payroll in 2011.
From 1981 through 2008, the civilian work force remained at about 1.1 million to 1.2 million, with a low of 1.07 million in 1986 and a high of more than 1.2 million in 1993 and in 2008. In 2009, the number jumped to 1.28 million.
Including both the civilian and defense sectors, the federal government will employ 2.15 million people in 2010 and 2.11 million in 2011, excluding Postal Service workers.
The administration says 79 percent of the increases in recent years are from departments related to the war on terrorism: Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, State and Veterans Affairs.
The data also show that the Department of Homeland Security will grow by 7,000 a year in 2010 and 2011, and the Veterans Affairs Department will grow by 12,000 in 2010 and an additional 4,000 in 2011.
Mr. Obama is in a situation similar to that of Mr. Clinton, who took office when the budget deficit was at a record high and government bureaucracy was expanding, even though the Pentagon was shedding workers with the end of the Cold War.
Mr. Clinton in 1996 declared that “the era of big government is over” and took steps to work with Congress to control spending and cut the work force, which already had been trending lower.
As he left office in 2000, Mr. Clinton boasted that his administration had helped cut 377,000 government jobs, leaving the smallest civilian federal work force since 1960.
Mr. Obama, though, appears to be accepting a larger federal work force.
(Source: Washington Times)
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4 Responses
Can someone please explain to me how in the Sam Hill will we, the American taxpayer, pay for all of these pencil pushers?!
Bad for the economy, but good for the frum community, since the Federal government is one of the most accomodating employers (the law requires merely a “reasonable” attempt at working around a frum person’s scheduling needs, meaning that if the company does business on Saturday they don’t need to hire anyone who isn’t available on Shabbos). The Federal government is a major source of good employment for frum Jews, and their health plan doesn’t object to large families. In most private companies, the job options for Shomer Shabbos employees are extemely limited.
to Flatbush Bubby:
Most of the increase will be in Homeland Security (border patrol, Coast Guard, immigration, FEMA, etc.) and Veterans Affairs (we have a lot of soldiers coming back from war who need care).
It doesn’t look like they will all be “pencil pushers.” Many will be on the front lines protecting us; many will be caring for those who were hurt while fighting for us.
I submit this just to present the other side. It’s not as simple as “more government workers = bad.” I’m not a “fan” (if you will) of DHS and am still waiting to see the “savings” and the “safety” created by merging all those agencies into one, huge, bureaucracy. The VA has been struggling for years to deal with the increased load (where were the pencil pushers who were supposed to calculate that if we send our troops into battle, there will be more troops requiring medical care?). Nevertheless, we ask our government to do many things and that does require people.
Shlomo2 and akuperma, the increase will be for bureaucrats such as the EPA, FCC, SEC, and FEC to just name four agencies. The president asked for a 10% across the board cut of the military so who needs the increase in Homeland Security if they are favoring the Arabs over ordinary Americans?
The federal government, akuperma, demands more and more confiscatory taxes to support itself. As far as employment and benefits, for centuries Jews have supported themselves wonderfully in the private sector which is how they have been able to support so many charitable organizations in the town, villages, and cities of the old country.
But, I didn’t know eliminating the tax deduction for charitable contributions was good for frum Jews. And there has been growing anti-semitism in the federal workforce as more and more Muslims start to find employment and the federal government starts to chase Arabian peninsula states for contracts. Just look at the law practice that Eric Holder used to work at. But, akuperma, there you go again with your historical revisionism.