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Is Government Too Big? Reflections on the Size and Composition of Today’s Federal Government

Excerpt:  “So, to begin, today’s government reformers must understand what the federal government is today. The first issue concerns the actual federal workforce. In 2014, John DiIulio Jr. wrote a brief but provocative book titled ‘Bring Back the Bureaucrats.’ Since 1960, annual federal spending (in trillions) has increased exponentially, but the number of federal civilian workers has remained largely unchanged. In fact, as recently as the 1996 presidential campaign, President Bill Clinton bragged that, in his first term, he had created the “smallest government since John F. Kennedy was president.  As DiIulio points out, to understand the size of the federal government, one needs to put it in perspective. Over time, the federal workforce (full and part time) has shrunk as a percentage of the total U.S. population, from 1.1% in FY 1967 to 0.6% in 2018. In absolute terms, the federal workforce is slightly smaller than it was 50 years ago, even though the U.S. population has increased by two-thirds during that time period. Not only are the number of federal employees small compared to the population, but they also don’t cost very much. Compensation for federal employees cost $291 billion in 2019, or 6.6% of that year’s total spending.” (footnotes omitted)