Professor Paul C. Light’s latest study on the “true size” of the federal government puts the number of employees at a staggering 14.6 million people. Without excluding those under the age of 18, roughly 1 in every 20 people in the United States now work for the federal government. According to the Washington Post:
That compares with 12.1 million employees in 2002, said Light, who has tracked the growth of government for years and has data for as far back as 1990. The latest increase is almost entirely due to contractors, whose ranks swelled by 2.5 million since 2002, Light wrote in his 10-page research brief.
Aren’t Republicans supposed to be for smaller government? I find it hard to fathom how the addition of 2.5 million people is in any way compatible with conservative values. I also find it hard to believe that a very large number of conservative voters aren’t waking up to the fact that they have been screwed.
“This time, almost all of the growth can be attributed from the war on terrorism, which boosted Defense spending for both goods and services systems and covered the continued cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he wrote.
It would be interesting to know how many of these defense contractors made campaign contributions, both before and after the war on “terror” started, and for how much.
sucker, ʟʟᴄ