Report Finds Size Of Government Up Sharply Under Bush

[kskiska]

From Drudge

The Bush Administration has brought the era of big government back, say a Brookings Institution scholar and a growing number of conservatives dismayed about such growth under the Republicans' watch.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reports:

"While the number of official government employees declined slightly after President Bush took office, the Brookings study to be released Friday finds the number of full-time employees working on government contracts and grants has zoomed by more than one million people since 1999, bringing the overall head count to more than 12.1 million as of this past October."

The "eight-page report is likely to fuel debate about the administration's approach, at a time when budget deficits are ballooning and Mr. Bush is pressuring Democrats to hold down federal spending." The report "finds that the growth is happening entirely outside traditional civil-service hiring channels.

more…
http://drudgereport.com/flash5.htm

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. That headline invokes a disturbing but not objectionable image

I wonder if the author even thought about it...

[kainah]

2. grants & contracts = PRIVATIZATION! n/t

[pansypoo53219]

4. you forgot war

lots of contractors there.

[ixion]

3. and this with the GOP always fragging the Dems over

big government...:eyes:

[MoonAndSun]

5. I need clarification... which party is the party of big government?

hmmmmmmmm, could it be the repukes? Who would of thunk it!!

[peterh]

6. There was a pretty good op-ed in the Wash. Times today….(of all places)

And that was one of the items listed….good reading…

WHY GEORGE W. BUSH CAN'T WIN

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=123&ncid=742&e=10&u=/030904/79/55vjm.html>

Now it's up to the Dems to capitalize.

[Triana]

7. Well now, ain't that just

so damn REPUBLICAN! Heh-heh....big government, tax and spend WHO?

uh-huh...

:evilgrin:

[punpirate]

8. This is much the model of the Reagan administration....

While Reagan preached that he was going to reduce the size of government (and he did--in the areas containing regulatory employees), the size of government increased, particularly in the Defense Dept., where in the first six or so years of his terms, civilian employment there increased by over 100,000.

As soon as some real organization the Homeland Security Dept. is accomplished, I think we'll be seeing enormous increases in private contractors there, many of whom will replace civil servants. They've been promising it for months, and that's probably where it will occur first, unless Rumsfeld gets his way and starts stripping military out of the Pentagon, replacing them with private contractors.

(!)

[goforit]

9. Well....Will ya look at whats happening from 1600 PENN.

Swines on a heyday!!!

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!

[bluestateguy]

10. Indeed.

This guy was bashing Al Gore for "proposing the biggest spending increases since Lyndon Baines Johnson". Well it now appears that he has outdone LBJ (no small feat) and Al Gore when it comes to spending. Not military spending, mind you, but discretionary spending. If anybody voted for this guy thinking they would get "small government" (whatever that means), they did not get what they voted for, and I would encourage them to vote Libertarian in 2004.