If we just listened to the rhetoric, we could easily come to the conclusion that when the President takes the oath of office the size of the Federal Government would start to grow or shrink according to the political beliefs of his party. Generally, Republicans would be shrinking the Federal Government while the Democrats would be increasing its size.
The number of civilian employees in the Federal Government is a good indication of the size of the government since the whole business of government is primarily one of service and it takes people to deliver service. It is not a stretch to imagine that more regulations require more employees to administer the various requirements. We could also get a good sense of the cost of government even though the relationships would be less than exact.
President Reagan used to comment on the size of the Federal Government and not in terms of approval. He took office in 1981 and served as our President for the next eight years. We would expect to see a reduction in the size of the Federal Government yet it actually increased during that period. The chart indicates that the government shrunk during the term of President Clinton which would also be counter to our expectation. In fact, the data shows the size of our Federal Government changing smoothly from year to year and administration to administration – not really being influenced by politics at all.
And, that is precisely my point. The size of our Federal Government is not being driven by the President, the Senators, or the Representatives we elect. No, the size of the Federal Government is being controlled by the staff of Federal Employees whom we do not elect. When we study the graph we know that it is true. The cost of our Federal Government is largely driven upward by staff personnel rather than being reined in or decreased by the people we elect to office.
Does anyone remember instructing the President or their Representative or Senator to increase the cost of the Federal Government?
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