"MadDogDave" wrote in message
news:c3dhc2g=.7875ca6571471428ef92d3bb12e07aa5@106 3028841.cotse.net...
Thank goodness we have a conservative president who knows how to cut
taxes and increase federal spending at the same time.




yawn.

Hmmmmm. Perhaps Clinton's "peace dividend" cuts gave us a "vunerability
yield"? CIA had been saying during Clinton's entire administration that
they didn't have enough agents to keep track of our adversaries. Looks like
they were right...and Bill jeopardized our safety in order to make his
budget numbers look good.


"MadDogDave" wrote in message
news:c3dhc2g=.7875ca6571471428ef92d3bb12e07aa5@106 3028841.cotse.net...
Thank goodness we have a conservative president who knows how to cut
taxes and increase federal spending at the same time.



'Big Government' Getting Bigger Under Bush


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The era of big government, if it ever went away,
has
returned full-throttle under President Bush, who came to office
championing
"conservative ideas" as an alternative.

A report released on Friday by the Brookings Institution think tank and
New
York University said the "true size" of the federal work force -- which
includes employees for federal contractors and grant recipients -- grew by
more than one million, to 12.1 million, from October 1999 to October 2002.

The increase was linked to the war on terrorism that Bush launched after
the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, as well as to growth at the
Department of Health and Human Services and other domestic agencies, the
report said.

The growth represents a roughly 75 percent rebound from federal work force
declines linked to the post-Cold War "peace dividend," which helped enable
former President Bill Clinton to declare in 1996 that "the era of big
government is over."

"We are now at the end of an era: of the 'end of the era of big
government,'
said study author Paul Light, who is affiliated with Brookings and NYU.
"We've got a big mission to deliver in this country."

Said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan, "The president's priorities
are
that government gets results for the people, and he is focused on protecti
ng
Americans, winning the war on terrorism, and ensuring economic security."

LONG-TIME PRACTICE

According to the report, the federal work force grew in all areas except
for
the civil service as the Bush administration strived to limit the
visibility
of an expanding government by shifting work to contractors and grant
recipients.

This has been a practice under administrations going back to the 1960s,
Light said. "I don't have a problem with a government this big," he said.
"But we ought to be honest" about the true scale of the government's role.

The civil service declined by 46,000 jobs from 1999 to 2002, while the
number of jobs at federal contractors grew by 727,000 and at grant
recipients by 333,000.

Although the military added only 70,000 people in uniform, the government
created about 500,000 new defense-related jobs, starting late in Clinton's
presidency.

"The Bush administration has put the pedal to the metal in terms of
defense
spending," Light said.

The federal role has also increased in other areas, most notably education
where Bush legislation on student testing and teacher qualification has
created a huge "unfunded mandate" for states and local districts, Light
said.

Bush in his 2000 presidential campaign ran as a champion of a minimal
federal role.

"Big government is not the answer," he said in his nomination acceptance
speech. "The alternative ... is to put conservative values and
conservative
ideas into the thick of the fight for justice and opportunity."

But Light said the rising U.S. population makes it inevitable that the
government will continue to grow.