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Do Republican presidents really believe in small government?
updated February 15, 2011
(c) 2011, Brenda Grantland, Esq.
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I
went back to Decatur, Alabama for a funeral recently and got into a
discussion with some Republican family members about our political
differences. One of my relatives told me she is a
Republican because Republicans believe in small government. I was
about to ask her to name one way in which George W. Bush reduced the
size of government, but I bit my tongue. I learned in law school that
the secret of cross-examination is to not ask any question of an
opposing witness unless you know the answer, and I didn't know the
answer. At that point my sister intervened and made us stop
arguing.
Now that I'm safely home in the wicked hotbed of liberalism, I did some research on the internet. I found Ronald Reagan's famous inaugural speech from January 20, 1981,
in which he espoused three basic tenets that became synonymous with
Reaganism: reducing taxes, reducing the deficit and reducing the size
of the federal government. On the subject of reducing the size of
the federal bureaucracy he said: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
Before I reveal the results of my research I invite you to take this little quiz I devised. Email your answers to discussion@brendagrantland.com,
and, if you don't mind, please state whether you live in a "red state"
or "blue state." If you choose to angrily dispute my answers
below, remember the rule about flaming responses and send your email
instead to ignoRANTS@brendagrantland.com.
First the rules:
For this quiz, the size of the federal government is measured by the
number of federal employees at the beginning and end of each
president's term. Because some of the presidents faced wars during
their presidencies, and others served during times of relative peace, I
excluded the numbers of uniformed military personnel in the comparison
-- and just included employees in the executive and judicial
branches. If you want to take the quiz separately by including
military personnel, go ahead -- I'll also reveal the figures including
military personnel in the answers.
Secondly, should you decide to take this quiz "open book" (or open
internet) instead of guessing, your answers must be based on reliable,
independent sources.
Here's the quiz:
1. Of the five presidents before Obama,1/ who reduced the size of the federal government the most? Your choices are:
a. Ronald Reagan
b. George W. Bush
c. George H.W. Bush
d. Jimmy Carter
e. Bill Clinton
2. Which president came in second in reducing the size of the federal government?
a. Ronald Reagan
b. George W. Bush
c. George H.W. Bush
d. Jimmy Carter
e. Bill Clinton
3. Which of the above presidents increased the size of the federal bureaucracy during their terms?
a. All of them
b. Clinton and Carter
c. Clinton, Carter and George H.W. Bush
d. Clinton, Carter and George W. Bush
e. Reagan and George W. Bush
4. Which of the above presidents increased the size of the federal bureaucracy the most?
a. Ronald Reagan
b. George W. Bush
c. George H.W. Bush
d. Jimmy Carter
e. Bill Clinton
5. When you count military personnel ONLY, which of these presidents had the greatest increase?
a. Ronald Reagan
b. George W. Bush
c. George H.W. Bush
d. Jimmy Carter
e. Bill Clinton
_______________
1/
I
didn't include Obama because it's too early in his term to compare
him to presidents who served out one or two terms -- and the OPM
figures end at December 31, 2009, when Obama was still in his first
year in office. In case you're curious, though, by the end of
Obama's
first year, military forces had grown by 141,000 and non-military
government employees by 83,000.
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Answers:
It turns out that the answers are the same whether you count military
personnel or not. Those presidents who increased the number of
non-military federal employees also increased the number of military
personnel, and those who reduced personnel reduced both
categories.
To see how I reached my conclusions below, see the charts I compiled from data in the Historical Federal Workforce Tables
published by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. I copied
the OPM table and just added two columns to correlate the presidential
terms and compute the number of employees excluding military. If
anyone spots a mathematical error please write me a nice email and I
will correct it.
Here are the correct answers:
1. Of the five presidents before Obama, who reduced the size of the federal government the most?
The correct answer is e. By far, Bill Clinton made the
greatest reductions in the federal work force, reducing the number
of federal non-military employees by 380,000, and the overall
totals including military by 802,000. There were 3.083 million
non-military federal employees when he took office, and 2.703 million
when he left office. Overall totals including military personnel
are 4.931 million employees when he took office, and 4.129 employees
when he left office.
2. Which president came in second in reducing the size of the federal government?
The correct answer is c. George H.W. Bush came in second. In his one
term he reduced the size of the non-military bureaucracy by 30,000, and
the total including military by 358,000.
3. Which of the above presidents increased the size of the federal bureaucracy during their terms?
The correct answer is e. Ronald Reagan and George W.
Bush both increased the size of the bureaucracy, whether or not you
count military personnel. Reagan increased the non-military
workforce by 238,000 employees, and the federal workforce
including military personnel by 324,000. George W. Bush increased
the non-military workforce by 53,000 employees, and the federal
workforce overall by 77,000. Jimmy Carter, on the other hand,
reduced non-military employees by 8,000 and the federal workforce
overall by6 37,000. Carter came in third behind George H.W. Bush as a
small-government
practitioner.
4. Which of the above presidents increased the size of the federal bureaucracy the most?
The correct answer is a. The president who campaigned
the loudest on a "reduce government" platform was a big
hypocrite. Reagan increased federal non-military personnel by
238,000 workers, and increased the federal workforce including the
military by 324,000
workers. The federal workforce almost reached its peak at the end
of
Reagan's presidency (1988) with 5.289 million workers (including
military), then peaked during the first year of George H.W.
Bush's presidency at 5.292 million. It has come down
significantly
since then to the current total of 4.430 million.
5. When you count military personnel ONLY, which of these presidents had the greatest increase?
The correct answer is a. Of the five presidents
surveyed, Reagan increased the military the most -- up by 86,000
troops, followed by George W. Bush, who increased the military by
24,000 troops. The military decreased in size under Clinton (who
reduced the military by 422,000), George H.W. Bush (a reduction of
328,000) and Carter (a reduction of 29,000). But, to prove that
I'm not being partisan -- look at this: at the end of Obama's
first year in office,
the size of the military had increased by 141,000 troops!
Granted,
these figures rise and fall during every president's term, and they may
go down again before the end of Obama's term -- but still the military
buildup is alarming for a candidate who promised to end the
wars. Also, to be fair to Obama, the total number of troops at
the end of 2009 (1,591,000) is smaller than when Clinton took office
(1,848,000) or when Carter took office (2,119,000) and it is no where
near the peak set in 1987, under Reagan, when there were 2,213,000
military employees.
So, do Republican presidents really believe in small government?
Not lately it seems. Even George H.W. Bush, who decreased the federal
workforce by 358,000, was mostly offsetting the 324,000 federal
employees added by Ronald Reagan. Thus after 12 years of
Republican presidencies (1981 - 1993), the federal workforce when
George H.W. Bush left office was only 34,000 less than the workforce
when Reagan took office. Carter did better than that, reducing
the workforce by 37,000. Compare that to Clinton's record -
decreasing federal employees by 802,000.
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