XPost: alt.christnet.second-coming.real-soon-now, alt.religion.c   
   ristian.last-days   
   From: roveboat@bitch.net   
      
   "Walter Harding"  wrote in message   
   news:Xns9E25BB9E9E04C4466gfdsfs@94.75.214.39...   
   > Since even Limbaugh, Hannity and GlennBeck aren't hiring for their stable   
   > of right wing homosexual rent boys, we need Bush to return so we can all   
   > have jobs with the government like last time.   
   >   
   > 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.   
   >   
   > 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.   
   >   
   > RETURN OF BIG GOVERNMENT   
   >   
   > After decreasing during the post Cold War   
   > Clinton years, a new study says the US   
   > government is growing again, spurred by huge   
   > increases in contractors and grantees.   
   >   
   > Growing again. . .   
   > Estimated size of federal workforce, in millions   
   >   
   > Through government contracts   
   > Top federal-contractor employment in 2002,   
   > in millions, and percentage change from 1999   
   >   
   > Source: Brookings Institution based on estimates from   
   > EagleEye Publishers   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > 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.   
   >   
   > Other analysts have noted an expansion of government in some areas in the   
   > Bush years, but the Brookings survey sketches a broader picture. It found   
   > that the growth has occurred in such diverse areas as the Department of   
   > Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration-not just   
   > in areas such as homeland security and defense following the Sept. 11,   
   > 2001, terrorist attacks.   
   >   
   > The report finds that the growth is happening entirely outside traditional   
   > civil-service hiring channels. "The Bush administration is overseeing a   
   > vast expansion of the largely hidden federal work force of contractors and   
   > grantees," according to the report, written by Paul Light, who directs the   
   > Center for Public Service at Brookings, a nonpartisan think tank.   
   >   
   > Mr. Light previously was cheered by conservatives when he debunked claims   
   > by then-Vice President Al Gore about how much government had shrunk in the   
   > Clinton administration in his 1999 book, "The True Cost of Government."   
   > Mr. Light showed then that the number of contract and grant employees had   
   > grown and that most of the Clinton administration's decrease stemmed from   
   > the post-Cold War period when Defense Department employment declined.   
   >   
   > A spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, Trent Duffy, took   
   > issue with Mr. Light's calculations but acknowledged that government has   
   > grown since Mr. Bush took office. "By and large the growth that occurred   
   > resulted from the war on terror, homeland security and improving corporate   
   > governance," Mr. Duffy said. "The president believes that pursuing those   
   > [priorities] is both appropriate and necessary."   
   >   
   > The office also questioned the study's contention that the growth was   
   > being hidden. "The purpose of hiring in this fashion is not to disguise   
   > the size of government," said Clay Johnson, OMB deputy director for   
   > management. "The amount of money being spent here is very visible and is   
   > debated in great detail by Congress and the executive branch."   
   >   
   > He said spending, rather than estimated head count, is a better measure of   
   > the size of government, though that also has increased. He added the   
   > administration is focused on getting government to operate effectively,   
   > not at a certain size.   
   >   
   > But representatives of two conservative think tanks said the findings   
   > dovetail with their own studies of government growth under President Bush.   
   > Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth, and Daniel Mitchell, a   
   > Heritage Foundation economist, argue that government was much better   
   > contained under President Clinton, in part because Mr. Clinton faced a   
   > skeptical Republican Congress.   
   >   
   > "We are now seeing the biggest expansion in government since Lyndon   
   > Johnson was in the White House," Mr. Moore said. "It is pretty much an   
   > across-the-board mushrooming of government. We have the biggest education,   
   > foreign aid and agriculture bills in history, and bigger expansions are on   
   > the agenda."   
   >   
   > Mr. Mitchell called the growth of government under Mr. Bush "very   
   > troubling for conservatives." He calculates that domestic spending is up   
   > about one percentage point of gross domestic product. "That is quite   
   > discouraging," he said, "particularly since we made so much progress under   
   > Clinton in reducing the size of government."   
   >   
   > Some other conservatives see it differently. Grover Norquist, founder of   
   > the Americans for Tax Reform, says much of the growth is short-term and   
   > aimed at programs to make government more effective, helping conservatives   
   > to meet long-term goals of shrinking government. He cited Mr. Bush's   
   > education initiative requiring more student testing as an example that   
   > could eventually bring school costs down. "We are going to find that there   
   > are failures in the public-school system. Are we building the case for   
   > school choice, for defeating teacher's unions? I think you can argue that   
   > we are, that we are investing in order to reform."   
   >   
   > Hiring from the private sector as opposed to the civil service, he said,   
   > also avoids permanent costs and makes it easier to shrink government. He   
   > predicted that if Mr. Bush stays in office, government spending by 2008   
   > would shrink in relation to the economy.   
   >   
   > Mr. Light's study contends the expansion is here to stay and that using   
   > grant and contract employees rather than civil servants "reflects a   
   > deliberate strategy by both Congress and the president to disguise the   
   > true size of government." In addition to individuals who owe their   
   > employment directly to the federal government, the report suggests states   
   > still need to add about three million jobs by 2010 to meet Bush   
   > administration mandates in education and homeland security, although no   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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