Do Republican presidents really believe in small government?

updated February 15, 2011
(c) 2011, Brenda Grantland, Esq.

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Truth&JusticeI 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.

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.
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.