2 The True Size of Government

Abstract

Chapter 2 provides detailed estimates of the total number of employees who work within the government-industrial complex. The estimates show the changing distribution of federal, contract, and grant employees between 1984 and 2015: the total government-industrial headcount held steady from 1984 to 1995, dropped sharply from 1995 to 1999, and accelerated to a forty-year high in 2010 before falling sharply by 2015 and holding steady in 2017. These patterns form the basis for detailed histories of the five administrations in office during the period and ends with an early snapshot of the Trump administration’s policy. The history compares inaugural promises with the eventual effects of each administration. The chapter also examines the key decisions that produced the rise, fall, rise, and then fall again in the true size of the government-industrial complex. The chapter ends with a history and assessment of the major personnel caps, cuts, and ceilings used to constrain federal employment between 1940 and 2017. This section ends with a discussion of the impacts of each action.

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