Big Government Gets Bigger from Bush's 'War On Terror' As Economy Slows

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Study Counts More Employees, Cites Increase in Contractors

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 6, 2006; Page A21

The federal government keeps getting bigger.

The Republican Party's oft-stated affinity for smaller government has not applied during the Bush administration. According to a recent study, not only is the number of federal civil servants on the rise, but so are the numbers of employees working for government-funded contractors and for organizations that receive government grants.

Roll all of those together -- and mix in the numbers of postal workers and military personnel on the federal payroll -- and the "true size" of the federal government stands at 14.6 million employees, said Paul C. Light, the study's author and a government professor at New York University.

That compares with 12.1 million employees in 2002, said Light, who has tracked the growth of government for years and has data for as far back as 1990. The latest increase is almost entirely due to contractors, whose ranks swelled by 2.5 million since 2002, Light wrote in his 10-page research brief.

"This time, almost all of the growth can be attributed from the war on terrorism, which boosted Defense spending for both goods and services systems and covered the continued cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq," he wrote.

"The rest of the hidden workforce held steady at roughly 2.9 million grantees, while civil service employment inched up and postal employment fell."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/05/AR2006100501782_pf.html



White House says economy slowed

JEANNINE AVERSA
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The economy probably slowed considerably in late summer, reflecting a slumping housing market, a White House economic official said Thursday.

Allan Hubbard, director of the National Economic Council, predicted the pace of growth from July through September could range from 1 percent to 2 percent.

The Bush administration's fresh observations on the economy come with the election season in high gear, and a day before the president was due to appear at a FedEx Express facility in the Washington area to promote his economic policies. Voters' choices at the polls on Nov. 7 are likely to be shaped in part by how they are faring economically. The administration says Americans are mostly better off, while Democrats disagree.

Among those surveyed in an AP-Ipsos poll in early October, people trusted Democrats to do a better job of handling the economy than Republicans.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/15687526.htm


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

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1. Bush Emphasizes Economy as Messages on Security, Values Weaken

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- {snip}

White House political strategist Karl Rove originally envisioned a three-pronged strategy for retaining Republicans' congressional majority. The plan cast Republicans as tougher than Democrats on fighting terrorism, more attuned to Americans' values on moral issues and more likely to keep the economy humming thanks to the party's commitment to tax cuts.

With just over a month to go before the election, Rove's plan has crashed into some daunting political realities. A best- selling book by Washington Post editor Bob Woodward has sown doubts about the Bush war cabinet's veracity and its vigilance over the terror threat posed by al-Qaeda.

Things haven't gone much better on the values front. A scandal involving former Florida congressman Mark Foley's sexually explicit messages to congressional pages, and how House Republican leaders handled the matter, has alienated grassroots conservatives.

The widening Capitol Hill sex scandal has the potential to undermine Rove's strategy of rallying the conservative base, said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Washington-based Stanford Washington Research. ``This is the party of family values, and to have this scandal occur in the Republican Party is devastating.''

With much of the Republicans' core message obscured by controversy, the White House has little choice but to hit the economic issue hard . . .

report: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aXXxtUAhPir4&refer=economy