theatlantic: The Incredible Shrinking U.S. Government What do Republican presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II have in common that Obama doesn’t? Total government grew under those presidents after they faced recessions. By contrast, federal, state, and local government has declined by more than half a million workers in the last three years. Big government ain’t what it used to be.  The graph above comes courtesy of the Economic Policy Institute. Since the recession officially ended in January 2009, the economy has bid goodbye to 584,000 government jobs (private sector employment is up by 2.8 million). That’s a roughly a 2 percent drop. Though the federal workforce actually grew between 2009 and 2011, it’s now shrinking at the fastest rate since the 1950s, as my colleague Derek Thompson has written. By comparison, government payrolls increased by at least a full percentage point during the thirty months after each of the last major recessions, while Republican presidents presided over the economy. Read more. [Image: Economic Policy Institute] View high resolution

theatlantic:

The Incredible Shrinking U.S. Government

What do Republican presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II have in common that Obama doesn’t? Total government grew under those presidents after they faced recessions. By contrast, federal, state, and local government has declined by more than half a million workers in the last three years. Big government ain’t what it used to be. 

The graph above comes courtesy of the Economic Policy Institute. Since the recession officially ended in January 2009, the economy has bid goodbye to 584,000 government jobs (private sector employment is up by 2.8 million). That’s a roughly a 2 percent drop. Though the federal workforce actually grew between 2009 and 2011, it’s now shrinking at the fastest rate since the 1950s, as my colleague Derek Thompson has written. By comparison, government payrolls increased by at least a full percentage point during the thirty months after each of the last major recessions, while Republican presidents presided over the economy.

Read more. [Image: Economic Policy Institute]

(Reblogged from theatlantic)

Notes

  1. gazetaoriental reblogged this from theatlantic and added:
    About Atlantic Magazine:
  2. opinionwhore reblogged this from theatlantic and added:
    Funny, I don’t recall seeing this on Fox News.
  3. anindiscriminatecollection reblogged this from theatlantic
  4. orangeflower08 reblogged this from theatlantic
  5. casapazzo reblogged this from theatlantic and added:
    Ohhh, you mean Republican talking points about the Big Socialist Government Expansion/Takeover aren’t true? SO SHOCKING.
  6. lolcatmania reblogged this from theatlantic
  7. silas216 reblogged this from dendroica
  8. chrismmgordon reblogged this from astudyinmovement and added:
    The Incredible Shrinking U.S. Government What do Republican presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II have in common that...
  9. gilmoure reblogged this from moorewr
  10. progressively-liberal reblogged this from the-progressive-opinion
  11. total-todd-review reblogged this from theatlantic
  12. anticute-slowlyrotatingchococake reblogged this from theatlantic
  13. bushittinus reblogged this from theatlantic
  14. meotherwise reblogged this from theatlantic
  15. astudyinmovement reblogged this from theatlantic
  16. dendroica reblogged this from theatlantic
  17. the-progressive-opinion reblogged this from theatlantic
  18. parmodule reblogged this from theatlantic
  19. daredevilboysurvivesfall reblogged this from theatlantic
  20. bitchdontcallmenoboots reblogged this from theatlantic
  21. wrjbokbok reblogged this from theatlantic