In the history of mankind, many republics have risen, have flourished for a less or greater time, and then have fallen because their citizens lost the power of governing themselves and thereby of governing their state. TR

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White House Dossier

Obama Government Equal to Population in 1776

President Obama Monday invoked Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence to justify his expansive view of government, but Jefferson might be surprised to learn that the number of federal employees today is nearly equal to the entire population of the nation in 1776.

According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the current civilian federal workforce, excluding postal service employees, was 2.15 million in 2011. The Census Bureau estimates that in 1776, the entire population of the United States was just a bit higher, at about 2.5 million. The number suggests that every adult man and woman living at the time – at least – would have been needed to staff today’s federal government.

The comparison is ironic because Obama invoked Jefferson’s famous line from the Declaration about “unalienable rights” such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to launch an inaugural address that invoked the Founders as justification for Obama’s own statist agenda.

The Founders, who crafted a Constitution that is at bottom a document designed to limit the powers of federal government, would never have recognized the welfare state and redistributionist policies Obama supports. Jefferson in particular is viewed as a leading figure among them backing the cause of states rights and a limited federal role.

Obama suggested in his remarks that the federal government is instead the protector of such rights, a warped view of the Founders’ intentions.

In his first term as president, George Washington had only five Cabinet members and about 1,000 federal workers in his employ.

Under Obama, the civilian workforce has grown by nearly 200,000 from the level of 1.96 million in 2008.

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160 thoughts on “Obama Government Equal to Population in 1776”

  1. Reagan is my Hero

    If we really want small government we need a sound intellectual reason for small government and we need to expose real, undeniable examples of government excess. This article does neither. Keith Koffler’s blurb here, which makes for a nice headline on Drudge is a very poor critique of our “government knows best – together will will pursue MY agenda” president. Poor critique because, when you click on the link to view the raw data you find that the number of federal employees has bounced up and down over the years and was actually higher during some of the years Reagan was in office than it is now. It’s true that for the first few years of Obama it looked like federal employment was increasing fast. But, the growth federal employment numbers leveled and are coming down a little. Heres the data: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CES9091000001?cid=32325 (note: you’ll see spikes in this graph every 10 years for census workers) I’ve no doubt that Obama wants a much more expansive federal government (not to mention more intrusive) but there really hasn’t been any explosion in federal hiring. Sloppy blogging like Mr Koffler’s article doesn’t help the cause of freedom and it doesn’t help the cause of conservatives, Republicans or libertatians. It makes us look instead like reactionaries with no intellectual basis for our worldview.

  2. Harvey Ardman

    The irony is that the size of the Federal government has hardly changed since 1960, even though the population of the country has gone up nearly 40%. It’s a total myth that Obama has significantly increased the size of the government. Here’s a look at the official numbers: http://www.govexec.com/federal-news/fedblog/2010/09/the-true-size-of-the-federal-workforce/40168/. Notice that Reagan’s administration employed more than Obama’s, despite the lower population.

  3. RAVerhoeckx

    The present condition of the US is not in the hands of Obama, rather it is the lack of opposition from the Republican leadership. For evil men to succeed it is for the so called good men to do nothing.
    Conviction is worthless unless it is converted to action!

  5. ReConUSMC

    When Obamacare fully kicked in the Fed Govt. employee roll could reach approx. 3 Million .
    Why do I say that ? England has 73.9 Million Living there .
    The largest employer in all of England by far is the Health services Div.
    They are currently in talks with a German Health care Private Co to take them over like many Prisons in America today as are many Private Schools .

  7. Pingback: Obama Government Equal To Entire U.S. Population in 1776 « The American Resolution

  8. ReConUSMC

    In 1950 When Ike was President . 6.9 % of all Americans received any form of Govt. entitlements.
    5 % of our GDP .
    Those entitlements half of that 6.9 % was GI Bill Homes and College educations for those we served during the war plus 99 % were drafted .
    Subsidized(Tobacco mainly and 3 other crops ) farms and Soc Sec got the rest .
    Today 63.9 % of all Home receive some form of welfare or entitlements .
    Bye 2015 when Obamacare fully kicks it the cost of Govt will be 100 % of GDP .Copying sadly most deeply in trouble Euro countries playing double our taxes when you ad the 21.3 % VAT Tax . $ 9.00 Gas a liter .. 3 Quarts .
    I Pray…. America before it is too late .Finally realizes Free is the most expensive thing on earth especially when we want others to pay for our wants and needs while we are still healthy is sad and in truth un American to this marine who earned his stash the old fashioned way .I earned it all on my own with no help from anyone .

  10. john smith

    Is the size of the worlkers in the government exactly what America needs or is it all Patronage which the Democrats love so much///////

  11. Django

    Too bad we don’t have the make up of the population of 1776! Instead we have a population of brainwashed, clueless, emasculated, perpetual children!!!!

  13. Garry Sills

    I say fire them all ! Then rehire only the ones we really need to function, no more. Watch the budget balance itself immediately! Cut taxes, stop funding the Countries that hate us, get rid of the UN, and stop funding it also. Start drilling for natural gas and oil, and review all spending to get rid of the waste. Implement term limits, stop base line budgeting, and require voter ID. Close the borders and find all the illegals and send them back to where they came from, and require them to go thru the system to come back into this Country. You do that, and there will never be another Democrat elected to office!

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  41. jeff Shekell

    I think were on the brink of self disstruction by the way our government is spending money that we don’t have. Our children are in also very perilious condition. We need to revamp the way our government collects and spends.Maybe a simple flat rate like 10% to every one over the poverty level and no free lunches to lazy free loaders that arn’t even citizens.

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