Remember when Bill Clinton in 1996 declared that the era of big government was over? Well, it’s back and bigger than ever. While neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump is talking about the need to shrink Washington, Elon Musk to his credit is, and it sure needs shrinking.
The left is attacking Mr. Musk, who has volunteered to run a government efficiency commission if Mr. Trump wins. He’s floated the idea that he could cut federal spending by $2 trillion. That’s impossible without the entitlement reform that Mr. Trump opposes. But Mr. Musk’s reform ambition is much needed in government.
The nearby chart shows the growth in the federal bureaucracy over time. After rising modestly in the first Trump years, federal employment spiked in 2020 owing to temporary workers hired as part of the decennial Census survey. The federal workforce declined in 2021 but remained above pre-pandemic levels, and it has exploded in the Biden era.
Since January 2021, the federal workforce has increased by about 120,800 employees. Washington has added as many workers in the last two years as during the prior 13. One reason is Veterans Affairs hospitals, which have staffed up to treat aging veterans. But employment has ballooned across nearly the entire government, as quarterly data from the Office of Personnel Management show.
Between December 2020 and March 2024 (the latest data), employment has increased sharply at the Environmental Protection Agency (9.4%), Agriculture Department (9.6%), Department of Housing and Urban Development (10.7%), Internal Revenue Service (14%), Energy Department (14.8%), State Department (18.4%) and Health and Human Services (18.7%).
Independent agencies have also mushroomed, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (9.8%), Securities and Exchange Commission (11.1%) and Federal Trade Commission (11.6%). Even the White House Council of Economic Advisers has increased by a third during the Biden Presidency, not that economic policy has improved. A rare Biden-era exception is Defense and the armed forces (-1.2%), despite an increasingly dangerous world.
What are all of these new bureaucrats doing? Writing new rules and mandates for the rest of America to live by, and to punish citizens who don’t comply. Hardly a day goes when we don’t field a call about a new costly regulation or enforcement action.
New rules can run to hundreds of pages and require battalions of lawyers, accountants and consultants to comply. The ranks of environmental consultants have increased about 20% from pre-pandemic levels, versus 5% for all jobs in the private economy. Government lawyers and consultants don’t improve productivity, products or living standards.
All of this would be a ripe target for Mr. Musk, who has endured the burdens of an overgrown bureaucracy. His businesses have been besieged by an alphabet soup of agencies including the FTC, SEC, National Labor Relations Board, Transportation Department, Federal Aviation Administration, Fish and Wildlife Service and Federal Communications Commission, among others.
The Federal Aviation Administration recently held up a SpaceX rocket launch in part because a previous one had harmed a bird’s nest. Seriously. “We continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware,” SpaceX said in a statement.
Feeding on bigger government are leftwing groups like the Sierra Club and Open Markets Institute. Employment at social advocacy and environmental organizations has increased by about 20% during the Biden years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Administration has channeled grants and money collected from enforcement to such groups so they can file more lawsuits against companies or uncooperative states.
We didn’t know the election results as we published this Tuesday evening. But if Mr. Trump wins, the growth of Leviathan under President Biden means Mr. Musk would have thousands of opportunities for government reform or program cuts. The country would be better for it.
It's the natural course of things. Every civilization has followed it, and the necessary reset has always been war. Let's pray that we can accomplish it without that.
Musk has asked Ron Paul to join him and he's agreed to! Ron Paul has been waiting his whole life for this moment. Add one more superstar to Team Unity!
You could start by eliminating pilots and engineers who deliver the toxic airplane sprays over all our lands in the US. We must stop the poisoning of our air, waters and soils now.
It's the natural course of things. Every civilization has followed it, and the necessary reset has always been war. Let's pray that we can accomplish it without that.
Musk has asked Ron Paul to join him and he's agreed to! Ron Paul has been waiting his whole life for this moment. Add one more superstar to Team Unity!
You could start by eliminating pilots and engineers who deliver the toxic airplane sprays over all our lands in the US. We must stop the poisoning of our air, waters and soils now.