Federal Government Employment Levels Through the Years (including the U.S. Postal Service)

	Executive Branch civilians	Total U.S. population	Executive Branch employees per 1,000 population
1962 (Kennedy)	2.48 million	186.5 million	13.3
1964 (Johnson)	2.47 million	191.8 million	12.9
1970 (Nixon)	2.94 million*	205 million	14.4
1975 (Ford)	2.84 million	215.9 million	13.2
1978 (Carter)	2.87 million	222.5 million	12.9
1982 (Reagan)	2.77 million	232.1 million	11.9
1990 (Bush)	3.06 million*	249.6 million	12.3
1994 (Clinton)	2.9 million	263.1 million	11.1
2002 (Bush)	2.63 million	287.8 million	9.1
2010 (Obama)	2.65 million+	310.3 million+	8.4+

SOURCE: Office of Management and Budget. *= Figure includes temporary Census Bureau workers.

 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/09/how_many_federal_workers_are_t.html

A long time ago, the Washington Post has almost a headline...  "Budget battles win little savings"  the writer who seems to think that the federal government is a separate entity. Last I heard,  congress is responsible. That was in a high school class.  But then Congress seems to think the same.    The above graph looks at the point that the country has doubled, but federal workers remain the same or close to it.

While federal workers will lose their jobs over not getting their work done, congress doesn't seem to have that problem. They make the rules for the government.  They are responsible for the budget.  They haven't delivered a budget on time in over 14 years.  Most if not all of the agencies and departments work on continuing resolution.  What are they doing over there?

Civilians listen to the blather and get up in arms.  Do they realize that the majority of expenditures are to normal Americans?  DO they realize that the infrastructure of their country is dependent on the government spending?  Do they  REALLY think we spend more on other countries than we do at home?  Foreign Aid is less than 1% of the budget, but that doesn't include wars.  Wars are separate.  And yes, Americans get paid to go to war.  It is one of our undiscussed issues.  Yes, we have a volunteer military, and it is good.  But when people don't have jobs and there is no where else to turn, guess where they have to go.   I respect and uphold the military, don't get me wrong.  But many of these people are on  Food stamps now known as SNAP, supplemental nutrition assistance program,     http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap , which they cut out of Farm Aid legislation.  So, we don't pay our military enough to feed their family and they can't get federal aid to help them.

Congress is at fault.  It seems everyone I speak with is feeling the same way.  Have they gotten the message yet?

Do they get the point that when they ask for information, it has to be legal? In other words, if they investigate anything,  Freedom of Information protects people, and congress can't just say, well, we are congress give it to us.  And that FOIA takes people and time and money.  If you want freedom, you have to pay something for it.  

(this was written long ago... but still of relevance.)