Not-So-Big Government

Following up from my post from yesterday on the fact that the debate over government's "goodness" in the political sphere has become entirely detached from agencies' actual functionality, Partnership for Public Service president Max Stier said this morning at the National Press Club that the debate over government's size is similarly unhinged from reality. He said:

It's not growing like crazy, and it's not a real problem. This is little-known information, but we're looking at a government headcount that, even after these hires will be no larger than it was in 1967. We're looking at a government that hasn't grown, and in fact has declined for a long time. The percentage of the workforce that's in the federal workforce has declined.

I always wonder about folks who grumble about big government. I can understand people wondering if government ought to be doing everything that it does. But if it's a simple reality that government is involved in a lot of spheres, doesn't it make sense to give government the resources to do those things well?