May 1, 2008 10:53AM 

# Uncle Sam Wants You 

By [Elizabeth Karasmeighan](https://www.cato.org/people/elizabeth-karasmeighan) 

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[*USA Today* ran an article](http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080430/1a_lede30_dom.art.htm) about the ever-expanding band of bureaucrats on all levels of government. Citing [Bureau of Labor Statistics](http://www.bls.gov/) data, the author points to a new 76,800 bureaucrats added to payroll from January-March this year;

> That’s the biggest jump in first-quarter hiring since a boom in 2002 that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. By contrast, private companies collectively shed 286,000 workers in the first three months of 2008.

For the most part, when a public employee is hired the full cost of their labor – including generous government pensions and health care coverage – is not accounted for upfront. With the baby boomers starting to retire, the costs of maintaining the army of bureaucrats will only rise. Tack on the large unfunded liabilities in government-provided defined benefit plans and retiree health plans, and you easily [have a trillion-dollar problem](https://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb_0925-40.pdf).

[M](http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_9115200)[ost](http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/localnews/ci_9115200)[ governors](http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--hiringfreeze0421apr21,0,2277940.story) in [“fiscal crisis” states](https://www.cato.org/2008/04/25/a-crisis-of-their-own-making/) will call for temporary hiring freezes that fail to address the core issue of reckless government expansion. But watch for some states, like [Tennessee](http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5744027.html), to take steps to cut costs by culling a small number of their taxpayer-funded workers.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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