Are you saying there is some cost of government employees and contractors that’s not accounted for in the government budget? There are parts of the US government that make revenue from state owned businesses like Amtrak, the Tennessee Valley, and the Alaska oil field licensing. Others that could operate at a profit but choose to run a loss in order to subsidize parts of the economy like the national forest service which makes paper and lumber cheaper for housing and industry.
My point is that the government budget + debt sold pretty much does account for the fully encumbered cost of employees and materials. Some governments occupy about 15% of the economy, some do 50%. The US government spending is on the lower end of wealthy countries.
Does the US government spend its money well? Doesn’t seem like it, $900 billion a year on the military is just under half of all money spend on militaries by all governments. And the US is particularly bad at government contracting for infrastructure, spending much more than Asian and European countries for the same work. I just don’t see any politician wanting to reform that because the money goes to contractors who then fund the elections of those politicians.
I have very little interest in benchmarking our federal spending against other countries. America was exceptional for a reason. We have lost the plot.
Things that matter to me:
1) Have the States knowingly consented to The Administrative State?
2) Is Federal spending sustainable?
Like all government statistics, the BLS provided stats are a huge shell game.
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