It's about a 6% rise. That's significantly greater than the private sector. Regardless, what you REALLY need to consider is the overall salary/compensation growth for that workforce. Ie, it may have "only" risen by 6%, but what about the salaries for the base + 6%? My guess is you'd be surprised at that number versus it's private sector equivalent. And that's why Scat's comment is true.
Total federal workforce compensation / GDP since 1900. That would be a handy chart to have. Edit: by the way, before I forget again, Obama has been working to reduce redundancies in these various departments for many months now. This announcement now is political, I'll grant that.
If he has been working to do so, why not announce it many times over before this? I see that you admit this announcement was politically motivated, but please show me evidence where Obama was trying to shrink anything other than his approval rating. I'll see what I can find on the workforce to GDP thing. That would indeed be interesting to see.
Not just workforce/GDP, but federal workforce compensation/GDP. For at least eight months now I've been reading about the restructuring of the ITAR, munitions list, dual-use goods, area control list, to name a few, but more specifically the agencies that administer them. Import/export trade journals were all over this months ago. I know because these changes have a direct bearing on my operations. (When I say "my", I do mean "our", but don't use "our" because I don't want to confuse it with "you and me" or with "me and the American people"--I do not mean to imply that I am the sole owner of "my" company.)
Atleast we can all take solace in the fact that this is one power which no one on either side is likely to abuse..... We arent going to have to worry about Obama going out and shrinking government too much