Bush Request for Iraq May Top $80 Billion
 

Everybody tighten your belts.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030907_851.html

'Big Government' Getting Bigger Under Bush

The era of big government, if it ever went away, has returned full-throttle under President Bush, who came to office championing "conservative ideas" as an alternative.

A report released on Friday by the Brookings Institution think tank and New York University said the "true size" of the federal work force -- which includes employees for federal contractors and grant recipients -- grew by more than one million, to 12.1 million, from October 1999 to October 2002.

The growth represents a roughly 75 percent rebound from federal work force declines linked to the post-Cold War "peace dividend," which helped enable former President Bill Clinton to declare in 1996 that "the era of big government is over."

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle....ryID=339432 4