Unable to justify open increases in Washington's budgets, politicians have had to rely more on mandates upon local governments and the private sector to force them to do what Washington wills. Even the Light data do not include private mandates in its total employment, which a Cato Institute study estimated could double direct national government spending, and perhaps employment. If so, total federal government employment would total 20 million or more, and including all local and state government personnel, total government employment may add to 50 million. This could represent 40 percent of total employment and wealth consumed by government bureaucracy. Still, something has changed.
National bureaucracy is a spent force.
Today almost all growth and creativity is in private institutions and most governmental innovation is at the state and local level. While big government legions keep taxing and mandating community and business institutions, below the surface a new localism is restoring the decentralized America envisioned by its founders. Donald Devine , former director Of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is a columnist and a Washington-based policy consultant and Treasurer for the American Conservative Union.