Mapping the Swamp: new, must-read report reveals just how massive the administrative state really is

A breaking report from Open the Books, a nonprofit organization dedicated to boosting government transparency and disclosing government spending, revealed the shocking growth the administrative state has undergone in recent years. Not only is Washington bigger than ever before, but it also costs more than ever before.

According to the report, the “federal disclosed workforce,” which, in 2020, included 2.8 million employees, “costs the American taxpayer $2.3 million per minute, $140 million per hour, and $1.1 billion per day.” Half of those employees belong to executive agencies.

President Joe Biden’s White House employs 567 government workers, 190 more employees than Trump had at this point in his presidency, and its payroll is on track to be the most expensive in history. “While the White House staff budget is a tiny part of the $4+ trillion federal budget,” Open the Books notes, “it could be a leading indicator of Biden’s policy of expanding the size, scope and power of the federal government.”

From 2016 to 2020, the report reveals there was a 31% increase in federal employees who made six-figure incomes, a 52% increase in employees who earned $200,00+, and a 144% increase in those making $300,000 or more.

Perhaps the most concerning statistics of all are those concerning the number of armed bureaucrats. “Federal employees [excluding members of the Department of Defense] with firearm authority (200,000+) now exceeds the number of U.S. Marines (186,000),” Open the Books discloses. “Employees in 103 agencies with firearm authority include 69,000 at Department of Justice; 63,000 at Homeland Security; and even 4,547 police officers at Veterans Affairs and 2,159 special agents at the Internal Revenue Service.” A 2020 report from Open the Books alleged that billions of dollars in non-military government spending had gone to guns, ammunition, and military equipment for executive agencies.

Shouldn’t we be concerned that at the same time the federal government is cracking down on the right of everyday Americans to keep and bear arms it is simultaneously arming its bureaucrats and agents en masse?

The federal government has truly become an invulnerable leviathan. It continues to expand at breakneck speed, amassing billions of dollars in collective wealth, all the while collecting stockpiles of weapons for some unspecified purpose.

Politicians have talked about draining the Swamp for decades but nothing has ever happened. If we keep waiting for the federal establishment to fix itself, who knows what country our children will be left with and whether they’ll have any autonomy in it at all? To complain about the federal government but do nothing about it is, at this point, foolish and irresponsible. Action is imperative.

An Article V Convention of States offers us the only real solution to cut the federal government down to size. Our elected officials may make empty promises about imposing fiscal restraints on the national government, limiting its power and jurisdiction, and imposing term limits on federal officials and members of Congress, but through the Convention of States process, we can actually do all of that.

To learn more about the seemingly exponential growth of our central government, check out the full Open the Books report, Mapping the Swamp: A Study of the Administration State. To support the Convention of States movement, sign the petition below!