Count down. (Letters).One aspect of Joshua Joshua, book of the Bible Joshua (jŏsh`  ə), book of the Bible. Green's article ("Reagan's
Liberal Legacy," January/February) that concerns me is the number
of persons "on the federal payroll payrolla list of employees, their salary rates, tax deductions, amounts paid, payroll tax, long service leave entitlements. " during the Reagan and Clinton Clinton. 1 Town (1990 pop. 12,767), Middlesex co., S Conn., on Long Island Sound; settled 1663, set off from Killingworth and inc. 1838. The school that later became Yale opened here in 1702. presidencies. A close examination of the record shows that the reduction in the number of persons "on the federal payroll" during the administration of President Clinton came as a result of the huge number of people discharged from the armed services The Constitution authorizes Congress to raise, support, and regulate armed services for the national defense. The President of the United States is commander in chief of all the branches of the services and has ultimate control over most military matters. during his term as President. The "non-defense" payroll actually increased--and rather substantially--during President Clinton's term. So, to conclude that President Clinton decreased the size of government by reducing the number of persons on the federal payroll is simply false. PAUL S. PARKER via email Joshua Green Joshua Green is a senior editor of The Atlantic Monthly and a contributing editor of The Washington Monthly who writes primarily about U.S. politics.[1][2] responds: The number of armed services personnel did indeed decrease under Clinton. But that in no way contradicts what I wrote. The number of people on the federal payroll increased by 61,000 under Reagan; it decreased by 373,000 under Clinton. By any measure other than Bush administration math, a decrease is still a decrease. |
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