Big government continues to benefit Maryland
As Paul West reports, President Obama's budget contains numerous goodies for Maryland, a development that is hardly surprising and that will continue to shield the state from the worst part of the economic slump.
Among other things, federal workers, of which there are 133,000 who work in Maryland and many more who live in the state and work in D.C., would get a 1.4 percent raise. The president would spend $800 million on Maryland construction, including $219 for a power station at the National Security Agency and $120 million for Aberdeen Proving Ground.
Raised from the archives: The Jan. 1 column about how growing federal spending was the economic story of the decade for Maryland. Read the whole thing here.
For 2008, the year for which the most recent figures are available, total federal spending and obligations in Maryland came to $78 billion. That includes everything from Social Security checks to Transportation Safety Administration salaries to payments to computer contractors.It's up 60 percent from the level in 2001, almost three times the inflation rate. Maryland's whole economy is less than $300 billion in size. So you can see, more than a decade after then-House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. said, "We no longer have the luxury of relying on the public sector employment engine," Maryland relies on government spending as much as ever.
Comments
This is so very sad because it is nothing but a delusion.
How can any hard working middle class soul sustain this kind of debt? Let alone their offspring.
Posted by: Carole | February 2, 2010 8:47 AM
Jay - do you not see the virtue in a well-functioning government? Why must you continue to lambast hard working public employees, the vast majority of which could be working in the private sector for a lot more money but instead work in government to serve the citizens that continually label them as worthless.
Hi Scott: I certainly do believe in a well-functioning government. But I also believe that government is much bigger than even Democrats anticipated 10 years ago, that government can't keep running trillion-dollar deficits (even though there are good arguments for another stimulus this year) and that Maryland has been a beneficiary of federal government's growth. JH
Posted by: Scott | February 2, 2010 9:41 AM
Our state and the people in it are doomed to financial ruin if it continually balances its budget with the largess from Washington.
Sooner or later, Socialists run out of 'other peoples money' and then we'll be left to pay the tab.
Bumper Sticker seen in Annapolis yesterday..."Fight Organized Crime..Don't Re-Elect Anyone!" Makes some sense!
Posted by: Mike | February 2, 2010 9:49 AM
Those states in permanent recession (the jobs were sent to China in exchange for the Chinese buying our debt) do not see this as such enlightened policy.
Maryland and Virginia would b poverty pockets with the federal government.
Posted by: save_the_rustbelt | February 2, 2010 10:21 AM
BIG GOVERNMENT indeed! THE BIGGEST!
"The Obama administration says the government will grow to 2.15 million employees this year, topping 2 million for the first time since President Clinton declared that "the era of big government is over" and joined forces with a Republican-led Congress in the 1990s to pare back the federal work force.
Most of the increases are on the civilian side, which will grow by 153,000 workers, to 1.43 million people, in fiscal 2010. "
Posted by: Voters Ignorance | February 2, 2010 10:38 AM
The problem isn't big government, it's big country. The United States was never intended to be the current astronomical size that it is. It should be broken up into at least six seperate nation-states.
Posted by: NotableM | February 2, 2010 7:58 PM
Historically speaking DC owes a debt to Maryland for rescuing the capital from Philadelphia! Consider all the Federal involvement in our economy an annuity from a land deal we made a long time ago!
Posted by: Jim Traber | February 3, 2010 9:42 AM