The Iron Law of Administration

When all else is being cut, administration grows.  When all else is growing, admin grows faster still.

Check out this document.  HT to Tom Ricks for pointing it out.|

DoD HQ Staff Comparisons 2000-2010

It shows tremendous growth in headquarters staff. Some kind of make sense, like CENTCOM has had a very busy decade in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, etc, so it makes sense that it grew by 150%.  Not clear why the Army had to grow by 60% since the HQ is not directing the new missions but generating the forces.  JFCOM, which is supposed to help with transformation, has transformed into a beast.  No wonder SecDef Gates wants to kill it.  NATO and NORAD barely grew at all, while SOUTHCOM (Central and Southern America) and STRATCOM (Strategic Command--nukes) both doubled in size despite very un-busy decades.

And how about my favorite: the Joint Staff?  It has more civilians and less military folk than it did in 2000 (although still 5/6's are uniformed folks), decreasing in size by 2%. 

So, not everything grew, but it does seem as if some of the folks with the least to do grew the most.  A table like this does provide not just Senators but also folks in DoD with some good ideas of where to cut.