Over 100,000 civilian government workers weer added to the DoD payroll over the three years from FY2009-2011.
What has Obama done from a defense policy standpoint to need 100,000 more civil service members in the DoD?
If we had the same number of civil service members in the DoD as we had in FY2008, we probably would not need a furlough.
You are partially correct magellan.
The decision of Washington DC was to "convert" many Defense contractors into GS workers. As a total, the DoD workers was a high population, but not as high as your numbers indicate.
There was intense argument within the DoD community as to whether is was cheaper (and more efficient) to hire more government civilians as opposed to contractors.
Contractors have the ability to hire and fire at will. They also (in my opinion) are more efficient.
I know that politics played a huge part: the government wanted its thumb under GS workers. It didn't diminish the people that performed the work - but the powers that be had their power.
However, the same people that were converted to DoD civilian were no less skilled. From Military Wording Dog (MWD) handlers to engineers. For the most part, however, the people employed were paid much less. That is simply a reality of the GS system.