I’ve looked at government purchases in two recoveries, the one that began in November 1982 and the one that began in June 2009. Here’s government employment:

Notice the brief blip associated with the Census, which got seized on by the right as evidence of a bloated expansion. But the reality is that around 1.3 million more people would be working for government right now if employment had followed the track of the Reagan recovery.

PS: For those who think I’m cherry picking, it’s worth noting that even if you don’t focus solely on government purchases and employment — even if you just look at total government spending, including unemployment insurance — the Reagan years generally saw faster spending growth than the Obama years, and never saw anything like the recent squeeze: