Federal employment as percent of US population

I googled federal employment as percent of US population.

The AI Overview says "The federal workforce makes up about 0.6% of the U.S. population. This percentage has remained stable over the past decade..."

Pew Research says "In November 2024, the federal government employed just over 3 million people, or 1.87% of the entire civilian workforce, according to BLS data."

Then I went to FRED to see the big picture:

"All Employees, Federal" as a percent of US "Total Population"
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1E6Gp

 I do not understand the urgent need to cut the federal workforce. I think we'd be better off getting rid of the policies that promote Excessive Reliance On Credit (EROC) in the private sector, and letting our economy grow. We could then watch as federal deficits turn into surpluses as they did in the 1990s.

By the way, the thing that killed off the good economy of the 1990s was our rapid return to EROC. But getting rid of those EROC-promoting policies would allow the good growth & the budget surpluses to continue.