That is the way to think about it. From my dad who worked for the government I learned something contrarian. The government doesn't waste much money at the level of a worker. The government wastes money at the program level. As an example the Reagan administration brought the USS Iowa out of mothballs. You can bet that the work done to upgrade her was done efficiently and economically (as efficiently and economically as any huge project like that goes). But on the big picture, they should have left her to rust.

Stuff like this is why I make comments about building public infrastructure. Say the critics are current, the California High Speed Rail project is a boondoggle. Well at least we get a high speed rail line out of the deal. Vs a couple thousand shiny new nukes which aren't useful to anyone really.