WSJ: Government by Contractor Is a Disgrace-"Become an insider & share in this huge pot of gold"

[kpete]

* THE TILTING YARD
* NOVEMBER 26, 2008

Government by Contractor Is a Disgrace
Many jobs are best left to federal workers.

...........................

As the George W. Bush presidency grinds to its close, we can say with some finality that the opposite is closer to the truth. The MBA president came to Washington determined to enshrine the truths of "market-based" government. He gave federal agencies grades that were determined, in part, on how abjectly the outfits abased themselves before the doctrine of "competitive sourcing." And, as the world knows, he puffed federal spending to unprecedented levels without increasing the number of people directly employed by the government.

Instead the expansion went, largely, to private contractors, whose employees by 2005 outnumbered traditional civil servants by four to one, according to estimates by Paul Light of New York University. Consider that in just one category of the federal budget -- spending on intelligence -- apparently 70% now goes to private contractors, according to investigative reporter Tim Shorrock, author of "Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing."

Today contractors work alongside government employees all across Washington, often for much better pay. There are seminars you can attend where you will learn how to game the contracting system,reduce your competition, and maximize your haul from good ol' open-handed Uncle Sam. ("Why not become an insider and share in this huge pot of gold?" asks an email ad for one that I got yesterday.) There are even, as Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group in Washington, D.C., told me, "contractor employees -- lots of them -- whose sole responsibility is to dream up things the government needs to buy from them. The pathetic part is that often the government listens -- kind of like a kid watching a cereal commercial."

more at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122765980278958481.html

[gratuitous]

1. Contracting out intelligence - what could possibly go wrong?

So nice of the Wall Street Urinal to suddenly discover that perhaps not every last detail of every Bush administration policy might not have been in the highest and best interests of the United States. Gee, another 20 years and they might even figure out that emptying the federal treasury into the pockets of the overrich might not be the most responsible fiscal program.

Motherfuckers all. Right to the bitter end.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. Friend of mine works for Social Security.

Rather than EMPLOY programmers, they instead outsource to TRW at $75 an hour.

I'm thinking TRW doesn't PAY their programmers $75 an hour?

There is one benefit, however.

If they want to cut the work, they can cut it off at any time.

[patriotvoice]

3. Government contractor here: I charge Uncle Sam the same I charge IBM and

other clients. Only difference is Uncle Sam usually pays on time. I will admit the government does ask us to do some of their creative thinking -- but they initiate most of the requests.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. K&R