Government contracts - it doesn't hurt to be informed

From Acerbic Politics

Political Joke With A Republican Twist

Having just posted a rant about Republicans and their view of how the economy should be run, I ran across this joke sent by a friend. It's a twist on a joke I've seen before, and you can't argue with the fact that there are some criminals in our government, but do note that the original criminal act in this little story comes from the private sector. Seems to reinforce my point.

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House in D.C.; One from Massachusetts one from Tennessee and a third from Kentucky . They all go with a White House official to examine the fence.

The Tennessee contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. 'Well', he says, 'I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.'

The Kentucky contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, 'I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.'

The Massachusetts contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, '$2,700.'

The official, incredulous, whispers back, 'You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?'

The Massachusetts contractor whispers back, '$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire that guy from Kentucky to fix the fence.'

'Done!' replies the government official.

And that my friends, is how it all works ! ! !

Bush Out Of The Loop: Contractors

Did You Know - Private Contractors

I have a relative who works for the federal government in D.C. and he's explained to me, on a number of occasions, how the government now sub-contracts huge chunks of its work to private companies. Apparently this started under Ronald Reagan who held a firm belief that the private sector could do a much better job of almost anything than the government. Under Reagan, large numbers of government jobs were abolished and the work was farmed out to companies hovering around Washington. Based on reports that appear in the newspapers quite frequently, one would guess there is just as much waste and fraud, if not more, in the private sector.

More importantly, according to stuff I've heard, the government is paying obscene money to these sub-contractors for work that could have been done much more cheaply by government employees. For some jobs, we are paying over $400 per hour per employee.

Now this...

A new report by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform concludes that, under the Bush administration, the "shadow government of private companies working under federal contract has exploded in size. Between 2000 and 2005, procurement spending increased by over $175 billion dollars, making federal contracts the fastest growing component of federal discretionary spending." These big government contractors make huge profits at the expense of taxpayers. According to the report, federal spending to Halliburton "increased over 600% between 2000 and 2005." The Government Accountability Office recently found that the government has wasted at least $2.7 billion to Halliburton on "overpriced contracts or undocumented costs." Federal contracts to companies like Halliburton have grown five times faster than the overall inflation rate and almost twice as fast as the growth in other discretionary federal spending. A record level of "nearly 40 cents of every discretionary federal dollar now goes to private contractors."

From The Progress Report, June 28, 2007