Government contracting up 86% under Bush

We all had a feeling it was this bad.

Tim Hightower (no, not the Hightower from Police Academy), gives us the raw figures of how the contracting industry has ballooned since Bush was sworn into office.  For the first time in American history, a majority of government employees are owned by corporations:

Since the Carter years, Washington has drifted toward more and moreoutsourcing of public functions to private contractors, but BushIncorporated has turned that gradual increase into a fullblown,jet-powered rush to privatization. The shadowy and highly lucrativeworld of government contracting has boomed under George W, rising 86%since he's been in office and now totaling nearly $400 billion a year.Get this: There are now more people doing federal jobs under corporatecontracts than there are people employed directly by the government. Inother words, in today's government, corporate servants outnumber civilservants.

From Ted Stevens' recent no-bid government contract in South America to Halliburton's no-bid contract in Iraq, the government is working more for corporate entities than ever before.  As citizens, where is our piece of the pie?

Comments

[Kev Kutina]

I have been performing government contracting for almost twenty years now. The work is “safe” in the context that there are so many laws and regulations (FAR’s, CFR’s, etc.) that define the boundaries to all parties, both the government and the private firm, which they must work within. This allows the government to receive the quality and value of work expected and protects the private firm in obtain payment (the “safe” aspect of government contracting is they pay the invoices you submit within a very reasonable amount of time). The situation is a win-win for all parties. The government does not have to procure a skilled workforce that will only add more layers of bureaucratical waste (and therefore require more “treasure”, i.e. taxes) and the private firm profit for its risk and effort. Government contracts, awarded within the confines of the governing laws, are competitively sourced and therefore are rarely “highly lucrative”. Unfortunately, there is some abuse to the process that gets media attention and unfairly sullies the reputation of the private firms that successfully and “fairly” perform government contracting. Kevcon, Inc. is one of those responsive and reasonable government contractors that perform within the set-aside arena. Kevcon, Inc. is a SDVOSB and DVBE company with over 20 years of experience in government contracting with adequate bonding capacity and lines of credit to successfully execute contracts. To learn more about Kevcon, Inc. go to www.kevcon.us.

[Chief Editor: Todd]

lol Looks like my blog entry touched a nerve with the contracting industry.