Wasting money on the private sector
Source: By Gerald W. McEntee, Tallahassee Democrat (FL), January 13, 2007
A recent Pentagon report revealed that we have spent more than $1 billion trying unsuccessfully to create an effective police force in Afghanistan. According to the report, the force is in shambles, and program managers are unable to locate hundreds of trucks or thousands of weapons purchased at U.S. taxpayer expense. Don't blame the military. Uncle Sam farmed out the job of training the Afghani police to a private contractor in Virginia.
........... Under President Bush, privatization has been the governing gospel. His rationale is that, if private companies compete for public work, they will do it more cheaply and efficiently than public agencies. Of course, that theory presumes contractors are actually competing.
....... Here in Florida, Jeb Bush came to office bragging about his desire to privatize 25 percent of state government - and left with a string of scandal-plagued outsourcing deals widely considered to represent his administration's greatest failure.