Athena
April 4th, 2008, 07:28 PM
Contractors gone wild
Fri Apr 4, 12:20 AM ET
When pressed about the government's runaway deficits, politicians often point to how they would rein in earmarks, pork barrel projects and other wasteful spending. This approach is, of course, an utter obfuscation.
Earmarks raise questions about fairness and potential corruption, but they are a tiny part of the federal government's $2.9 trillion in spending. The big money — and the potentially big savings — are in defense and benefit programs.
How big? The Government Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress, reported this week on significant waste and abuse, if not outright fraud, in the nation's major weapons procurement. It looked at 95 programs and found them collectively $295 billion over budget.
That's enough to cover last year's federal deficit, with about $130 billion to spare. What's more, getting control over military procurement is a political imperative. Americans will be more reluctant to accept painful but necessary curbs in programs like Medicare and Social Security if they continue to see defense companies profiting from lucrative contracts that reward them no matter how inefficient or unscrupulous they are.
The GAO report is a blistering indictment. Of the programs it examined, not one met all standards for best practices. The average one came in 21 months late, up from five months as recently as 2000. The Navy's new coastal combat ship, with contracts awarded separately to Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, is more than 100% over budget.
Full article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/contractorsgonewild;_ylt=AvsEQW0RlMWd3gQmG01eCOEDW 7oF)
______________
This kind of spending is simply unacceptable. This spending IS taking from other valued programs. But how do we go about applying accountability to our government contractors? Can this be fixed by letters to our representatives? I doubt it. This is one aspect of the bipartisan culture of reckless spending that permeates our government offices.
Fri Apr 4, 12:20 AM ET
When pressed about the government's runaway deficits, politicians often point to how they would rein in earmarks, pork barrel projects and other wasteful spending. This approach is, of course, an utter obfuscation.
Earmarks raise questions about fairness and potential corruption, but they are a tiny part of the federal government's $2.9 trillion in spending. The big money — and the potentially big savings — are in defense and benefit programs.
How big? The Government Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress, reported this week on significant waste and abuse, if not outright fraud, in the nation's major weapons procurement. It looked at 95 programs and found them collectively $295 billion over budget.
That's enough to cover last year's federal deficit, with about $130 billion to spare. What's more, getting control over military procurement is a political imperative. Americans will be more reluctant to accept painful but necessary curbs in programs like Medicare and Social Security if they continue to see defense companies profiting from lucrative contracts that reward them no matter how inefficient or unscrupulous they are.
The GAO report is a blistering indictment. Of the programs it examined, not one met all standards for best practices. The average one came in 21 months late, up from five months as recently as 2000. The Navy's new coastal combat ship, with contracts awarded separately to Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, is more than 100% over budget.
Full article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/contractorsgonewild;_ylt=AvsEQW0RlMWd3gQmG01eCOEDW 7oF)
______________
This kind of spending is simply unacceptable. This spending IS taking from other valued programs. But how do we go about applying accountability to our government contractors? Can this be fixed by letters to our representatives? I doubt it. This is one aspect of the bipartisan culture of reckless spending that permeates our government offices.