Idle Dredging Ship Costs Taxpayers $8.4M

[maddezmom]

By ADAM NOSSITER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 16 minutes ago



NEW ORLEANS - Capt. Ed Morehouse loves being at the helm of the nation's biggest, most powerful dredging ship, running its three massive drag arms along the bottom of the Mississippi, sucking up muck at the rate of 7,000 dump-truck loads a day. But most days, Captain Ed — the name embroidered on his U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uniform — commands his stateroom desk.


Under lobbying from the dredging industry, Congress in 1978 ordered the Corps to do less dredging itself and give outside companies a cut of the business. The argument was that private enterprise could do the job more cheaply and efficiently.

One result: Taxpayers pay some $8.4 million a year just to keep the massive U.S. Dredge Wheeler tied up at the dock in New Orleans.

"It's actually a little frustrating to know that you've got this ship, the most powerful dredge in the U.S., and you can't use it," Morehouse said last month, on board the vessel he has commanded for 14 years.

~snip~
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050616/ap_on_re_us/idle_ship;_

[shoelace414]

1. Private enterprise does not

always do a better job than the government. ARGH!

[denverbill]

2. Private enterprise almost NEVER does a better job.

Their costs for equipment and materials is close to the same. Their labor costs might be lower because they don't give them benefits (which means they go on state aid). And they probably screw up more often because they are poorly trained, and frequently replaced.

[MisterP]

4. and yet it's dispersed as an article of faith in the papers and the telly

[NorCalDem]

5. It pisses me off

when I hear that piece of trash uttered as well. Yes, in a totally free market, SOME enterprises are better when left to the private sector, but other enterprises, specfically those that should be undertaken for the good of humanity and not profit (like housing, healthcare, military, etc.) are MORE efficiently run by a government with good intentions. The other corollary is that our market is anything but free, just look at Wal-Mart for a good example, or Enron, or WorldCom, or Halliburton, or Microsoft, or, well I could go on and on. Our market is tilted towards large, multinational corporations, yet republicans always talk about our free capitalist market as if it actually exists. God it pisses me off SO MUCH!!!!!

[damntexdem]

6. But ideology always trumps facts ...

when ideologues hold the reins of power.

[wakeme2008]

3. the ship can work ONLY 55 hours per year

thanks to reps and senators from La, Mississppi... :grr: