Administration faked savings to privatize jobs

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

Bush Labor Department misled Congress in effort to privatize jobs
John Byrne
Published: Tuesday November 25, 2008

President George W. Bush's Labor Department misled Congress in an effort to prove outsourcing jobs to private companies was more efficient than assigning the jobs to government employees, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday.

The report (pdf here http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0914.pdf ) found that the Department used fictional projected numbers to improve "savings reports" -- even when real numbers were already available. And when the government did find private firms to take a government job, that employee generally was either reassigned to another task with the same title or promoted.

The effort was called "competitive sourcing," aimed to increase government efficiency by having federal and private organizations compete for providing services. While part of a federal government approach since 1955, the Bush Administration has made the approach a key element of the President's Management Agenda under the Office of Management and Budget.

An investigation revealed, however, that the Labor Department -- under direction from Bush budget officials -- deliberately withheld information about true costs.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_Labor_Department_misled_Congress_in_1125.html

[unpossibles]

1. Why am I not surprised? nt

[SpiralHawk]

2. Lies & propaganda = Republicon 'family values'

As the republicon homelanders have evidenced over and over and over...

[malaise]

71. The part you miss is that they privatize it to themselves

They disgust me.

[roguevalley]

40. PUT THEM IN JAIL! CALL CONGR--... Oh, right. Sorry.

[D-Lee]

50. And here are the figures (it is another big lie that Dems are "big government")

Federal government employment figures, as reported at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/11/19/BL2008111902194_5.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter"


From 2001 to 2005, civilian employment remained at 1.8 million, more or less, while the estimated number of contractor jobs surged from 4.4 million to 7.6 million.

[unpossibles]

92. jeez!

wtf. I wish I knew how so-called Conservatives aren't up in arms about this crap! If I were them and had been played for such a fool, I'd be pissed!

[livetohike]

3. For the good of our country, "Country First" and all that, Bush

should step down today and take his entire, incompetent,lying administration with him.

[acmavm]

4. To save time, trees, water, and other resources, why don't they

just print the stories about when they told the truth? There wouldn't be another mention of this crew again.

[bemildred]

5. The problem is the government is far more efficient than the "private sector" these days.,

Sad, but true. You get better service at the DMV than you do from large corporations.

"Push 1 if you want to increase your monthly tithe to MegaCorp.
Push two if you want to vote for Megacorps government bailout."
.
.
.
.
Push 8 if you want to shove your handset up the rear of the guy that created voicemail."

[spooky3]

8. I feel sick inside whenever my Comcast service goes out (about once per month these days)

because their customer service is so horrible. No one knows what s/he's doing, they don't care if you are out of internet service for weeks, simple fixes become complicated, on hold 20 minutes at a time, 5 visits (requiring time off from work) and problems still aren't solved...

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. Get the hell off of Comcast.

Really. I am a computer weenie and I know Comcast line monkeys. Comcast is incredibly oversold and overloaded on their "nodes"(what you hook into, with far too many people) and is not disposed to invest in splitting those nodes. So, you will not see the speed levels you are paying for, in far too many circumstances.

If you have Embarq in your area, I cannot recommend them enough for DSL. Bright, intelligent, clueful TSR's, they are improving their infrastructure on an ongoing basis. and their DSL prices are sane.

[spooky3]

66. there is NO competition in the area. Comcast is the only provider.

Verizon offers DSL but people complain as much about it.
Cox is not available.
Embarq is not available. I just checked it again. It's good to know you recommend them though - I will keep checking.
Verizon FIOS is slowly moving closer but still not in my neighborhood.
Is it any wonder Comcast's monopoly service is so bad????

[TheFarseer]

80. Cox has a monopoly in Omaha

I can't complain about them except it's too damned expensive and they keep raising their rates. Monopolies piss me off but they have a contract to be the exclusive provider in the city or something. Is this a free market??? Repulicans are kidding themselves when they talk about free markets. Free markets have not existed for about 100 years for better or for worse.

[yy4me]

69. Would love do dump them here, they are horrible but they have

a contract with the town and no other service is allowed. No Choice. They do whatever they want and
are not accountable to any of the users.
There is talk of Verizon coming. Maybe we'll have some channel choices but I doubt the rates will go down. $98.00 for cable and Internet.

More shopping, Evangelical, foreign language and a great deal of crummy programming. I now watch TV-when I do- on www.BlinkoTV.com through the computer. Comcast took MSNBC from us under the guise of switching early to prepare for digital. Bull.

[bemildred]

12. I just went through an eleven-day outage with Earthlink.

It was bad, but not that bad.

[progressive_realist]

33. Earthlink

Every time I call now I interrupt the customer service drone and tell them to look at my call history and do whatever they did last time. It's always the same problem, it's always on their side, and I'm not going to waste any more time going through their troubleshooting steps.

No idea why it is so hard to provide an "always-on" connection that is always on. :shrug:

[Greyhound]

42. "Earthlink; When Good Companies Go Global".

A study of how to ruin a good thing. Fuck the workers, fuck the customers, fuck the shareholders, and walk away from the hollowed-out remains with a truckload of money.

[bemildred]

43. Pretty much.

But "pump and dump" is American as cherry pie. What was Enron? What is the current debacle in the equity and loan markets about? Ponzi schemes run by goobers is all we know how to do anymore.

I mostly stick with Earthlink because I don't think any of the others will improve my lot, and at least I know my way around in their "support" machinery. It's kind of like what it must have been to get "service" in the late, unlamented Soviet Union, a Kafka-esque battle through a thicket of distractions and noise.

[bushmeister0]

51. Earthlink did a great job in Philly with that whole WiFi thing.

'OK, we're over it, we're outa' here, you've got one month to find another internet provider. Oh and, by the way, we want $2 million from the city for our trouble.'

I especially liked the part where I canceled my account and then found out they had taken $180 out of my bank account even though I had sent their useless crap back to them in the alotted time. It took 40 minutes on the phone with some dude in Mumbai to convince them that me calling city hall would be a bad thing for them if I didn't get my $ back immediatly. No one seemed to know Philly had this huge contract with them!

A friend told me her friend who was a reporter for WHYY did a piece on Earthlink and all its WiFi fiasco i Philly for NPR. NPR rejected the piece because they said it was 'unbalanced.' It turns out he wan't able to quote anyone who had anything good to say about Earthlink. Typical NPR. To me, that very fact should have been the news in the story, but you know NPR, if they do a piece on Hitler they have to have someone to say maybe he wasn't all bad after all. Must be balanced, don't want to be accused of 'liberal bias.'

[morillon]

75. We had the same thing going on with both Earthlink and BellSouth.

It was always the same root cause, but their techs would put us through the same gyrations every time. But what finally took the cake was when Earthlink started forcing everyone to go outside and plug the DSL modem into the switchbox on the house as part of their troubleshooting steps. And if that didn't work, the next recommended step actually involved cutting wires! I laughed out loud at that. My husband and I are techie enough that we might be able to successfully cut into the wires in our phone box, but even we drew the line at that. We found a local DSL provider at that point and were very happy we had the option of ditching Earthlink and BellSouth.

[XemaSab]

68. 2 years ago my mom went to go pay her cable bill with Charter over the phone

They told her that her cable had been disconnected and there would be a 200 dollar reconnection fee.

She told them that her cable was NOT, in fact, out, and she was NOT going to pay a 200 dollar reconnection fee.

They insisted it was out.

After MULTIPLE calls to customer service in Mexico City, she COULD NOT convince anyone there that the cable was NOT, in fact, out. (And no, turning on the TV for them did not convince them.)

She hasn't had a bill in two years, and the cable still works fine. :shrug:

[spooky3]

77. good story!

[RaleighNCDUer]

59. The reason being, no matter how badly the corporations fuck things up

they know the government will bail them out.

They have no incentive for getting it right, the first time, the second time, the third time...

[bemildred]

61. Yes, not much "transparency" and no accountability at all.

That is the ugly face behind the "free market" fetish, the large corporation as a sanctuary for unlimited abuse of power where the rule of law does not apply.

[DS1]

6. never saw that coming

:eyes:

[pattmarty]

7. This is the bullshit you ALWAYS hear when anyone talks.........

.......about the "private sector" or privatizing. All the money that will be saved and oh so much more efficient workplaces. BULLSHIT!!!!!!!! We have heard enough of this false rhetoric and seen enough of the Enrons, Worldcoms, and ESPECIALLY the banking industry. The "private sector" can do certain things (with OVERSIGHT) better than the public sector, but not EVERYTHING like St Ronnie and Bush would have us all think. It certainly has not been the saving end all that the right wing would have you believe.

[mcg]

35. I've worked both as a govt. employee and govt. contractor.

I didn't magically work harder/better when I was a contractor. It is a myth that govt. contractors always work harder/better then govt. employees. It is also a myth that govt. contractors are always better managed than govt. employees.

These myths are slanderous towards govt. employees.

Govt. contractors are usually paid more than govt. employees. There's also all the overhead involved and the *profit* that the contracting firms make. The upper management of the firms make a lot of money, money that comes out of taxpayers' wallets.

Often a govt. contractor simply reports to a govt. manager with very little managerial involvement on the part of the contracting firm.

[tclambert]

49. When they praise the virtues of private industry, they often forget the critical part of competition

When Adam Smith wrote "On the Wealth of Nations," the villain of the piece was not government regulation, it was the anti-competitive power of monopolies. Competition drives private companies to efficiency and innovation. Take that element out and you get Soviet-style central planning, inefficiency as a means of empire building, and shameless gold-plating of every project, like all those wonderful cost-plus contracts the Pentagon gets sucked into. Has anyone ever boasted about the efficiency or economy of private contracts entered into by the military? Good lord, in Iraq, the mercenaries cost something like ten times what the regular Army pays per soldier. Let's see some honest accounting on that!

[nichomachus]

9. All government numbers about anything have been suspect since January 2001

[surrealAmerican]

16. Even earlier than that.

This is what happens when your elected officials start off with the premise that all government is bad. Their aim from the start was to privatize everything possible. Lying to achieve their goals was the fastest way to do so, and perfectly consistent with their normal method of operation.

[not fooled]

21. Geez, all that lying...

...isn't that breaking one of the Ten Commandments??? Plus, worshiping the false religion of "free market capitalism" with false idolatry of Milton Friedman??? Tsk, tsk.

[Winterblues]

11. I am sure this will be quite shocking to DUers.

"No one could ever have imagined"

[Metta]

13. Jail time, anyone. Happy karma thugs.

no text.

[defendandprotect]

14. And ...imagine what we still don't know....!!!

[Auggie]

31. Exactly... and what's so frustrating is that not only will there be no prison

time, no one (outside of a handful) will have any knowledge of their crimes.

It won't be part of history. It won't be taught in classrooms.

[Waiting For Everyman]

15. That's what they mean by "small government"... outsourced to private.

Then there's no pesky Congressional oversight too.

[SharonAnn]

17. "Small Government" = "Increased Costs". Privatizing is usually way more expensive.

Our former GOP governor bragged about how he had reduced the state government headcount. But the budgets went way UP?

How could that be?

He privatized the jobs so they cost our state more than if a state employee had been performing the job.

Our current Democratic governor came into office, cut the budget, and added back some state jobs when he cancelled the private contracts. Funny how that approach saved us money.

And, some of the privatized functions were terribly performed because it was cronies who got the contracts, not necessarily experienced firms.

[Waiting For Everyman]

22. They don't count the private employees at all - so it's smoke and mirrors.

The number of government employees gets smaller because so many are off the books that way. The headcount in government is reduced, but the contracted number which isn't counted goes up a LOT, even moreso because the number is invisible and unchallenged. Privatized "small government" is actually much bigger.

It's just another linguistic con game. But yes, given the same number of government vs. private employees, government is still cheaper. Well it would have to be, wouldn't it, because there's no contractors' profit to add in for the government.

[yy4me]

70. Like Blackwater? N/T

[TheFarseer]

81. wow, good point

the size of government has exploded and that doesn't even count all the outsourced jobs.

[YOY]

90. An example from my job:

An employee with Bennies costs: 60$ an hour. ($85000 a year for a trained, experienced professional+ 50% bennies)

Contractor (not the actual contractor but their company) bills for: 130$ an hour but you don't pay them for holidays. Same job type. They personally, will see half of this usually...sometimes more or less. They may not get paid for Holidays or Vacation/Sick...so it really evens out on a personal level.

Yearly that costs: 127K (Employee wages plus bennies) versus $240K (full time contractor less 2 weeks vacation/sick and 10 holidays...cannot bill for holidays!!!) That's nearly twice as much.

Of course we can let the contractor go in a heartbeat...employees...you have to have...gasp! Justification!!!

Governmental contracting is the biggest racket in DC. Just how we are saving Tax payer Dollars I have no clue..

[hootinholler]

18. "Bush's Labor Department misled Congress"

This is a crime. Punishable by imprisonment. Prosecute them.

-Hoot

[DogPoundPup]

19. Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao is Mitch McConnel's WIFE

Treasonous BASTIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALL!

[Politicalboi]

24. Wow!

I wonder how much Mitch paid to keep this story under wraps till after the election.

[acmavm]

20. And there was no one who could possibly check to see if this was

true or not? Our reps don't have access to people, facts, figures, what the fuck ever, to check out what this bunch of liars say?

Did they not catch on somewhere around the wmd stories and the Niger Yellow Cake incident?

[awoke_in_2003]

26. Our reps are in on the scam...

why do you think impeachment was declared "off the table". No matter what they say on camera, they all cover each other. Congress is just a facade hiding the plutocracy.

[Piewhacket]

23. They lied??? Nooooooooooo....

I don't get it. Congress was mislead?
How is this possible?
Didn't they question the liars?
Didn't they see the liars lips moving?

Y'know as an incompetent, bungling idiot once explained,
"Fool me once, um... fool me twice.. er.. don't get fooled again (triumphant exclamation)"

So there, that's all I have to say on this distressing topic.

[Politicalboi]

25. Yes that idiot was so

"Misunderestimated" too.

[ksimons]

27. Why are we finding all this out now? At all?

Geeesh - this is getting worse and worse

[Overseas]

28. K&R to expose the fraud that is necessary to sustain privatization.

I look forward to de-privatization of services the Bush Cheney gang tried to farm out to their cronies.

[Joanne98]

29. Put Elaine Chao in prison!

[AtomTan]

30. Funny how Congress is always getting "misled" ...

by this administration while the truth has all along been plain as day to all of us peasants. The truth about corruption, about the build-up to war, about ... Jesus, name your crime.

What a bunch of naive pollyanna rubes our legislative branch must be.

"Misled" my ass. It was a wink and a nudge.

[tclambert]

55. Mis-leading is our current dear leader's specialty.

Could we call what Congress has been doing "misfollowing?" It has certainly not been "checking and balancing."

[bigbrother05]

32. Intentional FUBAR

They want it so screwed up that getting to the truth would take so much time and resources that Obama will have to choose between trying to fix the problems or trying to fix the blame. Either they get away with it or it will look like Obama failed.

Think Obama will figure out a way to do both, but it sure sucks that we will have to waste the effort after all that Jr has already wasted.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

34. competitive sourcing

Another name for cronyism.

[tclambert]

53. Absolutely correct.

Every bid for contract presents an opportunity for cheating. And no-bid contracts? That's cheating by design. Many of the civil service rules, like prospective employees taking civil service exams forcing them to demonstrate basic competence, came out of efforts to eliminate--no, check that--cut back on cronyism and nepotism. Of course, the Bush administration has raised all forms of incompetentism to record levels.

Hey, has anybody here contacted the Guinness people to see if we can get George W. Bush in their book of World Records? He's probably already made it with lowest approval rating and highest disapproval rating. And largest deficits. And largest addition to national debt. And just now, largest government bailout. (Geez, he rates a whole chapter, doesn't he?) But what about an entry for Worst President Ever?

[ohtransplant]

36. Imagine my surprise...

This is one of many ways they've encouraged/facilitated the looting of our national treasury. Lots of those government contracts go to contributors. Some of them are even "no-bid".

And I thought the administration was looking out for us. :sarcasm:

Why this doesn't rise to threshold of being criminal I'll never know. :grr:

[KittyWampus]

37. Insert PRIMAL SCREAM here .............................

[aquart]

38. Fraud should be punishable.

But nothing in this administration is.

[eringer]

39. GAO hits another one out of the park

"the Bush Administration has made the approach a key element of the President's Management Agenda under the Office of Management and Budget" Now everyone knows that the PMA is a scam program administered by what has been a rogue agency (OMB) since 1/20/01. PMA is gone effective 1/20/09 as are most of the political carpetbaggers at OMB.

[crazylikafox]

41. I expect to find this a LEAD STORY on network evening news... NOT

Please, Keith & Rachael, make enough stink about this that it actually gets reported on the networks.

[VaYallaDawg]

44. Fits the pattern. WMDs, govt. jobs, you name it - just lie and move on.

[Vinca]

45. Impeach . . . oh the hell with it.

:mad:

[Uncle Joe]

46. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[sofa king]

47. Yep.

Look forward to another eight years of disclosures like that. The Bush Administration happily blamed the Clinton Administration for its own incompetence all the way up to this summer, if I recall correctly. But if the Obama Administration doesn't start documenting, investigating, and prosecuting each and every one of these thousands of revelations to come, they'll be stuck with the blame, and these bastards will be back like flies to the corpse of America.

[wizstars]

48. WHAT?!?!?!?!? Bush LIED?!?!?!? How can anyone say that...

...after the last eight years?????

:sarcasm:

[justinaforjustice]

52. The Fraud Started with the Reagan Administration

I don't think we have gotten an accurate statistic out of the Labor Department since Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. Our unemployment statistics are absurdly under-reported. They only count as unemployed those who are actively receiving unemployment benefits. Those who remain jobless when their unemployment runs out are not counted as unemployed at all.

[Spectral Music]

54. It wasn't just at DOL.

They had a bogus report like this at the FCC too.

[JDwho]

56. Misled by BushCo. You're kidding me.

How many investigations can there be into an administration? They deliberately withheld information...about every single thing that matters.

[progressoid]

57. Can my opinion of these people get any lower?

[orbitalman]

58. Boy, talk about the loss of total credibility . . .

Now, time cannot go fast enough. When over, will the MSM keep dredging him up, like Palin?

[sarcasmo]

60. Criminals, Cheney, Bush, Rummy, KKKarl Rove, Paulsson jail them all.

[LynnTheDem]

62. And we'll shortly find out so very much more about all the other serious violations perpetrated by

the bush regime.

Not that any more will really matter. George W. bUsh has destroyed everything that matters.

[hopechange2008]

63. I used to think let it go

But more and more I say, put them in jail!!

[JohnWxy]

64. the depths to which these slime-balls will go is truly incredible. Conservatives habitually lie to

cover their abyssimal incompetence. This administration has plumbed the very depths to which humans can sink. Their immorality is as vast as their stupidity and incompetence.

To paraphrase the words of the chief idiot: "You've done a great job here Brownie"


Recommended.

[Caradoc]

67. Exactly!

Republicans/Conservatives are so convinced of the absolute truth of their ideology that any contrary data must be false and when it's not false, fake it anyway. That's why they are so dangerous once they get into power; they will literally rig the system in blind, obstinate obedience to their perceived reality, rathet than tailor their thinking according to facts. Remember what Rove said: they make reality. My own beloved Canada is now plagued with these cretins, even though the rest of the world is moving center-left.

[november3rd]

65. Impeach Chow First

Does this mean we can finally get revenge on the Dragon Lady?

[amitta]

72. and they will get away with it

who will do anything?

[Window]

73. Misled my ass. They out and out LIED.

nt

[kestrel91316]

74. OF COURSE they did. They got elected on a promise to destroy government

and that's what they set out to do.

Can somebody please explain to me exactly HOW adding a layer of corporate profit to any governmental function saves money?? Because I'm just NOT getting that part.

[MadMaddie]

76. I would like to know exactly which Contracting companies

received these jobs and if they even did any work.

[judasdisney]

78. Lock This Thread

This thread is a violation of the rules forbidding discussion of conspiracy. Open discussion of reality must be blocked.

[Amonester]

79. Guillotines For Sale

That's it: I'm startuping my own opportunity!

[2Design]

82. kr

[BrklynLiberal]

83. Not surprised at all....Totally in keeping with their entire crooked minions.

[redqueen]

84. And let me guess, no one will be held accountable.

*sigh*

[KakistocracyHater]

85. no one should be forced to pay

after all, it's time to be bi-partisan:sarcasm:

[mackerel]

86. My recommendation to the exiting admin

run your shredders 24/7 for the next two months.

[KakistocracyHater]

94. but then you'd be encouraging

obstruction of just-us:sarcasm:

[proud patriot]

87. Will the LIES not cease from these corrupt pirates

:grr:

[Solly Mack]

88. shakes head

go figure....

[singingbiscuit]

89. Didn't work for JEB either ...

... here in sunny Fla - where the sun finally shone on this stupid ruse, and the people finally woke up.

Of course, we're STILL paying for it. Hey, Florida is SO very happy to have Alaska around. KnowwhatImean?

[riverdeep]

91. Meanwhile, Dick Cheney is just laughing and daring all of us

to come get him. He knows we won't.

[russspeakeasy]

93. And people gamble in casinos...what a surprise....