Naomi Klein: Outsourcing Government

[babylonsister]

Outsourcing Government
by Naomi Klein

‘We didn’t want to get stuck with a lemon.” That’s what Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said to a House committee last month. He was referring to the “virtual fence” planned for the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada. If the entire project goes as badly as the 28-mile prototype, it could turn out to be one of the most expensive lemons in history, projected to cost $8 billion by 2011.

Boeing, the company that landed the contract — the largest ever awarded by the Department of Homeland Security — announced this week that it will finally test the fence after months of delay due to computer problems. Heavy rains have confused its remote-controlled cameras and radar, and the sensors can’t tell the difference between moving people, grazing cows or rustling bushes.

But this debacle points to more than faulty technology. It exposes the faulty logic of the Bush administration’s vision of a hollowed-out government run everywhere possible by private contractors.

According to this radical vision, contractors treat the state as an ATM, withdrawing massive contracts to perform core functions like securing borders and interrogating prisoners, and making deposits in the form of campaign contributions. As President Bush’s former budget director, Mitch Daniels, put it: “The general idea — that the business of government is not to provide services but to make sure that they are provided — seems self-evident to me.”

The flip side of the Daniels directive is that the public sector is rapidly losing the ability to fulfill its most basic responsibilities — and nowhere more so than in the Department of Homeland Security, which, as a Bush creation, has followed the ATM model since its inception.

For instance, when the controversial border project was launched, the department admitted that it had no idea how to secure the borders and, furthermore, didn’t think it was its job to figure it out. Homeland Security’s deputy secretary told a group of contractors that “this is an unusual invitation. … We’re asking you to come back and tell us how to do our business.”

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/20/4699/

[Turbineguy]

1. Of course Bush

was against the creation of this department in the beginning. That's to be expected as it was a Clinton idea. But what's more, the concept had to be morphed into a tool to siphon money out of the government into private hands. Once somebody figured that out, it was OK.

That's how all government will eventually work under the GOP. Then Congress can spend so much time on hearings to look into how the government is getting fleeced that they will not have time to pass laws. Luckily the President is here to do that law passing business for them.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll get into my SUV for a shopping session at the Mall.

[applegrove]

2. She's always spot on.