Bush Doctrine of Outsourcing Government Directly Responsible for Meltdown At Walter Reed

I've said it before- that President Bush's zealous drive to 'outsource' as much of the federal government as possible to his corporate benefactors under the guise of 'smaller, more efficient government' is little more than a transfer of wealth from the masses to the few. Another tragic result of such massive outsourcing has been the loss of knowledgable and dedicated personnel from all of the governments agencies, leaving the American public with an understaffed, ill-equipped, and often incapable agency that is no longer able to fulfill it's mission to the American people. In what becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, Bush has been able to claim that big government is ineffective while gutting the budgets and staff of those agencies to make sure he is right. And at the same time, a small number of bohemoth corporations assume responsibility for managing the same tasks once done by competant and often caring lifetime federal employees, at a higher cost and with little or no accountability.

We saw it from FEMA when Katrina hit. We see it in Iraq daily. Corporations securing no-bid contracts to provide services or support and then fleecing the payments while leaving the job undone or done so poorly a first grader would question the results.

So I guess it's no surprise to find that outsourcing may well be behind the meltdown at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In a recent article at Army Times, it turns out that an internal memo from late 2006 described in detail how the Army's decision to "privatize support services at Walter Reed could put patient services at risk of mission failure." In fact, the Army has been aggressively outsourcing all sorts of work, and specifically at Walter Reed since the year 2000. And the reason for that aggressive outsourcing is given as President Bush's 'competitive outsourcing' initiative.

And guess who has the deal to 'handle' Walter Reed? A little company called IAP Worldwide Services, run by former senior Halliburton official Al Neffgen. They scooped up a five-year contract that started in january 2006. Since then, they've managed to cut the ranks of federal employees at WRAMC from around 300 to only 60 by early February 2007. Since then, those 60 federal employees have been replaced by 50 IAP workers. And it seems as though they weren't even the lowest bidder initially. An initial employee bid came in $7 million less than IAP, so the bidding process was recalculated to favor IAP.

Tell me again about how you support the troops Mr. President?

By the way- remember the whole Katrina debacle? IAP is the same company that figure'>couldn't figure out how to deliver ice to the Gulf Coast after the hurricane did it's damage. Clearly with a proven track record like that, they should be top of the list for any government contracts, especially one so important as caring for wounded veterans.

It's not about the soldiers people. It's not about democracy or rule of law. It's not even about compassion. It's just about the money- getting it from all of us and giving it to a few of the boys from Club Bush.

We may have to redefine what "Bush League Politics" really means.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)