Republicans want to cut federal government spending which could result in 700,00 jobs lost. When Speaker John Boehner was informed of this possibility, his response was “so be it”.
Republicans will eliminate public jobs while doing nothing about the rampant explosion of contracting jobs that out sourcing two wars has cost us.
From the book “Pinstripe Patronage Political Favoritism From The Club House to the White House and Beyond” by Martin and Susan Tolchin- “The author of a riveting book on Blackwater, Jeremy Scahill, argues the magnitude of Blackwater’s activities is much greater that the public or the government is willing to admit: Americans are under the impression that the United States currently has about 145,000 active duty troops on the ground in Iraq. What is seldom mentioned is the fact that there are at least 126,000 private personnel deployed alongside the official armed forces. These private forces effectively double the size of the occupation force, largely without the knowledge of the U. S. taxpayers that foot the bill”. “How can I get soldiers to re-enlist offering them a $2,000 bonus, when they can go to Blackwater and draw beginning salaries of $80,000-$100,000?” complained one high-ranking army official”. “A House-Senate conference committee reporting on the use of private contractors in intelligence work estimated that the average civilian employee (in all sixteen intelligence agencies) cost the government $126,500 annually in salary, while the cost of the “core contractor” hovered at $250,000.”
Why aren’t the Republicans, the Speaker or even the Democrats looking at these exorbitant and un-necessary costs?
Again from Pinstripe Politics-”… in the words of Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight-The problem, continued Amey, is that “the real politics of contracting is less about contracting than it is about campaign contributions” Amey estimated that in FY 2008, the government spent $531 billion for contracts…” Republican aims are to cut $600 billion from the federal budget. Cut out the contractors and we’re almost there.
General David Petraeus commander of forces in Afghanistan is guarded by a security corporation hired by the State Department. Maybe we could save a bundle if the US military could provide security to their own commanding general. After all if they’re capable of multiple deployments, surely we must think they’re capable of protecting their general.
The American public wouldn’t swallow the deficit deceit being perpetrated by the republicans if they only knew where their tax dollars were really going; into the pockets of large defense contractors and not just into the pockets of public employees.
