Saturday, March 10, 2007
the usual suspect
Though it doesn't inspire even a raised eyebrow in anyone who has ever had personal contact with the American military bureaucracy, the scandal of Walter Reed and the VA medical administration in general has upset a lot folks, and given a lot of politicians a chance to grandstand. But it's just the same old formula, right down to the ultimate culprit for the shoddy work: our old friend Halliburton. Got to love that military-industrial complex! Just like freedom, it turns out that free markets aren't free.
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This administration, and the Republicans in general, are no friends of free, competitive markets. Why, when you can give our taxes to your buddies in closed bidding?
Of course, the same thing has been going on at every level of government for a long time.
When Stephen Goldsmith was mayor of Indianapolis he started out as a fan of privatization of city services. But he kept an open mind, and, partly for reasons of political necessity, began allowing the government agencies providing the services to bid against the private companies. Part of the process was allowing them to propose changes to internal rules and regulations that would allow them to increase efficiency. For example, the road repair crews explained that they brought five people and two trucks to fill every pothole, but that the job could be done with two people and one truck just as fast; it just happened that they'd always done it with two trucks and five people.
In the end, many of contracts went to the public agencies, presumably in part because of their experience.
My point is that I agree, Tracy. Simply calling something a free market doesn't make it free, and giving a job to a private company doesn't make it a free market either. What is required is competition and award of contracts based on merit and performance, not cronyism.
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