Tallying up the government payroll used to be a somewhat reliable way to measure the size of government. No longer: contracting out has become more common. Under this system, the government decides what needs to be done, the taxpayers pay the bill, and the profits land in private hands. Some people call it privatization, or we might just call it market-based socialism.
The Associated Press reports: “About 850,000 government jobs will be opened to private companies under new rules yesterday that encourage competition to replace federal workers who perform tasks such as giving weather reports to private pilots, fixing computers and taking money and tickets at national parks. Democrats and labor unions see the Bush administration changes as union-busting and political favoritism, and they pointed to problems at NASA as a red flag. The procurement rules are among many revisions the administration is undertaking that do not require congressional approval. Officials are rewriting rules that determine which workers are entitled to overtime pay. They also are acting to allow religious groups that receive government funds to discriminate in hiring based on religion. Nearly half of the 1.8 million civilian government work force performs tasks that duplicate work in the private sector, the administration estimates. President Bush wants to let companies bid to provide that work, with at least 15 percent opened to competition by Oct. 31. The regulations issued yesterday ‘will open much wider the doors to those businesses and their workers who can seek to provide to the American taxpayer a better value at a better price,’ said Mitch Daniels, outgoing director of the Office of Management and Budget. Officials have identified examples of work being performed by government employees that probably could be done better and more cheaply by private businesses.”
