Robert Reich and the Seven Lies

Just the facts, ma'am:

(Via jobsanger)

It has been a mantra of the Republican Party for decades now that private contractors can do the business of government cheaper and more efficiently. This has led to the federal government contracting out work to private companies for everything from computer services and human resources to war and prison services. That sounds great on the surface. The only problem is that it just hasn't worked out that way.

A non-profit Washington-based group, the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), did a study on the private contracting of government services and found that it is almost always more expensive -- and usually as much as twice as expensive. Out of the 35 programs they studied, at least 33 of them cost the government more money than if the work had been done by federal employees.

For example, the government was billed by a private contractor $268,653 for computer engineering services. Government employees (at current salary and benefits) could have done the same work for $136,456. A human resources private contract cost the government $228,488, while government workers could have performed the same services for only $111,711.

POGO general counsel Scott Amey said, "That's a big difference. We compared the full compensation paid to federal government and private sector employees to the billable rates in federal service contracts. Across the board you see that it cost government more to pay for contractors."

This is not big news, and it also will never make headlines in our mainstream media. Private contracting is one more way of transferring money from taxpayers to corporations, and no one seems to give a shit. Your tax dollars at work, eh?

Warren Buffett talks sense about people like him:

(via the NYT)

OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

[SNIP]

. . . for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in 2009 — I would raise rates immediately on taxable income in excess of $1 million, including, of course, dividends and capital gains. And for those who make $10 million or more — there were 8,274 in 2009 — I would suggest an additional increase in rate.

My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

How refreshing to hear one of the uber-rich speak so eloquently about the need to pay their fair share. And how rare.