Privatization to Come? Senate Starts with Cafeteria
According to the Federal News Service:
Should career federal employees collect taxes, handle Social Security claims, handle maintenance chores, run air traffic operations and federal national parks?
That's an important, multi-billion dollar debate and one that the next president and the new Congress will have to deal with. Millions of jobs, of federal workers and of private sector people in every state, are at stake.
The argument for privatization is that it saves money. Industry can do it better and since it doesn't have to pay federal wages and offer federal fringes, can do it cheaper. Many experts say that the government employs six contractors for every one non-postal civil servant. Since the Eisenhower administration, many Republicans have argued that the government shouldn't be in the business of business.
People who opposed privatization, led by federal unions, said there are some functions, like tax collection, that must be kept in-house for reasons of quality-control and security. Many rank-and-file feds, forced to compete with industry for work, claimed they were forced to spend more time justifying their jobs than actually doing their jobs. Generally speaking, Republican politicians favored privatization while Democratic politicians opposed it.... click to continue.
