Letters to the Editor
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I see two problems with this...
1) It adds another level of opagueness to government spending. The government is technically transperent. It holds a contract that says what it expects from the private contractor and how much it is paying them. Now what the money is really spent on has nothing to do with them. The actual spending thus becomes opague. This leads to my second problem.
2) Accountability; our society is becoming obsessed with accountability. We spend thousands of man hours and millions of dollars so that when *@it hits the fan and people ask "Who do we blame for this?" that we have our bases covered. This is how the Iraq war is run, this is what NCLB is doing to education, this is how doctors are protected from malpractice, this is how American corporations are allowed to sell lead-infested, unsafe toys to American children with no ramifications. This is why Katrina became the travesty that it became. This is why drought is going to rip parts of this country in half...I could go on.
Privatization of government powers is corruption by definition. The words have changed from "Robber Barons" to "hedge-fund managers" but the process remains the same. The only difference now is that we've moved from back-room deals and having "friends" in high places to in your face this is exactly what we are doing and you can't stop it because it is legal. What country do we live in? "We the People" are sitting on our asses watching this unfold like a soap oprea.
We need to do as Jackson did and Edwards is trying to do. And that is to "turn the rascals out" and re-take the government through "popular will".