Contractors

Reuters is outsourcing News to India and our defense contractors are outsourcing technical writing to the Ukraine?  Soon, when we do nothing in the US, we will be "nothing".............

When Kathy Hanten's employer began outsourcing some of her work to Ukraine last year, she could see the writing on the wall. After three years of working for a Carlsbad defense company as a technical writer, her responsibilities were gradually scaled down to a part-time position.

>From the NY Times:

In Washington, Contractors Take on Biggest Role Ever
By SCOTT SHANE and RON NIXON

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 — ..........
Without a public debate or formal policy decision, contractors have become a virtual fourth branch of government. On the rise for decades, spending on federal contracts has soared during the Bush administration, to about $400 billion last year from $207 billion in 2000, fueled by the war in Iraq, domestic security and Hurricane Katrina, but also by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does.

Contractors still build ships and satellites, but they also collect income taxes and work up agency budgets, fly pilotless spy aircraft and take the minutes at policy meetings on the war. They sit next to federal employees at nearly every agency; far more people work under contracts than are directly employed by the government. Even the government’s online database for tracking contracts, the Federal Procurement Data System, has been outsourced (and is famously difficult to use).

The contracting explosion raises questions about propriety, cost and accountability that have long troubled watchdog groups and are coming under scrutiny from the Democratic majority in Congress. While flagrant cases of fraud and waste make headlines, concerns go beyond outright wrongdoing. ..........(article)..