FIRE THEM!

So I'm walking to work, listening to the NPR Podcast Spies For Hire with author Tim Shorrock... Did I hear this correctly?

70% of our intelligence spending is outsourced? Ok. And people often leave government agencies to work for private firms, and then end up back in the same agency. But now they're a contractor and getting paid 2 - 3 times their former salary... But the nice thing about having contractors doing government work is that if they have a drinking problem you fire them. With a "lifetime employee" it's not that easy...

So, let me get this straight. 70% of my tax money is being spent on contractors. Who are often the same people doing the same job but I'm paying them 2 - 3 times as much money? And the benefit I am getting with all that extra cash is that no one has to fire an unproductive government worker? Who, what, thinks they're entitled to a lifetime of employment with or without productivity?

I've got an idea -- FIRE THE BASTARDS. We've become so hamstrung by our own human resources hand-holding and team-building bullshit that we're spending 70% of our budget over-paying for the same work to get done by the same people? 70% of $60B being paid 2 times as much is $21B a year wasted because we don't want to get rid of people that don't perform?

Ok, I just massively oversimplified a complex problem. But 70% of our budget on contractors?! For reasons anywhere close to that one? Really? Are we that stupid?

Yee gods.