It was awesome reading Marc's unabridged post this morning, and re-reading Brad's kick off on Government inefficiency. This is clearly a hot topic that we all have strong opinions about. I guess it's my time to chime in and give my two cents.
First, I would say that Marc hit the nail on the head. The most important element and first step in controlling government spending is to figure out what government should do, and what they shouldn't do. Non-core functions like chow halls, mail service (which is so 20th century), motor vehicle licensing, and health care (just my opinion) are NOT things that I believe our government should have a stake in. In fact, if you just came up with the list of current government spend in these non-core areas and decided to outsource them to private contractors with a for-profit interest in efficiency and effectiveness you would save enough to ensure all of our military forces had more than enough money to protect our nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Heck, enough to fill all their printers with paper too!
Marc commented in his post that government contracting is BIG BUSINESS and he's so right. The idea of having the US government as a client is a market opportunity that almost any civilian company would drool over. And most certainly go to great lengths to win and retain these large and profitable contracts. I've worked for companies that thrived in the government contract space.
One further impression I had from reading Marc's post was that it appears government is cutting almost randomly in all the wrong places ... Paper and Christmas parties, are you kidding me? Is this really where most of our government dollar is being spent?
Having been a part of big cost cutting exercises in private businesses, they always start with "the big rocks". Big rocks are those components of your current spend that make up the biggest part of your total costs. Generally speaking big rocks are often in the three buckets of (1) people, (2) bricks and mortar - real estate costs, office buildings, (3) technology - computers, phones, networks, etc. I'm not saying these three buckets make up the bulk of the big rocks in all businesses, but in the service based businesses I've generally been a part of it is. So, what are our government's big rocks? My guess is in people, bricks and mortar, and then maybe technology. I haven't seen too many government entities with a shortage of staff that are housed in buildings that looked frugal or were built in lower cost real estate areas. Hmmm?!
I wish we could find a way to elect business people to political positions rather than politicians. Ross Perot jumps to mind immediately - forget for a moment whether you would want someone like that running our country. The point here is that it isn't just the CEO who has to have a business head (the President of the United States) but the entire executive team (Congress). How about we let Bill Gates and Warren Buffet run our country's fiscal policy for the next two years? They would probably do it charitably for no salary too. Let them have the reigns and after two years they are done, regardless of how much or little people liked their efforts. That would surely right the ship.
I'm for small government because of what Brad and Marc stated in their respective posts, and what I've added above. And I believe firmly that for-profit contractors to the federal government for non-core functions would drive tremendous efficiencies in our current system that are required to reduce our burgeoning deficit and put the United States of America on much firmer fiscal ground. And really, who doesn't want that?
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