Bush’s Assault on the Public Sector
A LONG BATTLE | Speaking in Chicago this March at a rally in support of Resurrection Health Care workers who have fought for nearly five years to form a union with AFSCME Council 31.
Photo Credit: Marc PoKempner
Message from the President
By Gerald W. McEntee
OUR GOVERNMENT is spending $400 billion a year on private contractors who are doing everything from feeding soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to collecting debts for the Internal Revenue Service. This is all part of President Bush’s unprecedented attack on the public sector. His gospel: privatization at any cost.
The war in Iraq provides the clearest example of the impact. There are now as many individuals working for private contractors there as American troops. Many of these contractors are entitled to immunity from civilian lawsuits and are not bound by the military’s court martial system. The result? No accountability.
Beyond Iraq, the Bush administration’s push to privatize vital services has reached new heights of absurdity: The General Services Administration hired a private contractor last year to review cases of incompetence and fraud by federal private contractors.
Pressure to Privatize
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., is another example of privatization gone wrong. The hospital was founded in 1909 to integrate patient care, teaching and research. Yet the soldiers who put their lives on the line have been receiving care at Walter Reed that would make its founders sick. Recent news reports showed soldiers in a bug- and rodent-infested, moldy building — forgotten and ignored.
Walter Reed was placed on the Army’s federal base closure list in 2005. The Pentagon then decided — under pressure from the Office of Management and Budget — to privatize maintenance. By the time the botched bidding process ended five months later, the non-medical workforce had shrunk substantially, demoralized by the knowledge that the hospital would close and their jobs in the meantime were being outsourced.
Ultimately, contractor IAP Worldwide Services was selected, leading to recently exposed problems. It is no coincidence that former executives of Kellogg, Brown and Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, lead IAP. (IAP, by the way, is the company that couldn’t even manage to deliver ice to Hurricane Katrina victims.)
Imperiling Services
Bush’s privatization policies at the federal level have imperiled public services and influenced state and local governments. Workers do more with fewer resources while poorly performing contractors get additional business even after doing a poor job.
Meanwhile, Bush devotees push privatization in their states, as Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels (formerly head of the Office of Management and Budget in the Bush administration) has in Indiana. More than 1,500 Indiana state employees — members of AFSCME Council 62 — were forced to leave their jobs and become employees of Affiliated Computer Services Inc., a company that now has the job of deciding who should receive Food Stamps, Medicaid and other aid. Daniels has also privatized the state’s toll highway, and others are following his example. But even this isn’t the worst of it. As the President cuts even more taxes for the wealthiest Americans and continues his own spending binge, he’s making it harder for future generations to fund public services.
A Government of the People
Instead of enriching the private sector at the public’s expense, politicians should be strengthening the public sector. Bush’s assault has harmed public services and all Americans have suffered. AFSCME’s job is to fight back. Winning Congress in 2006 was a good start, but we must follow through in 2008 by electing a President who will build a strong public sector. A government that is truly of, by and for the people cannot be contracted out.
