GOP assaults government

We have the best-educated federal public employees, but they are under attack by the Republican Party. We all know of the cost overruns and abuses caused by private contractors in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Did you also know that a recent study by POGO (Project On Government Oversight) showed that hiring private contractors to do the same jobs that should be done by federal employees, here in America, were 1.8 times more expensive and two times more expensive than total compensation paid in the private sector for the same jobs?

In another instance, the Department of Defense is outsourcing jobs, which is said to be illegal, because they are not doing the necessary cost analysis to see if it is actually cheaper to outsource.

Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle, a New York Republican, introduced an amendment recently that would have stopped all reimbursement for continuing educational purposes for full-time, board-certified VA physicians and dentists. Do you really want doctors and dentists working on soldiers returning from war ignorant of the latest breakthroughs in medical and dental technologies? I think not.

This is Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ and the Republicans’ idea for smaller government at any cost.

Lawrence Schuchart

Spokane