Government contracts limit who can bid by the sheer volume of paperwork & other crap you must put up with.
Not as hard to fire as civilian government employees who I have never seen one fired even when they do not come to work.
As a DoD engineer for 27 years, usage of contractors actually began under Bush 41 as we started to field more complex weapons. Clinton expanded its usage to keep DoD forces small and the budget small. Rumsfeld is an ethusiast for contractors because in theory you can fire them if they fail to meet cost and performance goals versus a civilian DoD worker and free up the soldier for combat duty. Concept works well in garrison and in Air Force (where the concept got started) and Navy because these units operate from rear area bases. The concept starts to fall apart in ground and foward area combat units because what do you do with these contractors when the foward area base is under attack (i.e insurgencies where rear areas are also frontline areas). To be accurate Clinton was part of the problem, so was Bush 41 and GWB. This is a classic example when we have civilians with no military service, get high level DoD jobs due to their academic/corporate resumes (plus prominent party activist and donator), and then they start applying private business concepts, which are great if they are tempered by battlefield conditions. Many of these nonservice bureacrats and appointed officials ignore these historical limits and are heavily influenced by PC and costs. Consequences of this type of leadership are women in combat units, gays in military, military technologies aimed at reducing the amounts of soldiers and manpower (great for fighting but useless for occupying), combat limited by lawyers, combat limited by PR limits, running military critical materials and components logistics like a Wal Mart (works if the enemy is defeated in 30 days or less, but if the war drags on, production base is strained to keep up causing shortages, and during that time you pray another major power does not attack you), fighting war on the cheap, etc, etc, and etc.
At that time, many Government employees pointed out that the Federal government would loose it expertise to handle many operational problems. Private industry loved it, since they could charge Uncle a 150% overhead rate in addition to salary and benefits. Now we see a Federal government which can’t wipe its a$$. Now the Feds screw up by the numbers. It always wasn’t like that.
There is always confusion over “Contractors” and “contractors.” The former being the company the latter being the person.
True is is hard to “fire” the company, but it is easy to replace the individual. Call up the COR (Contracting Officers Representative) and say that you want a new person by 1200. Very simple.
I know American workers wouldn’t send unrepaired vehicles, that could get troops killed, back into combat.
My brother looked out his office at his Navy base noticing 3 military contract workers taking turns all day painting one fire hydrant.
They must of been union workers.
Maybe they're using the wrong caliber.