Hillary Clinton had a great op-ed in WSJ today. I wish she was talking like this during the primaries. It could have changed the whole tenor of the narrative.
If we're going to get serious about putting our nation's fiscal house in order, let's talk about putting an end to billions in no-bid contract awards to unaccountable contractors. Let's talk about the number of lucrative contracts and bonuses being paid for duties never performed, promises never fulfilled, and contracts falsely described as complete. And let's talk about reforming the federal contracting system so that we can take on the real waste, fraud and abuse in our federal government.
She's proposing a complete overhaul of the federal contracting system that includes:
- Instead of rewarding companies that exploit tax shelters and incorporate in tax havens, let's ban the federal government from contracting with companies that hide profits offshore.
- Let's put a stop to the disgraceful practice of giving bonuses to contractors for work never performed, which has been allowed to happen in Iraq and throughout the federal government according to the GAO and inspectors general.
The jaded souls on my listserv rightly observe that she could have been doing something about this over the last five years, but I'll take this kind of talk anytime I can get it from inside the Beltway. Let's hope it turns out to be more than just empty election year rhetoric.
(Cross-posted at The Impolitic.)
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