Privatization: President Cuts Corners and Jobs

While the chads still litter the polling-place floors, President Bush has stepped up his antisocial engineering (“Bush Aims to Privatize Many Federal Jobs,” Nov. 15). Still pushing tax cuts that most benefit the wealthiest 1% as the federal deficit increases, he tries to control that deficit by hiring scabs to work in governmental jobs at lower wages. He is, in effect, taxing federal workers to lower the taxes paid by the rich. Let voters remember that they cast votes not only for homeland security but also for Republicans.

David Eggenschwiler

Los Angeles

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Kudos to Bush for advocating privatizing many federal jobs. I suggest we nip the federalization of airport security in the bud and keep the untrained private security guards and illegal immigrants on the job.

Henry Ostermiller

Costa Mesa

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Those who claim that this is merely “union-busting” fail to realize that several of the contracts to be performed will be won by companies with union employees. But this is really not the issue. Union employees pay taxes and would dearly love to enjoy an efficiency-driven tax cut.

Our country is the wealthiest in the world due to its competitive philosophy. The goal is to receive the best service at the lowest cost possible. Most of us are sick and tired of our government’s unbridled spending, and this is a wonderful opportunity to put an end to it. Bush’s goal is not to privatize federal jobs but, rather, to increase efficiency by 30% by allowing the private sector to compete with the current infrastructure. One has to ask why anyone would oppose this suggestion.

Dan Scully

Oxnard

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Bush now wants to privatize about half of the federal government jobs. Given corporate America’s extraordinary showing this past year in terms of maintaining the public trust and forsaking its own profit motives in the process, Bush now wants to rely on the private sector to take care of such things as mining safety, federal occupational safety and many national security functions.

So that Bush won’t be subject to charges of hypocrisy similar to those he faces for attempting, without constitutional authority, to thrust our nation into war when he himself never fought in one, perhaps he should begin his privatization campaign by giving up his own job to the private sector. I, for one, would be happy to do his job for far less money than he receives, thus making great strides toward the administration’s articulated goal to “reduce costs and increase the federal bureaucracy’s efficiency.”

Timothy Black

Laguna Beach

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Let’s hope Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney don’t do for the government work force what they did for the California energy market.

Ritas Smith

Torrance