Kerry to eliminate 100,000 federal contractors???.....

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001898332_kerry08.html

exerpt...
The Massachusetts senator said he would halve the deficit in four years by increasing taxes on the wealthy, using that cash to finance new education and health-care programs and restraining most other discretionary spending.
He also said he would freeze the federal travel budget, reduce oil-royalty exemptions for drilling on federal lands, eliminate 100,000 federal contractors and cut electricity used by the federal government by 20 percent, among other programs.

Does anyone know any further details on this?


1. There's obviously a feeding fest of contractors in DoD and other....but exactly where are these 100,000 coming from?

2. Many make take this at a visceral level as he will cut defense....has Kerry clarified this in any specific statements?

3. Kerry has been improving in my opinion....telling a more believable and logical progression of what he intends to do....but this almost seems too tongue in cheek. What's the realism factor in this?

Find out the facts before assuming it's bad.

was making an assumption...

The original poster just asked for more information....

Part of the problem may be that there are no facts to be had...

If you are aware of any, why not enlighten with links, etc....

For the first time since Gore won the last presidential election, I trust (Kerry's) policy team.

And Kerry, himself, has been in Congress long enough to know where the bodies are buried (i.e., wasted spending on contractors). BushCo has privatized quite a bit of the govt (hired private contractors); Kerry wants to restore those jobs to govt status, which means protection and benefits for the workers.

George Bush has added hundreds of thousands of contractors to the Federal payroll. Kerry's signalling that he'll switch back to actually hiring Federal employees, which means that we'll hire unionized folks with pensions, rather than expanding some CEO's profit margin.

There are quite a few contractors involved in those projects.

He also intends to cancel government contracts with any firm that uses offshore addresses to escape paying corporate taxes.

I want to get more facts on this because I think it's for real....

The federal workforce was "reinvented" (no more big government) from 93 to 97 and I think DoD took the biggest hit at about 15% reduction.
Since 2000 the federal government has grown by about 5% if I'm correct.

I think it's VERY practical an idea and should be expanded on rather than broad brushed. It should be well articulated and have the same political appeal as did the "reinvention of government" in the 90s if its done correctly....

or almost everybody -- some high-paid contractors will certainly be hurt, but others will be re-hired by the Federal Government with benefits and security that they were not previously afforded. It saves the federal gov't money too, because they're not helping some corporation's profit margin, and it helps federal employees a whole lot.

That sounds like great news to me. The Army was better off without Halliburton, in my opinion. Some things you don't want to run for profit, and the safety and health of soldiers are some of those things.

government...which is the all time republican lie and distortion (next to it's a "liberal media" lie) Regan, pappy Bush & W all have increased the size of government and added trillions of dollars to the deficit with their tax the middle class and spend the money for corporations and industries...The biggest lie the republicans have been perpetuating is that republicans are for less spending and smaller government.

Complete and total bullshit!!!!

Evidently there has been a trend in hiring contractors to replace government workers....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3626796/

exerpt....
The Washington Post says "Kerry's campaign pledge this week to deflate the ballooning federal budget deficit contains several provisions that could affect the federal workforce... Federal union leaders called Kerry's promise to wipe out 100,000 federal contractors an important counter to Bush's efforts to move as many as 434,820 federal jobs to the private sector as part of his 'competitive sourcing' initiative." But critics say "the loss of so many contract workers would hurt the government's ability to carry out important missions such as rebuilding Iraq."

There has been a feeding fest on these government jobs...and if someone had more info on that.... it might serve to put things in perspective....