Privatization

Blackwater is Perfect for Dark Duties

Articles — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:53:00 -0400

So what’s good to be said about Blackwater, the private security contractor -- critics say "rogue mercenary force" -- that has been operating in Iraq? You know, the company involved in the Sept. 16 lethal shooting incident in Baghdad, whose founder, Erik Prince, was kicked around at a Capitol Hill hearing last week?

Only this: Blackwater is what America wanted. Even if few Americans had ever heard of the company until recently, most voters have generally supported the decades-long bipartisan trend toward governmental downsizing, "reinvention" and outright privatization. Founded in 1997 and first funded by the Clinton administration, Blackwater, for better… more

Reining in Military Contractors

adminn — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 07:35:00 -0500

It's unlikely that many Americans know Stewart W. Bowen Jr. They should. As the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), Mr. Bowen has helped save taxpayers billions of dollars. His audits of reconstruction contracts have turned up waste, mismanagement and fraud; and his investigations led to four criminal convictions and embarrassed excuses from the U.S. government's biggest military contractors.

Yet, for all his good work, some in Congress are not terribly appreciative. On the eve of recent mid-term elections, an amendment, buried deep within a military authorization bill, closed down Bowen's office. After media outrage, congressional leaders scurried to give… more

Comments Opposing Expansion of Licensing in 900MHz Shared Unlicensed Band

Wireless Future — Tue, 30 May 2006 18:26:00 -0400

Jennifer Washburn

Operations — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 06:37:00 -0400

Fellow

Jennifer Washburn is the author of University, Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education (Basic Books, 2005), which has received critical acclaim both inside and outside academia. Her book explores the commercial transformation of American higher education over the last 30 years, and the effect this is having on research, quality education, disinterested inquiry, innovation, and the free flow of public knowledge. Ms. Washburn's journalism articles and opinion pieces have appeared in a range of publications, including The Atlantic Monthly, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Washington Times, Mother Jones, and the Journal of Commerce. In 2001, Ms. Washburn was the recipient of the prestigious National Association of… more

A Katrina Voucher Compromise

Articles — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

"Remember Max Cleland" are three words that should haunt Democrats who want to oppose President Bush's new school voucher plan for children displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Mr. Cleland, a triple amputee from his service in the Vietnam War, was Georgia's junior U.S. senator until defeated for re-election in 2002 amid charges of weakness on national security.

Those charges stemmed from his opposition to Mr. Bush's response to 9/11: creation of a Department of Homeland Security free from civil service union rules. Mr. Cleland stood with the unions against Mr. Bush.

In response to Katrina, Mr. Bush has proposed up to… more

Public Safety at Stake

Communications — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
10/18/2005 - 12:00pm

From the fire fighters who died on 9/11 to the rescue workers struggling to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, the absence of reliable and interoperable voice and data communications among public safety agencies has become an urgent national dilemma. Within the coming weeks, the Senate Commerce Committee will mark up DTV legislation likely to impose a hard deadline on the clearance of TV channels 52 to 69 -- freeing up precious spectrum for public safety voice interoperability and for auction to commercial broadband services. Senators will also consider whether the vacant, unassigned channels between channels 2 and 51 should be opened for unlicensed access by public safety agencies for mobile data networks and for other commercial and community wireless broadband networks.

Senator John McCain and 9/11 Commissioner Tim Roemer are leading the long-delayed campaign to ensure better disaster preparedness by moving a handful of analog TV stations off spectrum that are badly needed to ensure interoperability for our nation's first responders. Beyond voice communication, other panelists will describe the benefits of mobile, high-speed public safety data networks that will require access to the sort of high-penetration airwaves that currently lie fallow as unassigned TV channels and "guard bands" in every community nationwide.

Privatizing Foreign Policy

Ron Tang — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:00:00 -0400

In August 2000, a motley array of democracy activists, politicians, and fringe nationalists trudged into a hotel in Budapest. The assembled figures constituted the leading members of Serbia’s political opposition movement -- a fractured and increasingly desperate group. Only weeks earlier, Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, hoping to catch his erstwhile opposition off guard, had announced snap presidential elections. After watching his domestic opponents spend eight years repeatedly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Milosevic was confident. But this time, Serbia’s democratic leaders had a secret weapon -- a bespectacled, Harvard-educated political consultant armed with a PowerPoint presentation.

Doug E. Schoen,… more

Insurance Policy

Articles — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Nearly a year ago, voters following the presidential race heard a stirring call for social reform: "The times in which we work and live are changing dramatically. The workers of our parents' generation typically had one job, one skill, one career. ... And most of those workers were men. Today, workers change jobs, even careers, many times during their lives, and ... two-thirds of all moms also work outside the home." As a result, "many of our most fundamental systems--the tax code, health coverage, pension plans, worker training--were created for the world of yesterday, not tomorrow." These systems must now… more

Bigger and Better

Articles — Fri, 06 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Remember those bumper stickers during the early-1990s fight over the Clinton health plan? "National Health Care? The Compassion of the IRS! The Efficiency of the Post Office! All at Pentagon Prices!" In American policy debates, it's a fixed article of faith that the federal government is woefully bumbling and expensive in comparison with the well-oiled efficiency of the private sector. Former Congressman Dick Armey even elevated this skepticism into a pithy maxim: "The market is rational; government is dumb."

But when it comes to providing broad-based insurance -- health care, retirement pensions, disability coverage -- Armey's maxim… more

Early Retirement Accounts are the Way Forward

Articles — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Could a reformed public pension system give citizens more control over their retirement savings, as conservatives want, without undermining security in old age, as liberals fear? Here is a proposal that does just that in the American context, although it could apply equally well to any public pension system struggling with long-term debts and an ageing population.

The idea is to allow all US workers to divert a portion of their payroll taxes into personal "early retirement accounts", which would give individuals more control over their financial destiny and the timing of their retirement. In exchange, the age… more