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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Little Joe who wrote (144178)	9/15/2010 12:57:35 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 541025

"But do you know of any major government program that came in under budget." Of course. Not under Republicans, but, yes, frequently. All the time. Even more often than that, but, only when the Dems run the programs. You could know just as much as I do if you used The Google. 2010 Census was $1.6 billion under budget Updated 12:37 p.m. ET The U.S. Census Bureau plans to give at least $1.6 billion back to the government later this year because the 2010 Census came in under budget, officials said Tuesday. voices.washingtonpost.com Obama says stimulus projects under budget uk.reuters.com Workers finish dredging Shinnecock Inlet; project comes in $3 million under budget 27east.com

To: Little Joe who wrote (144178)	9/15/2010 1:11:49 AM
From: Jeff Hayden	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541025

Government projects that come in at or under budget never hit the news, because that news isn't interesting. However, rather than trying to gather information on such successful projects, it's better to understand why many exceed budget. 1. The customer (usually the DoD, NASA, FAA, NSA, NOAA, or other technical agency) bites off more than it or the chosen contract winner can chew: 1.1 Procurements for existing designs that have been shown to work, typically do not overrun. 1.2 Procurements for new designs typically overrun because: 1.2.1 The government almost always chooses the lowest price bid, not the technically best bid. This is to supposedly save you money - doesn't work 1.2.2 The projects are much more complex than they use to be because they are heavily dependent on software that often has to be written from scratch as the concept hadn't be done before. F-35, F-22, NPOES (NOAA/Air Force weather satellite, UAVs (actually these have been quite cheap, but are becoming very complex, very fast), etc. 1.2.3 The government is tending to accept only fixed-price bids when WWII was won with cost-plus. Cost-plus can be ripped-off, no doubt, but if the contracting company is honorable, cost-plus gives the company the freedom to fix technical problems without worrying about extensive, time-wasting, expensive negotiations to change a fixed-price contract. 1.2.4 No one knows all that is necessary to produce these new, highly complex systems. The customer doesn't know as they crank-out the RFP. The contractors don't know as they submit their proposals. All this leads to overrun as the unforeseen problems arise and are fixed. Rather than gripe about the efficiency of government procurement, wouldn't it be better to reduce the amount of complex systems we buy by not having a stupid war against an ideology? The military/industrial complex is starting to feel the pinch of reduced budgets - that's the best that can be said of this recession. But now, where do those laid off engineers and middle managers find decent paying employment? There's going to be a lot of them. Maybe that will be the start of a double-dip recession.