The Trump administration has given every indication it intends to privatize as much of our government as it can, as fast as it can. It is filling the administration with people who advocate privatization. David Dayen warned about this after the election at The Nation, in Trump's Transition Team Is Stacked With Privatization Enthusiasts. Others are sounding similar alarms.
Trump's "hiring freeze," for example, is really a strategy toward privatization. Lauren McCauley explains at Common Dreams, in In Step Towards Privatization, Trump Enacts Federal Hiring Freeze...
"[A]s AFGE national president J. David Cox Sr. pointed out, the freeze will 'actually increase taxpayer costs by forcing agencies to hire more expensive contractors to do work that civilian government employees are already doing for far less.'"
In effect, it's a step towards privatizing the federal government.
The Veterans Administration"'Numerous studies have shown that contractors are two to three times more costly than each federal employee they replace,' Cox said. 'President Trump's federal hiring freeze will result in more government waste as agencies are forced to hire high-priced contractors to do the work that federal employees can and should be doing.'"
An early privatization target of Trump administration privatization is the Veterans Administration (VA). The VA is the embodiment of "government health care." Millions of veterans go to the VA and get care, and that's it.
The VA is a big operation, providing care for approximately 5.8 million veterans annually, at over 160 VA medical centers and 1,000 affiliated health care sites. Every year the VA handles 92 million outpatient visits, admits 707,000 inpatients and fills 271 million prescriptions.
Privatizers have been pushing "government doesn't work" propaganda about the VA for some time. A large agency that serves millions of people will have problems, just as a large private business will. This was especially true when a surge of veterans returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. But corporate/conservative PR firms pushed out a drumbeat of bad "news" about the "government-run" VA, in ways that turned every problem into a "scandal."
For example, when vets faced wait times for non-essential medical care, some died of unrelated causes. PR firms pushed the story that "Vets died waiting for VA care" as if the wait times were the cause.
When a sufficient blanket of anti-government propaganda has been laid down the privatizers introduce proposals for "reform" and providing "choice." Of course the proposals are to hand over government functions for private profit.
The Trump administration is coming for the VA. The Military Times explains, in Trump considering plans for privatizing VA medical options...
"President-elect Donald Trump is evaluating a radical overhaul of veterans health care options even before he finalizes his pick for the next secretary of veterans affairs."In comments to reporters late Wednesday, a transition official said Trump is considering a 'public-private option' that would allow some veterans to get all of their medical care from private-sector physicians, with the government paying the bill."
The Trump administration's privatization strategy begins with propaganda about providing "choice" and "vouchers." This might sound familiar to those following the school privatization fights.
What To DoCall your Representative and Senators and let them know how you feel about privatizing the VA, and Trump's other efforts to privatize our democratic government. Ask them for a firm, public statement on privatization generally and on the VA in particular.
More good reading:
The Privatization Scam: Five Government Outsourcing Horror Stories
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