Griper Blade: Privatized Disaster at Walter Reed

I've never understood the logic behind privatization. You look at two organizations -- one that has to turn a profit and one that doesn't -- and argue that the for-profit enterprise can not only do things cheaper, but more efficiently. This despite the fact that one obviously requires more money changing hands. If the Bush administration has proven one thing, it's that this idea isn't just counterintuitive, it's baloney. We have, to a large extent, privatized rebuilding Iraq and we all know how well that's going -- we flew pallets of cash into the country, literally 363 tons of hundred dollar bills -- only to watch it evaporate. One of the biggest contractors in Iraq, Bechtel, did as lousy a job in that country as it did in Boston's 'Big Dig'. Privatization doesn't mean increased efficiency, it means cut corners, corruption, and turning the government into an ATM for corporations.

Take a look at an institution that's been private since the gitgo -- healthcare. A recent CBS News/NYT poll shows that americans not only think Universal Health coverage is a good idea, but that they're extremely unhappy with the system the genius of the free market has built. Apparently, a system built by private industry sucks in the extreme.

So it shouldn't surprise us any that the problems experienced by patients at Walter Reed Army Medical may be the result of privatization...

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