Ideas on Government Spending Cuts

The Cato Institute and DownsizeGovernment.org teamed up to create budget cuts to significantly reduce government spending over the next 10 years. While some of the changes are common sense, a lot of their ideas are very insightful and will help reduce the debt as well. The idea of both organizations is to put the responsibilities on people and the states and keep it out of the hands of the federal government. The dependency for government intervention is overwhelming and is going in the wrong direction, this plan is a good start to reverse that dependency.

What is reputation risk?

Risk management has been an important part of doing business for many years. Risk management includes the information gained from potential partners and suppliers. Nowadays, managing risk is more about business intelligence of a company's reputation. It means, what is a potential partner or supplier willing to do to get the job done. Corruption, reduced quality of service or products, and compliance are the top three concerns when managing risk. Surveys were completed in this article from the WSJ regarding the types of reputation risk.

Antitrust Enforcement by the FTC and DOJ is becoming too intrusive. Whatever happended to free markets?

After reading the policy analysis by The Cato Institute on antitrust enforcement, I was surprised that there was more regulation by the Obama administration than the Bush or Clinton administration. I was not surprised that there was more intrusive regulation occurring causing industry changes in the Obama administration. Very scary! The analysis overall was very interesting and thought provoking. The old theory from Adam Smith to let the invisible hand (i.e. free market, less government intervention) lead markets is vanishing.

USPS = Fail!

The US Postal Service (USPS) is a mess. Although they are constantly failing, no one in the government seems to notice. The recently failed an IG audit. They are behind in paying their debt. They cannot keep to their role of postal delivery. Why is the USPS still open? Don't forget, our taxes go towards paying this agency to stay open! The latest audit reflects the USPS failure of its acquisition process. They state that their employees were unaware of its purchasing policy when the IG determined that 38% of its $1.3B spending was sole sourced. Unacceptable to most but not to USPS. It is especially odd when USPS complains about the need for additional funds when they cannot seem to manage what funds they are obligated. What is the role of the USPS? "The core function of the Postal Service is the safe, reliable, affordable delivery of mail and packages to every address in the country and its territories." Really?

Will this split work for SAIC and Leidos?

SAIC was a private, employee owned company. It was so different and dynamic from its competition. People rarely knew SAIC or what the company did if they were not in the industry. As a stockholder and entrepreneurial employee you were drawn into the company and became very passionate about the work, the people, and the customers. Then SAIC's Founder/CEO retired...then the company went public...three CEO's with different visions passed through after rearranging staff/management/ideals. SAIC is nothing like it once was. The passion is gone. The employees are unsure of their future. Maybe the split into two companies is a good thing, I guess we will find out.

Another Year, Another Shutdown...Maybe!

It is amazing how little gets accomplished in D.C., except of course how often the Government plays chicken with itself. It is that time of year again when the Republicans and Democrats face off to determine how to keep a shutdown from occuring while trying to bend the rules and protect themselves. Why is it only themselves they are worried about and not the people who elected them? Oh, now I remember, its because they will continue to get paid, receive benefits and have full retirement NO matter what happens. Latest article here.

Getting tired of delays due to award protests? So is the PSC.

The PSC is the Professional Services Council, an organization that represents government services contractors. The are lobbying for assistance from legislatures to improve current acquisition issues on award notices and the high number of protests. The issue that is causing a lot of delays has been with award protests caused mostly by the lack of specific data as to the reasons for non-selection. Some companies feel the need to protest in order to get more information as to the evaluations of their proposal. PSC believes more information should be provided at the time of the award notice, which may significantly reduce the number of protests issued. Read more here.