The hound of Haydes

It's difficult keeping up with the continuing cronyism of the White House, but hotpotatomash points the way to a story about the IRS outsourcing the management of paper tax returns. The IRS put up the outsourcing contract to a public-private bid, which IRS employees initially won. But after a "review," the contract was nullified and a new contract was awarded to IAP Worldwide Services, a company owned by a hedge fund called Cerberus Capital Management. Seated as the chairman of Cerberus is former Treasury Secretary John Snow, the very same man who sat idly by while Bush ran the country's deficits and debt to record heights. The price for that loyalty looks like it will ultimately be about $103 million.

This outsourcing should enjoy the benefits of relaxed government contract oversight that is now being requested by the new chief of the Government Services Administration, the agency charged with oversight of government contracts. That's right, Bush's political appointee as chief of the GSA, a former government contractor, Lurita Alexis Doan, feels that the best thing the government can do is to get out of the way of companies seeking to defraud US taxpayers. This, of course, she denies and her concern stems from her wanting to cut back on waste in the GSA, the agency that has recovered billions of taxpayer dollars through audits of contracts.

Let the waste, fraud and abuse continue apace.