re: #1 William Barnett-Lewis

We not only need contracting reform, we need to go back to the Military providing it’s own services as much as possible. No more civilian cooks or contractors building things that the Engineers could be building. Re-open and totally modernize the Springfield and Rock Island armories. Purchase the Lima Tank Works and have Ordinance run it.

It’s time to admit that the whole “contractor” experiment has been an expensive fiasco that only put lots of $$$ into corrupt pockets.

Actually, having private firms build firearms for DoD has worked very well and has actually lead to a great deal of innovation and capability increases. So that should stay private, because it isn’t problematic and in fact helps work against the rigidity of military procurement.

On engineers, you’ve got point but not on cooks. Soldiers and Marines are frankly paid more than a cook is worth these days, so contracting that job out saves on personnel costs.