Blackwater

The evidence continues to mount: Blackwater, that is, the reliance on contractors to do what should be done by the military, is the direct result of the Pentagon’s, or White House’s disastrous federal budget policies.

Higher mlitary spending or more Blackwaters are on the way. That's the inevitable conclusion from today's "Budget Battles" on nationaljournal.com.

Here's the key point: the increased use of expensive contractors was inevitable given the federal budget politics that encouraged the White House and Capitol Hill to underestimate the military threat to the United States and the forces needed to deal with it so that  lower costs could be projected.

OMB Watch has a small article about how the House yesterday passed legislation that would eliminate the current program where IRS contracts out tax collecting to a private contractor.  OMB Watch also notes that the Bush administration is threatening to veto the bill.