Scandal-smashed OPM will no longer do govt's background checks – for obvious reasons The US government is creating a new agency to process background checks for federal employees and contractors seeking security clearance. The Obama administration said it will instruct the Department of Defense (DoD) to oversee the establishments of the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB). The new agency will take …
Actually the majority of the deficit is due to successive generations giving themselves entitlements like the Boomers who are spending 3 dollars for every 1 they put in during the lifetime through Medicare (pre Obama care). Their solution a decade ago was to vote themselves a prescription drug entitlement.
@asdf, Are you shure it has nothing to do with spreading democracy on credit. And could it be that big pharma and the insurance companies or as they are called, if I remember right, the medical industrial complex has screwed the system and not the Boomers. Things aren't that difficult if you really want to understand.
@asdf - maybe add a dollar or two on top of public health for military spending (on and off books) and another one for bailing out Wall Street. Add a dollar for the ongoing expansion of the federal government under both parties. Perhaps a dime for constant meddling in other countries affairs and it all starts to add up.
Medicare is expensive but that may have something to do with having the worlds most expensive medical solutions, the developed worlds worst food and being the worlds largest consumers of pharmaceutical products. There are numerous examples around the world of better outcomes at lower costs but lobbying and some irrational belief in exceptionalism may explain the determination of the US to stick with what its got. As everything must be a market based, something you buy rather than something you do, don't expect change anytime soon. Pray you live long enough to enjoy your $3.
Erm, the reason for the deficit is the over 50% of the federal budget going into the DoD, with its massive fraud, waste and abuse still rampant.
As for hiring the same people, don't be silly. They'll hire the same contracting firms, plus a new contract for new software, which will have cost overruns and failure to perform, but will be protected by hiring the DoD personnel after they leave the service.
I've witnessed that very thing, repeatedly.
In fact 50% of the Federal budget did not go to DoD. You can find the actual OMB numbers here. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2015/assets/budget.pdf
You may have been confused by appropriated funds vs mandatory spending. The US spends far more on social programs than DoD.
Starting a new Mutilletter division is silly beyond reason. Just fix what you have don't start yet another failure.
Sanity check:
For fiscal year 2015 while military + (discretionary) veteran benefits were just under 60% of the discretionary budget, military + (total) veteran benefits were barely 20% of the total budget, considerably less than either Medicare and Health spending ( 27%) or Social Security (33%).
The need for new software is not clear, since entry to the OPM network apparently was based on compromised credentials in a contractor's system.
the Department of Defense (DoD)
the National Background Investigations Bureau (NBIB)
the Federal Investigative Service (FIS)
the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
I can't help but think that if only the US government had created an investigatory bureau years ago, they might have saved themselves the bother.
Time to create another TLA. I hereby move the FIA* (Federal Intelligence Agency) be founded and furnished with an appropiate budget forthwith.
*okay, I borrowed that from "Attack of the Killer Tomatos". Best C-movie ever. Top agent Mason Dixon drives around in a car that has "FIA - unmarked car pool" stencilled on its doors. The movie also shows what the president does all day.
Having had a security clearance my entire adult life, a life that goes back to the bronze age, I'll explain it to you simply.
They use contractors "to keep the costs down", costing more than keeping a federally employed body in that position.
OPM wasn't the first agency to perform background checks, there used to be real federal employees conducting them. Now, we "save money" by farming it out to for-profit enterprises, for quite a bit more.
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