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http://www.alternet.org/red-state-privatization-horror-story?akid=12386.294211.i8URus&rd=1&src=newsletter1023920&t=19
In reality, privatization of public services has been a total
disaster wherever it’s been tried. And, as a new report from the Center
for Media and Democracy shows, it’s also created huge opportunities for
fraud and corruption.
The report, which was released today and is titled “ Pay to Prey,”
focuses on how Republican governors in states all across the country
used the cover of privatization to enrich campaign donors and political
cronies.
The worst culprits include some the biggest names in Republican politics.
In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott has made growing for-profit education one
of his top priorities. And, in doing so, he helped out his political
buddies and donors while screwing over Florida’s students. One of the
biggest winners in Scott’s privatization push, for example, was an
ALEC-linked company called K12, Inc. that actually got an “F” from Florida’s education department.
And in Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder has handed prison food services over
to corporate giant Aramark. While the move has meant big bucks for
Aramark, the report suggests it’s been an absolute disaster in every
other possible way. Meals are infested with maggots, employees have been
caught having sex with inmates, and now there are reports that one
Aramark employee actually tried to hire a prisoner to kill someone for
him. All in all, not a pretty picture.
Our second president, John Adams, once said that “Government is
instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity
and happiness of the people; and not for the profit, honor, or private
interest of any one man, family, or class of men.”
Adams was right, of course, but today’s Republicans see it the exact opposite way. For them, government is there to be looted.
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