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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / For a Normal Congress, This Would Be Embarassing

For a Normal Congress, This Would Be Embarassing

by John Cole|  April 22, 20151:44 pm| 103 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics

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Sigh:

Every day, I serve food to some of the most powerful people on earth, including many of the senators who are running for president: I’m a cook for the federal contractor that runs the US Senate cafeteria. But today, they’ll have to get their meals from someone else’s hands, because I’m on strike.

I am walking off my job because I want the presidential hopefuls to know that I live in poverty. Many senators canvas the country giving speeches about creating “opportunity” for workers and helping our kids achieve the “American dream” – most don’t seem to notice or care that workers in their own building are struggling to survive.

I’m a single father and I only make $12 an hour; I had to take a second job at a grocery store to make ends meet. But even though I work seven days a week – putting in 70 hours between my two jobs – I can’t manage to pay the rent, buy school supplies for my kids or even put food on the table. I hate to admit it, but I have to use food stamps so that my kids don’t go to bed hungry.

I’ve done everything that politicians say you need to do to get ahead and stay ahead: I work hard and play by the rules; I even graduated from college and worked as a substitute teacher for five years. But I got laid-off and I now I’m stuck trying to make ends meet with dead-end service jobs.

American voters should ask themselves: if presidential candidates won’t help the workers who serve them every day, will they really help the millions of low-wage American workers who they don’t know or see? I’m a Bible-believing Christian, just like a lot of the candidates. Scripture says to “Love your neighbor” and “Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you”. It’s a shame too few candidates follow the guidance of the book in which they say they believe.

My employer, Compass Group, is renewing its contract with the US government today – but none of the senators or government officials to whom we serve food asked me or my co-workers whether this multinational corporation, headquartered in the United Kingdom, is treating American workers right. No-one bothered to check if the company that makes billions in profits is paying workers a living wage and offering decent benefits so we don’t have to use public aid programs to meet our basic needs. We the workers sure have an opinion when it comes to federal contract renewals – but no one cared enough to ask us.

They can’t even take care of the people who actually feed them.

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Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    RaflW

    April 22, 2015 at 1:48 pm

    This is rather damning. Not that McTurtle will care one iota.

  2. 2.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2015 at 1:55 pm

    No, Mitch don’t give a shit. I would say to this young man to keep trying to get another job. Of course, that’s so much easier said than done, when you are working 70 hours a week.

    Very sad.

  3. 3.

    JPL

    April 22, 2015 at 1:57 pm

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if the Washington Post ran this story on their front page.

  4. 4.

    Face

    April 22, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    Hey, but the Koch Bros are planning to drop an estimated ~$900 million into the 2016 elections. By very rough math, that could pay for 300-400 million meals, or 3 meals a day for ~33 million poors in our country.

    But Kochs would rather buy attack ads and shit. A whole fuck-ton of them. Of course, they’re so rich they could both, but wont. Because dickheads.

  5. 5.

    Mj_Oregon

    April 22, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    From the online version of their 2014 Annual report:

    “North America is the core growth engine for the Group. We have a market leading business there, which delivers excellent levels of growth and steady margin expansion. Having first established the business in 1994, we are now the 11th largest private sector employer in the USA and serve around six million meals a day.”

    Please tell me why the US Senate, and presumably other government entities, uses a foreign company to run its food services?

  6. 6.

    Germy Shoemangler

    April 22, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    I can just imagine the reaction from the conservative republican facebook warriors:

    “Why doesn’t he improve himself instead of wanting more money for that job? Go back to school, get a degree in engineering,” etc.

    That’s always their argument. That low-wage jobs are SUPPOSED to be low-wage.

    They’ll edit out the part where he’s a laid-off schoolteacher.

  7. 7.

    Tommy

    April 22, 2015 at 2:01 pm

    Is anybody in Congress even listening anymore? When the person cooking you meals says you are not paying them enough to put food on the plate for their kids, I think things are kind of FUBAR.

  8. 8.

    Arclite

    April 22, 2015 at 2:02 pm

    If the man had said he’s “going Galt” instead of “going on strike” he would have gotten their attention.

  9. 9.

    elmo

    April 22, 2015 at 2:03 pm

    From a contracting perspective, this is an interesting article that hinges on a glaring falsehood: Compass Group doesn’t have the contract for the food services on Capitol Hill. A subsidiary of a subsidiary has that contract: Restaurant Associates, which is owned by Compass Group North America, which is in turn owned by Compass Group.

    I know that all sounds hypertechnical and distinction-without-a-difference-y, but it’s really not. There are pretty rigid rules that keep a foreign parent from having too much influence over a US Govt contractor, and here, the foreign parent is once removed, so there’s even less influence.

    IOW, Compass Group may well be a billion $$ business, but that tells us exactly bupkis about Restaurant Associates’ profit margins.

    All of which throat-clearing aside, I hope the President does exactly what they ask and issues the exec order.

  10. 10.

    Derelict

    April 22, 2015 at 2:03 pm

    I’ve done everything that politicians say you need to do to get ahead and stay ahead: I work hard and play by the rules; I even graduated from college and worked as a substitute teacher for five years. But I got laid-off and I now I’m stuck trying to make ends meet with dead-end service jobs.

    Doesn’t this guy understand that he’s actually a winner in today’s economy? After all, he used to pay a lot more in taxes. But now, after so many conservative policies and tax cuts have been in place for 16 years, his tax bill is essentially zero because his income is pretty close to zero. As a non-tax-paying moocher, he should be kissing the feet of every Republican senator.[/snark]

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    April 22, 2015 at 2:03 pm

    Good for that worker for having the guts to speak up. Not only is it a disgrace that a man with two jobs has to struggle to make ends meet, it’s a scandal that the politicians he feeds are trying to slash the social safety net for families like his while shoveling tax cuts to the greed-heads who are getting rich off his misery.

    I wish some Democrat — hell, Hillary Clinton would do — would make corporate welfare a central campaign theme. Run the numbers and find out just how much we taxpayers are subsidizing Walmart and McDs, etc., so their workers can keep body and soul together on a shitty wage.

    Corporations are demanding socialized medicine and food distribution for their workforce and privatizing the profits, and we shouldn’t allow the dirty commies / capitalist pigs to get away with it anymore.

  12. 12.

    elmo

    April 22, 2015 at 2:04 pm

    @Mj_Oregon: Doesn’t. See my comment above. It owns a company that owns the company that provides the service.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    April 22, 2015 at 2:04 pm

    I hope this guy is prepared for a countertop inspection. As well as looking into anything in his background that might be a problem. Didn’t pay a traffic ticket that one time? Delinquent on bills? Credit problems? Family member who has a substance abuse problem? Distant relative who went to jail?

    I hope they don’t take his kids away.

  14. 14.

    gene108

    April 22, 2015 at 2:06 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    They’ll edit out the part where he’s a laid-off schoolteacher.

    Just shows how useless school teachers are. Without their cushy government jobs and union thug protection, they cannot compete in the real world.

    Anyway, there are several thousand people, who would see a big boost to income, if the government just hired them as full-time employees and stopped contracting out everything. The government would more than likely save money.

  15. 15.

    shell

    April 22, 2015 at 2:06 pm

    Well hell, Washington was built with slave labor and it looks like the trend continues.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    April 22, 2015 at 2:06 pm

    @Violet:
    I fear for Bertrand Olotara’s job.

  17. 17.

    Germy Shoemangler

    April 22, 2015 at 2:10 pm

    @Amir Khalid: If ignorant midwestern bible pizza makers can get rich from online contributions, he certainly should get enough to pay some bills. Not that this is a real solution to the problem, just a bandaid, but it would be great to learn that he got some donations for sticking his neck out like this.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2015 at 2:10 pm

    OTOH: If you’re a congresscritter, you can keep an assault rifle in your office. (And have taxpayer-paid protection — lots of it!, and intrusive yet — to protect your royal ass, against anyone else bearing arms.)

    Was on the WaPost website. Some white male congresscritter was pictured. Didn’t read, just sighed.

    I don’t think they’re very interested in Bertrand Olatara and his third world probs, especially since he insists on having them near their first world lifestyles.

    70 hours a week and not much money to show for it. Loser.

  19. 19.

    mai naem mobile

    April 22, 2015 at 2:10 pm

    @Betty Cracker: that’ll happen when the Waltons,the Kochs, the Popes and the Nordstroms stop funding our politicians. I find this article completely depressing. This whole country is being sold piece by piece for pennies on the dollar. Fuck Paul Singer and Sheldon Adelson with a baseball bat. Its a pity the airplane fire didn’t get David Koch. I’m a big believer in karma and these fuckers are going to get huge servings of it at some point. Ther enablers too.

  20. 20.

    Germy Shoemangler

    April 22, 2015 at 2:11 pm

    @gene108: I suppose they’d tell him to go work in a charter school, where he might earn the same kitchen wage.

  21. 21.

    raven

    April 22, 2015 at 2:11 pm

    I’ll always remember about 30 of us going to McCloskey’s office to talk to him about ending the war. He was out and his office staff said, “he’ll be back after lunch, you boys should go eat and come back. We’d been camped out on the Mall for days and were raggedy ass in our jungle fatigues and hand’t had a square in a while. We walked down to that cafeteria and grabbed every vet we could find. We went through the line and loaded our trays with chow and the first guy to hit the register said “we are guests of Senator McCloskey”! The nice lady had a big smile on her face as she rang up a platoon or so of hungry doggies! We burned a couple at the table after we ate and no one said shit. One of those unforgettable moments!

  22. 22.

    Tommy

    April 22, 2015 at 2:12 pm

    @Mj_Oregon:

    Please tell me why the US Senate, and presumably other government entities, uses a foreign company to run its food services?

    I know more about federal procurement then I care to admit, and any contract worth more than $30,000 is opened for bid. Any firm can bid on them.

    Gore did a lot of this as VP. I know things from a tech side of procurement. There used to be a phrase in government circles nobody ever got “fired for hiring big blue.” Back in the 70s nobody got fired for hiring IBM.

    They were IBM. Might not have been the best fit for the job but they were IBM. Gore totally reworked how the government buys shit. Not totally sure he was successful, but he tried.

  23. 23.

    Eljai

    April 22, 2015 at 2:12 pm

    I wish there was some way to shame these cheap-ass congress persons and greedy corporatists into doing the right thing. But that would assume that they are capable of feelings.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2015 at 2:12 pm

    Again, the Grauidian’s photo illustration was great.

    It was Ted Cruz, with a gold-lit alcove behind his head, reporters with microphones waiting on his every word.

    Looks like a religious icon. Wonderful photograph (of a pretty unappealing subject).

  25. 25.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    April 22, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Not only is it a disgrace that a man with two jobs has to struggle to make ends meet,

    <GWB>Isn’t this a great country?</GWB>

  26. 26.

    Tommy

    April 22, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    @raven: I kind of totally wish I was there with you!!!!!!

  27. 27.

    pete

    April 22, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    @elmo: Legalistic shenanigans. It’s perfectly reasonable to make the political point that a foreign company is using a loophole to evade responsibility and gain access. If they lose out because they are being shamed for legal behavior, well, boo-hoo.

  28. 28.

    Violet

    April 22, 2015 at 2:15 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Jobs, apparently. Jobs. Multiple to make ends meet.

  29. 29.

    Roger Moore

    April 22, 2015 at 2:17 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Didn’t read, just sighed.

    He claims- and I assume he’s being honest because it’s easily checked- that it is not a functioning weapon because a critical part has been removed. IOW, it’s just a fancy, rifle-shaped nicknack rather than an actual weapon.

  30. 30.

    ? Martin

    April 22, 2015 at 2:19 pm

    @shell: Slavery was the best jobs program this country ever had. Wages were shit, but man did we get people working hard.

  31. 31.

    Germy Shoemangler

    April 22, 2015 at 2:21 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I wish some Democrat — hell, Hillary Clinton would do — would make corporate welfare a central campaign theme. Run the numbers and find out just how much we taxpayers are subsidizing Walmart and McDs, etc., so their workers can keep body and soul together on a shitty wage.

    I saw this elsewhere:

    Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Monday she would consider changes to the U.S. tax code to reward companies that produce goods and services as opposed to trading, which she likened to “playing games.”

    Campaigning in the early-voting state of New Hampshire, Clinton underscored the anti-Wall Street rhetoric she used in the launch of her 2016 White House bid last week.

    “I think what we have to do is look at the whole tax system and try to figure out what is an economic investment as opposed to one without economic purpose,” Clinton said in response to a question during a visit to Whitney Brothers Inc., a family-owned business in Keene, New Hampshire. “Because there are a lot of those, where people are just basically playing games.”

    “I want to do everything I can to support goods and real services and take a good look at what is now being done in the trading world,” she said.

    Clinton, who has emphasized populist economic themes in an effort to court the progressive wing of her party, repeated her criticism, first made last week in Iowa, of provisions in the tax code that allow some of Wall Street’s richest financiers to pay lower tax rates than middle-class Americans such as nurses and truck drivers.

    Some hedge fund managers and private equity firm partners benefit from a loophole that lets them pay the capital gains tax rate, which is lower than the ordinary tax rate, on large portions of their incomes.

  32. 32.

    elmo

    April 22, 2015 at 2:21 pm

    @Tommy:

    I know more about federal procurement then I care to admit, and any contract worth more than $30,000 is opened for bid. Any firm can bid on them

    Not entirely true. There are lots and lots and LOTS of contracts that require the company to be a domestic firm, and if said domestic firm is foreign-owned, there is a whole FOCI (Foreign Ownership, Control, and Influence) process that is pretty onerous that is intended to prevent the foreign parent from having any influence over the domestic contractor. And I strongly suspect that any contract for services in the Capitol will have that restriction.

    And I happen to know this because it’s what my livelihood is based on.

  33. 33.

    gene108

    April 22, 2015 at 2:21 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    If ignorant midwestern bible pizza makers can get rich from online contributions, he certainly should get enough to pay some bills.

    I doubt he’d get close to $840,000 from a Go Fund Me campaign.

    Liberals are not very passionate about much.

    Look at the difference in the money raised for Darren Wilson versus for Michael Brown.

    Right-wingers have a lot of faults, but they will back up whatever they believe in to a fault, no matter how screwed up their belief is. It is also one reason scammers make so much off of them.

  34. 34.

    burnspbesq

    April 22, 2015 at 2:23 pm

    They can’t even take care of the people who actually feed them.

    Since there are no adverse consequences associated with failing to do so, why would they?

    After all, it’s clearly Obama’s Keenyan Mooslim mind control tricks that are preventing the contracting officers at GSA from requiring the contractor to pay a living wage, amirite?

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2015 at 2:23 pm

    @gene108: Said he’d been a substitute teacher. Not the same as a laid-off schoolteacher. In Virginia, you don’t even need a college degree to apply to sub. (Don’t know if you’d get hired, but it’s not a requirement.)

  36. 36.

    trollhattan

    April 22, 2015 at 2:23 pm

    @raven:
    Great story. Can you imagine a Republican like Pete McCloskey today? When I tell folks it was quite possible to cast a vote for a Republican once upon a time and have a clear conscience afterwards, they think I’m nuts. (Which I may be, but not on that particular point.)

  37. 37.

    Germy Shoemangler

    April 22, 2015 at 2:27 pm

    @JPL: Wouldn’t it be wonderful, if the Washington Post ran this story on their front page.

    I have a feeling I’ll only see it here and in a few other progressive websites, but there won’t be a whisper on my local tv news or national news or major media outlets.

    Imagine if he made all the morning talk shows! Matt Lauer drawing attention to his plight? Good Morning America with George Steph?

  38. 38.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 22, 2015 at 2:28 pm

    One of my rules to live by is never to piss off people who can spit in my food.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    April 22, 2015 at 2:28 pm

    @raven: What a great story!

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2015 at 2:29 pm

    Let’s keep an eye on local coverage of Mr. Olatara and his coworkers’ strike. See if even Politico picks up on this.

    Yeah, food service contracting has become another extraction industry. Pay someone as little as you can (and they’re around your food, healthy or not!); avoid all benefits and retirement income you can.

    It’s all about a warm body in a job, not about a valued employee who is rewarded for loyalty to your company.

    I am surprised to hear the Senate contracts out its cafeteria (I am naive that way). For shame.

    I am so sick of the middleman making the money, with not as much risk either.

  41. 41.

    p.a.

    April 22, 2015 at 2:29 pm

    @mai naem mobile:

    @Betty Cracker: that’ll happen when the Waltons,the Kochs, the Popes and the Nordstroms stop funding our politicianshang from nooses

    fixt

  42. 42.

    elmo

    April 22, 2015 at 2:30 pm

    Want to hear something even worse, though?
    As a Cook I, he makes $12.55 an hour. (Promotion to Cook II would get him a princely $14.60.) But as awful as that is, here’s what he also gets that his colleagues in the District who don’t work on Federal contracts can only dream about:

    Paid vacation of 80 hours, 120 hours, or 160 hours depending on his length of service;
    10 paid holidays; and
    $4.02 per hour toward health insurance, which for a full time worker usually covers the cost of premiums.

    The issue isn’t Federal contractors; the issue is that we pay people shit wages in this country, full stop.

  43. 43.

    Tommy

    April 22, 2015 at 2:30 pm

    @elmo: My knowledge of Federal procurement is in the early to mid-90s. So dated. But FOCI isn’t something I am aware of.

  44. 44.

    rikyrah

    April 22, 2015 at 2:30 pm

    say it again.

    ELECTIONS.HAVE.CONSEQUENCES

    …………………………………..

    Kansas lawmakers want the poor to pay for tax cuts for the rich

    By Max Ehrenfreund April 21 Wealthier Kansans are paying much less in taxes after Republican Gov. Sam Brownback overhauled the state’s income tax a few years ago. Brownback and other Republican officials hoped that more generous policies would stimulate the economy, bringing more revenue into the state’s coffers and making up the difference on the bottom line.

    It didn’t work. Kansas’s economy has kept expanding at more or less same plodding pace as the rest of the country. And now, according to official estimates released Monday, the state will have at least a $143 million budget shortfall in 2016, and likely more. Lawmakers are looking for a way to plug the hole.

    One thing they’re not considering: asking the wealthy to chip in. Instead, in a legislature that last week barred welfare recipients from using their benefits to go swimming or watch movies, the proposals that look most likely to succeed are sales and excise taxes that would be paid disproportionately by Kansas’s poor and working class.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/21/vwelfap/

  45. 45.

    Germy Shoemangler

    April 22, 2015 at 2:31 pm

    @Elizabelle: Yeah, food service contracting has become another extraction industry. Pay someone as little as you can (and they’re around your food, healthy or not!); avoid all benefits and retirement income you can.

    The real mark of a stupidly greedy society is food workers not being allowed paid sick days.

  46. 46.

    raven

    April 22, 2015 at 2:32 pm

    @trollhattan: He was really good to talk to about the war, a USMC Korea vet and he knew the Nam was bullshit. Then there was Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug!

  47. 47.

    elmo

    April 22, 2015 at 2:33 pm

    @Tommy: It’s been my career for the past ten years, so our knowledge bases don’t overlap – I know nothing about the 90’s. But FOCI is why I have the job I have now.

  48. 48.

    Chris

    April 22, 2015 at 2:34 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I wish some Democrat — hell, Hillary Clinton would do — would make corporate welfare a central campaign theme. Run the numbers and find out just how much we taxpayers are subsidizing Walmart and McDs, etc., so their workers can keep body and soul together on a shitty wage.

    Republicans will respond by saying that it’s because we’re subsidizing them that Walmart and McDonalds are paying such shit wages, and we just need to stop subsidizing them and then the free market will sort itself out because they’ll no longer be able to rely on the government picking up the slack.

    No idea how many people that’ll convince, but they’re starting out with 40% of the public…

  49. 49.

    Bobby B

    April 22, 2015 at 2:34 pm

    I’m waiting for Obama’s explanation of the TPP deal. Also for his explanation of why he tolerated Leonhart so long.

  50. 50.

    Heliopause

    April 22, 2015 at 2:35 pm

    Judging by the comments above blaming Mitch McConnell and the Koch brothers I take it this pay scale for Senate cafeteria workers was enacted less than four months ago?

  51. 51.

    Tone in DC

    April 22, 2015 at 2:35 pm

    @elmo:

    Not entirely true. There are lots and lots and LOTS of contracts that require the company to be a domestic firm, and if said domestic firm is foreign-owned, there is a whole FOCI (Foreign Ownership, Control, and Influence) process that is pretty onerous that is intended to prevent the foreign parent from having any influence over the domestic contractor. And I strongly suspect that any contract for services in the Capitol will have that restriction.

    I want to throw this out there for the vets, active duty folks and anyone else who can chime in. The mainland Chinese were making flags and berets for the US military in the last millenium. Is that still the case?

  52. 52.

    raven

    April 22, 2015 at 2:35 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Don’t fuck with the spoon.

  53. 53.

    Kylroy

    April 22, 2015 at 2:36 pm

    @gene108: I suspect this might have something to do with righties having more money in general.

  54. 54.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2015 at 2:36 pm

    @Mj_Oregon: I guess it was bid out & these jerks had the low bid.

  55. 55.

    Cervantes

    April 22, 2015 at 2:36 pm

    @shell:

    Well hell, Washington was built with slave labor and it looks like the trend continues.

    Au contraire!

    Why, it was only a few days ago that Compass Group USA was named to the Forbes 2015 America’s Best Employers list!

    Compass is ranked #1 in the “Food service and support services” category; #16 in the “Business services and supplies” category; and #458 overall.

    (Aside: Overall, WUSTL was ranked #13; MIT #20, Stanford #40, Columbia #52, and Harvard #73.)

    Upon receiving these accolades, Gary Green, CEO for Compass Group USA, was quoted, somewhat ominously, thus:

    Being recognized by Forbes is a testament to our commitment to attract and retain the top talent in our industry. […] We believe we can offer associates and prospects the most career opportunities of any company in culinary and hospitality. What we say here — and we mean it — is that there is really never a reason to leave Compass Group.

    So there’s your response, Mr. Olotara. Read it and weep.

  56. 56.

    philpm

    April 22, 2015 at 2:39 pm

    @Violet: Exactly. How soon before Michelle Malkin unleashes her hordes on him, or O’Reilly sends his lackey to confront him as he’s leaving work?

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    April 22, 2015 at 2:39 pm

    @Chris:

    No idea how many people that’ll convince

    I doubt it will convince anyone in the sense of getting them to change their mind, but at least 27% of the population will swallow it hook, line, and sinker.

  58. 58.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 22, 2015 at 2:40 pm

    @raven: Better way of phrasing it.

  59. 59.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2015 at 2:40 pm

    @raven: Wow, wish I had been there for that!

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2015 at 2:41 pm

    Let’s not forget OPM contracted out background checks.

    That didn’t work out too well. A veteran with mental illness shot up the Navy Yard. Twelve dead. Only way the powers that be noticed that the contractor wasn’t actually doing much in the way of background checks.

    And then it turned out said contractor had also vetted Edward Snowden.

    USIS lost its mega-contract with OPM; some other agencies may still use them. From September 2014:

    It was reported last week that background check contractor U.S. Investigations Services LLC (USIS) will lose a large chunk of its federal business starting next month. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will not renew USIS’s $2.5 billion Background Investigation Fieldwork contract and its $288 million Background Investigation Support Services contract.

    This move was somewhat expected, given the government’s suspension of USIS’s work last month after a cybersecurity attack on the company compromised the personal data of thousands of government employees. In addition, the Justice Department is asserting in a False Claims Act lawsuit that USIS fraudulently submitted 665,000 background checks between 2008 and 2012 that were either incomplete or not properly reviewed. Among the individuals USIS screened during that time was NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. USIS also performed a 2007 background check on Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis.

  61. 61.

    Mike in NC

    April 22, 2015 at 2:41 pm

    @Grumpy Code Monkey: Wasn’t Dubya addressing some Lucky Ducky who was working three crappy jobs? American Dream, indeed.

  62. 62.

    elmo

    April 22, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    @Tone in DC:
    Doesn’t look like it.

  63. 63.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2015 at 2:45 pm

    @Heliopause: I just said he doesn’t give a shit. And I stand by that.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    April 22, 2015 at 2:45 pm

    @Cervantes:
    That’s a little like being awarded “Best Tick of 2015.”

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2015 at 2:47 pm

    Wasn’t it Cheney (and Rumsfeld, I guess) who ushered in so many contractors to support the military? As a longterm cost-saving measure?

    Blackwater (now Xe) did us proud. And dead contractors are just as dead as US military employees. They have families, too.

    What is so bad about having employees? And paying them well? It’s like a badge of shame in MBA’d America.

    The guy who instituted a $70,000 minimum wage at his company went viral. It was news.

  66. 66.

    DWD

    April 22, 2015 at 2:48 pm

    Among the many things wrong with this situation is the fact that we live in a country where a person working 70 hours a week and raising a child alone has to feel ashamed that he (or she) needs to be on food stamps to make ends meet. Fuck people who demonize welfare.

  67. 67.

    Betty Cracker

    April 22, 2015 at 2:48 pm

    @Chris: That’s exactly what they would say, but the first rule of low-info voter messaging is that when you’re explaining, you’re losing. That’s why it’s pointless to try to explain that SNAP benefits don’t amount to a fart in a whirlwind in deficit discussions.

    Put those greedy bastards on the defensive for a change. Ask why it’s okay to make taxpayers feed Walmart’s cashiers so Alice Walton can own a fleet of Bentleys. Let the true welfare queen wear her crown at last!

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    April 22, 2015 at 2:51 pm

    @raven:
    I don’t know how, but we (as in “We, the People”) have to find a way to make politicking an honorable path so we can again attract people of that caliber and quality to office. What we have today ain’t working. For the unacquainted, here’s Pete McCloskey’s CV. Today, we get Walnuts instead.

    I hadn’t realized in one of his seats he was succeeded by Leo Ryan.

  69. 69.

    chopper

    April 22, 2015 at 2:51 pm

    But even though I work seven days a week – putting in 70 hours between my two jobs

    Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that. ― George W. Bush.

  70. 70.

    The Golux

    April 22, 2015 at 2:52 pm

    @Face:

    Hey, but the Koch Bros are planning to drop an estimated ~$900 million into the 2016 elections. By very rough math, that could pay for 300-400 million meals, or 3 meals a day for ~33 million poors in our country.

    Or hire 30,000 people at $30,000 a year to make farting noises with their armpits. Still much more beneficial to the economy than enriching TV stations.

  71. 71.

    Cervantes

    April 22, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    @Tone in DC:

    The mainland Chinese were making flags and berets for the US military in the last millenium. Is that still the case?

    Chinese-made American flags have not been kosher since last year’s budget bill. Chinese-made berets have been banned since a controversy arose early in the first GWB Administration.

    Overall, this sort of procurement is governed by the Berry Amendment (1941), subsequently codified as 10 USC 2533a, which imposes in many product categories a buy-American policy on the US military. Here’s what’s covered at the moment:

    An article or item of food; clothing; tents, tarpaulins, or covers; cotton and other natural fiber products; woven silk or woven silk blends; spun silk yarn for cartridge cloth; synthetic fabric or coated synthetic fabric (including all textile fibers and yarns that are for use in such fabrics); canvas products, or wool (whether in the form of fiber or yarn or contained in fabrics, materials, or manufactured articles); or any item of individual equipment (Federal Supply Class 8465) manufactured from or containing such fibers, yarns, fabrics, or materials; and hand or measuring tools.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    April 22, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    @DWD: What struck me is “how much time does Mr. Olatara get with his children?”

    It’s a horror story, and that he’s serving members of Congress is why it’s newsworthy.

    We’d be a better society if we had more community spirit and loyalty, but the MBA mentality wants to monetize everything.

    Not a jab at all MBAs (I know we’re complaining about engineers a thread down!), but you know the type I mean.

    Cost of everything and the value of nothing.

  73. 73.

    raven

    April 22, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    @Paul in KY: I’ve never seen these pictures, I recognize lots of people but I was missed!

  74. 74.

    Violet

    April 22, 2015 at 2:57 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Put those greedy bastards on the defensive for a change. Ask why it’s okay to make taxpayers feed Walmart’s cashiers so Alice Walton can own a fleet of Bentleys. Let the true welfare queen wear her crown at last!

    Yes, yes, yes! It’s time for liberals and progressives and anyone else on the lefter end of the political spectrum to go on offense. Why should the Walton’s sponge off the government? Are you the taxpayer happy about paying for their fancy houses and cars?

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    April 22, 2015 at 3:02 pm

    @DWD:

    Hey, if he couldn’t afford to support a child, he should have kept his pants zipped.
    /snark

    It is kind of interesting that we rarely hear about how single fathers should have been more responsible and not had kids they can’t afford.

  76. 76.

    schrodinger's cat

    April 22, 2015 at 3:04 pm

    @Elizabelle: MBAs are just the foot soldiers, I would also blame economics and B-school professors who have provided an a veneer of intellectual respectability for the theories and policies that elevate capital over labor.

    ETA: If you don’t believe me go to any University and see how much fancier the B-school is compared to the other departments

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    April 22, 2015 at 3:08 pm

    @elmo:

    It’s a slightly different issue, but it would be interesting to find out if the parent company is pulling the profits out of the US subsidiary so the subsidiary can plead poverty. That was a big thing during the 2000 electricity crisis in California — PG&E’s parent company was taking all of their profits so PG&E could claim they were on the verge of bankruptcy and just HAD to raise electricity prices.

  78. 78.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2015 at 3:08 pm

    @raven: Thank you for the link Takes you back in time.

  79. 79.

    Mike J

    April 22, 2015 at 3:13 pm

    Funny. If you google Senate bean soup, the first result is
    https://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_item/bean_soup.htm

    If you go there, you’re just redirected to senate.gov. If you look at the google cached version of the page, one of the first things near the top of the page is a pic with the caption “Senate restaurant staff preparing bean soup.” The pic itself doesn’t appear in the cache.

    The page was up recently enough that google still thinks it is live and the definitive source. Did Senate leadership pull the page? I think it’s a fair Cavuto to pose.

  80. 80.

    Bill

    April 22, 2015 at 3:14 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I wish some Democrat — hell, Hillary Clinton would do — would make corporate welfare a central campaign theme. Run the numbers and find out just how much we taxpayers are subsidizing Walmart and McDs, etc., so their workers can keep body and soul together on a shitty wage.

    I wish this too.

    Not to start another skirmish in the battle over HRC, but do you really see her taking on this particular issue?

  81. 81.

    Tree With Water

    April 22, 2015 at 3:14 pm

    Lest we forget the work-a-day complicity of the corporate press shot callers and the powers-that-be in sustaining the status quo, let Digby explain it all over again:

    “..The New York Times and the Washington Post should be ashamed for “partnering” with this con-artist. But hey, none of the journalists who “partnered” with the right wing oppo shops in the Whitewater bullshit and Travelgate bullshit and Vince Foster bullshit and “Al Gore invented the Internet” bullshit” and “Iraq has WMD and worked with al Qaeda” bullshit and Swift Boat Veterans for Bullshit bullshit ever paid a price for their bullshit coverage and they probably won’t pay a price now”.

  82. 82.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2015 at 3:17 pm

    @Bill: If she wants to get nominated/elected, she oughta.

  83. 83.

    elmo

    April 22, 2015 at 3:20 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):
    Yes, that would be interesting. Could certainly happen, and I’m not aware of any FOCI rules that would prevent it.

  84. 84.

    Betty Cracker

    April 22, 2015 at 3:23 pm

    @Bill: She’s not my first choice, but I suspect she will be our nominee. Whoever it is — be it Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley or Fudgey da Whale — damn well better focus on income inequality. HRC is making the right noises, which is encouraging…

  85. 85.

    Brachiator

    April 22, 2015 at 3:25 pm

    @Violet:

    Why should the Walton’s sponge off the government? Are you the taxpayer happy about paying for their fancy houses and cars?

    I’m not quite sure that you can say that the taxpayer is paying for the Waltons’ homes and cars, but in some ways the situation is even worse than most people can imagine.

    The Walton family is America’s richest, worth some $140 billion between them and longtime fixtures of the Forbes 400 list thanks to their approximate 50% ownership of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer.

    Their Walton Family Foundation, established by the late Sam and Helen Walton in 1988, is considered a heavyweight in the world of nonprofits with just under $2 billion in assets….

    However, almost none of this largesse is the result of donations from the Waltons themselves, according to a report released on Tuesday by Walmart 1 Percent, a project of union-backed Making Change at Walmart….

    The report goes on to detail how the Foundation has been funded over the years, namely by tax-avoiding trusts established with assets provided by the late Sam, Helen and John Walton or their estates. The study found that 99% of the Foundation’s contributions since 2008 have been channeled through 21 Charitable Lead Annuity Trusts. These CLATs, as they’re known, are specifically designed to help ultra-wealthy families avoid estate and gift taxes.

    Meanwhile, the GOP dominated Congress insists that the “death tax” must be repealed because rich people are suffering.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/06/03/report-walmarts-billionaire-waltons-give-almost-none-of-own-cash-to-family-foundation/

  86. 86.

    Paul in KY

    April 22, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    @Betty Cracker: that Fudgey the Whale is an interesting character..Started out in Congress (D – Sea World), moved on up from there. He has interesting theory on global warming: More ocean!

  87. 87.

    Bill

    April 22, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I’m all in on a Fudgy da whale candidacy!

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    April 22, 2015 at 3:49 pm

    @Paul in KY & @Bill: Do y’all get those Fudgey (or Fudgie?) da Whale commercials where you live? Carvel Ice Cream?

  89. 89.

    mainmata

    April 22, 2015 at 4:11 pm

    @Tommy: It was both IBM and Microsoft. Apple was never even considered for mainline bureaucratic jobs. OTOH, many scientists and, much later, the military used Apple products a lot because they were better. Same thing happened for a long time with Blackberry. Didn’t matter how many govt. workers disliked Blackberry. Gore’s “reinventing government” certainly had some impact on procurement but it was as much or more about how the federal government was structured and how it operated.

  90. 90.

    Tone in DC

    April 22, 2015 at 4:13 pm

    @Cervantes:

    Should have known some of that happened under Dubya.

  91. 91.

    Tone in DC

    April 22, 2015 at 4:15 pm

    @elmo:

    Glad to hear about the recall.

    Every damn thing not nailed down hasn’t got to be auctioned off, sold or otherwise cashed in.

  92. 92.

    Howard Beale IV

    April 22, 2015 at 4:24 pm

    @Tommy: Unfortunately, along the way, some of those processes got so fucked up we’re screwed. It used to be that if you made anything for the military the US Government had the ability to take over the plants and materials/foundries used to make any and all components of such weapons systems. Now? With the disaster known as the F35? Good luck trying the reel that abortion of a so-called next-generation weapons systems back under government control.

  93. 93.

    muddy

    April 22, 2015 at 4:29 pm

    @Mike J: They have Senate Bean Soup at the Vermont Country Store. It gets good reviews on their site, but each can has 2200mg of sodium. Maybe the old people can’t taste things as well and that’s why they like it.

  94. 94.

    Roger Moore

    April 22, 2015 at 4:35 pm

    @Brachiator:

    I’m not quite sure that you can say that the taxpayer is paying for the Waltons’ homes and cars

    I can say it all I want. It may not be 100% true, but it does capture an essential point. Programs for the poor are subsidizing the Walmarts of the world, and that subsidy winds up benefiting the rich. If the Waltons and the Republican party want to go into details about why the accusation is false, they’re free to, but I think that will be filed under “if you’re explaining, you’re losing”.

  95. 95.

    Bill

    April 22, 2015 at 4:37 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Not where I live. I’m in the Midwest now, so no Carvel out here. I grew up back east though, so those ads were a constant companion as a kid. Especially around Father’s Day:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67J2Gtc_m5c

  96. 96.

    kc

    April 22, 2015 at 4:52 pm

    I hate to be contrarian, but this didn’t just start with a GOP Congress.

  97. 97.

    mai naem mobile

    April 22, 2015 at 5:05 pm

    I seem to remember Hillary was on Walmarts board when Bill was the governator of Arkansas so it’s going to be a little difficult for her to use Walmart specifically.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    April 22, 2015 at 5:14 pm

    This is why we need a non-state entity or organization(s) to act as a lever for working people.

    Since no one has come up with one of those other than a labor union and we’ve had something like 500 years to think about it, I would suggest “labor union” :)

    I’m open to ideas, however.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    April 22, 2015 at 5:29 pm

    Also, you can see pix of the striking workers here:

    https://twitter.com/GoodJobsNation

    Bernie Sanders joined them

  100. 100.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    April 22, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Monday she would consider changes to the U.S. tax code to reward companies that produce goods and services as opposed to trading, which she likened to “playing games.”

    @Germy Shoemangler: Tantamount to declaring a worker’s revolution right there.

    I mean, that’s some serious shit that hit the 1% where they live. None of them work, so the income tax they’re always squalling about is irrelevant. It’s capital gains that is the prize they so want to keep, and that tax has been fucked up since Reagan.

  101. 101.

    Germy Shoemangler

    April 22, 2015 at 5:52 pm

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: I hope she keeps talking like that and backs it up with action.

  102. 102.

    Paul in KY

    April 23, 2015 at 8:03 am

    @Betty Cracker: No I do not. Do like Carvel ice cream.

  103. 103.

    Theodore Wirth

    April 23, 2015 at 4:51 pm

    Why should pollies care in a prevalent “I got mine and FU” culture? It appears that nothing is going to change until we peons start metaphorically burning down the gated mansions akin to what was done to those moat-enclosed castles from the days of yore.

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