Since I am on a roll let me opine about contracting out services. As a retired AF Contracting Officer I have had some experiences that are germane to this discussion.

Contracting out services may save money if the services to be provided are easily described in a Statement of Work and are sufficiently available in the area to result in good competition. However, the Government cannot become so reliant upon the contractor that it subsequently decides it cannot go through another new contractor learning curve and rationalizes NOT competing the requirement when the initial contract expires. Sole source negotiated contract anyone? One of the scary aspects of this is that an agency may end up reducing its own staff due to having available the resources of the contractor and later simply cannot wean itself. Guess who's driving the boat at that point???

John Q versus AuntyM = Draw