Letter: Cost-plus contracts have minimal effect on federal budget

Regarding "Is cost-plus debate off point?"

I can see how cost-plus contracts can be risky for the government in some development programs, but they are hardly a major factor in driving up the federal budget.

Sen. McCain has a way of making mountains from molehills to score points, e.g., the nonsense about earmarks. Earmarks amount to a trivial part of the budget and eliminating them would result in trivial savings. Furthermore, not all earmarks are "bridges to nowhere" or exotic biological research projects.

Cost-plus contracts are more desirable for the government in the support services arena, where the risk (if it's an award fee contract) is transferred to the contractor. That's the sort of contract I'm presently under.

Ralph Hitchens

What do you think? Paste a comment in the box below (registration required), or send your comment to letters@fcw.com (subject line: Blog comment) and we'll post it.