Indiana governor Mitchell Daniels, called "My Man Mitch" by former president George W. Bush, and the tagline that Daniels then used to capitalize on the supposed-Bush aura of the day among conservatives,
has fired IBM as a privatization contractor for state welfare processing:
Critics: Failed Indiana-IBM Deal Can Warn Others
[excerpts]
Published: October 16, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana said it was going to get outsourcing right when it turned welfare eligibility services over to a private contractor in 2007. Now critics say the failed move is the latest warning that states should not allow for-profit companies to run social services.
The ambitious, $1.34 billion effort to automate applications for food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare benefits was being closely watched after states such as Texas had problems when they tried similar plans.
Indiana fired IBM Corp. as the lead contractor on the project Thursday over problems including lost documents, delays in benefit approvals and poor service.
''Other states should beware,'' said Jim Wallihan, an advocate for senior citizens in Indiana. ''Indiana's been a good demonstration, along with Texas, that there's some variables involved that just don't take well to privatization.''
From the beginning, officials said Indiana had learned from the experiences of other states and was confident it had a better approach. But its contract with IBM quickly led to a long list of complaints.
Gov. Mitch Daniels, a privatization supporter who leased the Indiana Toll Road and proposed outsourcing the Hoosier Lottery, said IBM didn't make enough progress to fix poor service. Indiana will retain other private contractors as it works to create a new hybrid welfare eligibility system.
Link is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Daniels is not popular in Indiana and was reelected last year, 2008,
when despite Obama winning Indiana in a historic victory at the top of the ticket, state Democrats acted as Democratic Party people of old, and split the vote after a knock-down primary between northern and southern Indiana interests.
Maybe this was a blessing in disguise:
Mitch Daniels, the g-endin' droppin' Republican party technocrat and Bush budget director, is a lawyer who headed the Hudson Institute conservative think tank, and was a leader for Indianpolis-based Lilly Corporation. He may show the world the wolf beneath the deceptive, "I'm just folks," sheepish exterior he projects, through the fruits of his decisions affecting his home state so negatively.
Mitch Daniels and the presidential aspirations of the so-called Republican moderates are dead.
These Republican power-brokers are "moderate" only in contrast to the wild wing of American reactionary movements.
When in power, as with George W. Bush's regime, the Republican model of government is a failure. Unhappily, this failed model, on the state as well as national levels, represents more suffering for the least protected in social life, as the losing ideology goes south in its destructive trajectory.
Venceremos!