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> If the US government didn’t purge most of its software experts in the 90s on the basis that the US would be buying, not building I hadn’t heard about this be
by pimlottc 2y ago
> If the US government didn’t purge most of its software experts in the 90s on the basis that the US would be buying, not building
I hadn’t heard about this before, would love to learn more. Got any good links?
- alephnerd 2y agoIn the 90s, the Clinton Admin pushed a government efficiency program similar to DOGE (except much more organized). Around 250k federal employees were laid off. It destroyed a significant portion of local economies (as several military base towns/cities like Rantoul IL, Lynn MA, and Pittsburg CA saw their economies collapse) and caused our defense industries (Aerospace, Shipbuilding, etc) to be forced to consolidate and ossify. IMO, we need to re-look Clinton's legacy and see how much of a negative impact his policies had over the long term, just like we are now doing so for Reagan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Partnership_for_Reinventing_Government https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Partnership_for_Rei...
- throwaway894345 2y agoI might be misremembering, but I think Congress had passed a law mandating "buy, not build". Was Clinton pushing that policy, or was he implementing it, or am I conflating multiple distinct "small government" initiatives?
- alephnerd 2y agoThe Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 ("buy not build") was a part of this.