Obama Moves Fast to Dump Contractors at IRS

(MoneyWatch)  The IRS had had a small program to use private collection agencies to try and get paid on medium sized tax debts -- the five to ten thousand dollar range. The AP reports this program was abruptly ended. Although the cost-benefit of this contract was actually in the favor of the government it has been obvious that the Obama administration would prefer to use Federal workers to do this kind of work. Unfortunately as pointed out in the article if the contractors are not going to do this then either existing Federal employees or additional ones will be required. Or the government could return to the status quo which meant that these debts were barely collected. Obviously the administration has every right to review each contract and see if it is necessary, can be done with existing workers, or requires and expansion of the relevant department. The issue will ultimately be how big will it be able to grow the government workforce, and also is there an economic benefit to not using the contract.