It's been said that the U.S. federal government makes poorer business decisions than private enterprise because the government is not as accountable to the bottom line. When a business contracts out a job, they want the contracted firm to produce results that lead to profit, given the cost of the contracting. If a private corporation makes poor contracting decisions, they eventually go out of business.

The government, on the other hand, will never go out of business. (Unless there's a revolution.) If a particular government program does not produce results, some individuals may not get re-elected, but the government will still be in business. It will never run out of money as long as it can tax citizens.

I considered this difference in accountability between private enterprise and the U.S. government when I read about the following Iraq contracting deal: http://www.stopwarcoalition.org/news/news_items.php?shownews=268 . I'm not saying the Pentagon necessarily made a bad decision. But it was certainly an interesting decision.