Obama To Tackle Explosion In Federal Contracts

The economic crisis. Two wars. A flood of wounded veterans. Those are just a few of the huge problems that President-elect Barack Obama will face in office. But the president-elect has said he also plans to grapple with a dilemma that's much less visible: the explosion in government contracts under the Bush administration.

The Bush administration has hired private industry to take over more of the government's work than any administration ever. It has made history:

-Since President Bush took office, the government has doubled the amount of contracts with industry. The administration paid corporations more than $400 billion last year to work for everybody from the Forest Service to the CIA.

-The administration has given the majority of that contract money to companies that didn't have to compete to get it — or faced only limited competition.

-There are actually more contractors handling the war in Iraq than American troops.

All these figures come from government reports. And for the most part, these contractors aren't the ones making Humvees or computer systems or other kinds of products. The administration is paying most of the contract money to corporations to perform the kinds of services that federal employees normally do. And the administration has done all this with almost no public debate.