American Passports Outsourced

Can you believe this:

The United States has outsourced the manufacturing of its electronic passports to overseas companies — including one in Thailand that was victimized by Chinese espionage — raising concerns that cost savings are being put ahead of national security, an investigation by The Washington Times has found.

The Government Printing Office's decision to export the work has proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them, according to interviews with federal officials and documents obtained by The(Washington) Times.

What does the GPO plan to do with $100 million in profit? Turn it back in to the treasury?

The real questions are: Just how much does a passport cost to manufacture if the GPO has reaped $100 million in profit by outsourcing? How much is the GPO charging the government (and us taxpayers) for one lousy passport?

It's gotten so bad in Washington that one branch of the Federal government is screwing another branch of the same government.

This whole thing stinks to high heaven.