Wed - March 1, 2006

The Ports


A unique take on the current port controversy

Unless you have been living in a cave you have probably heard about the Bush administration's desire to approve the sale of the management of our ports to a company owned by the country of Dubai.

Today I heard the on Marketplace (a show on public radio ) on of the best takes on this issue yet. It was provided by a professor from the University of Maryland. His argument, which makes a lot of sense, was that the argument shouldn't be over which company is going to run our ports, but why our Government privatized this vital function that serves the interest of all Americans.

I couldn't agree more. If you have read this blog you know my feelings on privatization. There are certain functions that are essential to the success of all business. Those functions include telecommunications, transportation, and utilities. Under transportation, our ports would be included. We know that whichever company runs the ports security will take a back seat to the bottom line. In this day and age that is unacceptable.

Congress did the right thing by asking for a review. But the review should not be about which multinational company can best run our ports, but about how to bring our ports back under American control so that we can oversee the security.

I hope that this will be a real discussion of those issues, but I am skeptical that this administration's and there cohorts in the Republican controlled congress will seriously consider that given their propensity to sell our government functions to the highest bidder. And I hope our junior Senator Santorum can see past his contributions from the Dubai company and put our interests first.

Stay tuned this should be an interesting lesson in election year politics.

Posted at 12:17 AM    

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