From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: Alaska Pipeline and Space Station!
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
Lines: 45

In <1pq7rj$q2u@access.digex.net> prb@access.digex.com (Pat) writes:

>In article <1993Apr5.160550.7592@mksol.dseg.ti.com> mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539) writes:
>|
>|I think this would be a great way to build it, but unfortunately
>|current spending rules don't permit it to be workable.  For this to
>|work it would be necessary for the government to guarantee a certain
>|minimum amount of business in order to sufficiently reduce the risk
>|enough to make this attractive to a private firm.  Since they
>|generally can't allocate money except one year at a time, the
>|government can't provide such a tenant guarantee.


>Fred.

>	Try reading a bit.  THe government does lots of multi year
>contracts with Penalty for cancellation clauses.  They just like to be
>damn sure they know what they are doing before they sign a multi year
>contract.   THe reason they aren't cutting defense spending as much
>as they would like is the Reagan administration signed enough
>Multi year contracts,  that it's now cheaper to just finish them out.

I don't have to "try reading a bit", Pat.  I *work* as a government
contractor and know what the rules are like.  Yes, they sign some
(damned few -- which is why everyone is always having to go to
Washington to see about next week's funding) multi-year contracts;
they also aren't willing to include sufficient cancellation penalties
when they *do* decide to cut the multi-year contract and not pay on it
(which can happen arbitrarily at any time, no matter what previous
plans were) to make the risk acceptable of something like putting up a
private space station with the government as the expected prime
occupant.

I'd like a source for that statement about "the reason they aren't
cutting defense spending as much as they would like"; I just don't buy
it. The other thing I find a bit 'funny' about your posting, Pat, is
that several other people answered the question pretty much the same
way I did; mine is the one you comment (and incorrectly, I think) on.
I think that says a lot.  You and Tommy should move in together.

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
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Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
