More federal no-bid contracts. Just what we need.

It's always a good idea to take a really bad practice and employ it more often.

Under pressure from the White House and Congress to deliver a long-delayed plan last year, officials at the Department of Homeland Security's counter-narcotics office took a shortcut that has become common at federal agencies: They hired help through a no-bid contract.

And the firm they hired showed them how to do it.

The government--surprise!--is relying less on competition for good deals for products and services. Federal spending on contracts without "full and open" competition has tripled.

Think...think real hard...what happens as a result:

Government auditors say the result is often higher prices for taxpayers and an undue reliance on a limited number of contractors.

So open competition is now the exception, not the rule. It almost seems like these guys are, oh I dunno, kinda cliquey. I could be wrong.

Keith Ashdown, chief investigator at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said that in many cases, officials are simply choosing favored contractors as part of a "club mentality."

Well, I wanted to be wrong. Go read the article for the gory details.