Yes, sadly it may be the truth. This concern has been growing in at least a few intelligent minds, and it recently has gained a foothold into the public perception. Although, what I mean by “too much of me” really would make more sense as “too much of what I am”, considering I am part of the huge population of contractors to the federal government, particularly living in Washington, DC area. This is the topic of a Wall Street Journal piece “Is the U.S. Government ‘Outsourcing Its Brain’ ”. One source claims there are now more than 7.5 million of me nationwide, which is more than 4 times the size of the federal civilian workforce. I don’t call Tysons Corner home, which was heavily featured in the article, but from my position I can clearly see that the area mentioned and all the surroundings are booming. As the article fittingly mentions, it’s now the “land of glass towers, manicured office parks and Tiffany boutiques” and a “natural anchor for outsourcing, close to the ‘honey’ of the federal government, and attractive to young engineers and entrepreneurs”.

There are a few points of evidence given that there are too many of me, but really the concern is that there are a few occasions where the work by "us" is not so satisfactory, most notably the recent mismanaging of the ~$800 million Coast Guard upgrade effort. It remains to be seen if this article does highlight problems that are grave enough to swing the budget allocations pendulum back into investing towards government in-house projects. The outsourcing itself is actually listed as a product of overspending and mismanagement by the government itself leading it to look outside for help.